This post was written by Connor Evans, Bryant University ‘19
American millennials have adapted very differently to our world than any generation that has come before them. Though showing promise in some areas, they exhibit potentially dangerous qualities to society at large. As a whole, this generation of progressives possess low adversity tolerance, low interpersonal skills, and a partiality toward blind diversity that has begun to erode the unity of previous generations. Consequently, this generation of individuals has started to accelerate the United States on a path toward its end. However, I feel that strong leadership from within their ranks is needed, or else the millennials will spin out of control and take the country down with them.
What about Millennials?
Millennials as a generation tend to be rather mal-adapted to dealing with adversity. Much of this originates with the parents of this generation. Growing up, these “21st century pioneers” were constantly shielded by their guardians. Often times, any speed bump on the road of life for these young people got removed by their overly concerned parents. As a result, millennials did not learn to fight their own battles early in life; they had parental advocates that do it for them. Of course, over time this had taken a toll.
CBS News reports that not only do the millennials have someone else fight their battles for them, but the parents eliminate every discomfort they can. This pampered childhood and adolescence is not reflective of life in the real world, and therefore, millennials tend not to cope well when faced with adversity. They often shut down, back out, or point fingers at external factors that are making their lives hard, instead of standing strong and acting to change things. They are mal-adaptive in tough situations, particularly in the workplace. Many quit their jobs when faced with criticism or conflict. Their poor response to adversity is due to them always receiving assistance from their parents. Ergo, fighting their own battles is an underdeveloped skill set for the millennials. According to psychologist Michael Ungar, the objective of parenting should “be to grow a child who is capable of taking on adult tasks… I could understand coaching a child… But doing [everything] for the child is misguided and shortsighted.” (Marano 6)
This low skill level present in today’s youth is most likely a product of poor interpersonal relationship maintenance, as they were growing up having “helicopter parents,” a term used to describe parents who intervene in their children’s lives to prevent them from experiencing adversity of any kind.
Technological Wizards
There are those who marvel at the millennials’ ability to navigate the technological minefields that exist across society in our personal and professional lives. What comes effortlessly to millennials older generations struggle with, due to a lack of modern technology growing up. This older generation struggles with the technological sophistication of the today’s commonplace products like iPads, iPhones, laptop computers, digital media devices, etc.
Consequently, the millennial generation is considered highly technologically adept, which many believe is a good thing. They are the masters of instant communication, social media, and mass media. However, they are also, ironically, some of the least effective communicators in all of human history. They spend hours upon hours of time “communicating” with others but have very low interpersonal skills.
This phenomenon is evident everywhere— young people sitting in restaurants, faces buried in their phones. What little dialogue they do share with their company is superficial. The biggest problem that stems from this behavior is not that millennials as a whole are bad at speaking or writing (albeit many are). Alarmingly, it seems that an overwhelming majority of them do not know how to listen. They may “hear” what one says. They may even be able to spit it back from memory. The sad fact is that very, very few millennials listen emphatically with the intent to understand and then apply the content of conversations.
“Generation ME,” as they are sometimes called, is very self-centered, and they lack a sense of importance of understanding others. Everything they hear must be about them, or they make it about them. They see life through only one scope— their own. By doing this, they miss out on most of the meaning that others are trying to convey and demonstrate their lack effective communication skills.
For a generation that is known to be so “connected” and so “social,” millennials are actually more antisocial— or at the very least, more superficially social— than any generation that has come before them.
Read how millennials can improve … in Part II of this article by clicking here.