Meet the Millennials

*First appeared in the March 12, 2014 edition of the Laurel Chronicle

Lately I’ve been experiencing what can only be described as onset adulthood. Over the weekend, I began a sentence with the phrase “kids these days.” I had a Sunday conversation about retirement planning. I am responsible for a living, breathing 110-pound dog named Sadie which, I imagine, is sort of like having a kid.

So anyway, as I grapple with the phenomenon of adult living, I happen upon a recent study about Millennials (that’s the name for my generation). Ranging from 18 to 33, Millennials are “forging a distinctive path into adulthood.”

That’s not how I usually frame my foray into maturity, but I’ll go with it.

Turns out, I’m not so unlike most people in my generation. We are, according to the Pew Research Center report, linked by social media, distrustful of people, in no rush to marry, and optimistic about the future.

Millennials are “digital natives,” or the only generation for which new technologies (twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc.) are not something to which we’ve had to adapt.

To this, I say: Speak for yourself, pollsters. I’ve definitely had to adjust to the digital age. Sure, I mostly grew up with computers in my life, but AOL Instant Messenger – “AIM” – is a far cry from today’s digital interactions.

Nevertheless, the report noted that Millennials have “taken the lead in seizing on the new platforms of the digital era – the internet, mobile technology, social media – to construct personalized networks for friends, colleagues and affinity groups.” Fifty-five percent of Millennials have posted a “selfie” on social media, yet other generations struggle to define what a selfie is.

Our reliance on technology is a double-edged sword: It opens a world of endless possibilities but may lead to debilitating personal relationships. At least ninety percent of my generation agrees that people share too much information about themselves online. Perhaps there is hope for us, yet!

I’m in no rush to marry (sorry, Mom), and neither are my fellow Millennials. We’ve “been keeping [our] distance from another core institution of society – marriage.” Only about a quarter – or 26 percent – of us are married already. Compare that to other generations when they were our age: 36 percent of Generation X, 48 percent of Baby Boomers, and 65 percent of members of the Silent Generation were hitched. At 29 for men and 27 for women, the median age at first marriage is now the highest in modern history.

What the Pew Research Center found is that 69 percent of Millennials would like to marry but lack what they “deem to be a necessary prerequisite – a solid economic foundation.” That’s understandable, considering Millennials are the first in the modern era to have higher levels of student loan debt, poverty and unemployment, and lower levels of wealth and personal income than our two immediately preceding generations.

Interestingly, older members of my generation (ages 26 to 33) are the best-educated cohort of young adults in history, which would seeming lead to financial security (since educational attainment is highly correlated with economic success). But the opposite is true: About two-thirds of recent bachelor’s degree recipients have outstanding student loans (average debt of about $27,000). Just twenty years ago, only half of “recent graduates had college debt, and the average was $15,000.”

Millennials have emerged into adulthood with low levels of social trust. Just 19 percent of us believe most people can be trusted, compared to, say, 40 percent of Baby Boomers. A glance at my twitter profile informs one that I’m “an occasional conspiracy theorist.”

Despite more financial burdens, slower journeys to married life, and greater distrust of society, Millennials are – somewhat surprisingly – more upbeat than older adults about America’s future. Almost half of Millennials believe our country’s best days are ahead. A more focused look shows Millennials are the nation’s most “stubborn economic optimists,” with more than 80 percent say they currently have or will have enough money to live the lives they want.

(In a dose of realism, the report notes that Generation Xers were equally as confident when they were as young as Millennials; thus, some “of this optimism…may simply reflect the timeless confidence of youth.”)

All this makes me wonder: What will America look like when governed by the generation that trusts little, owes much, marries later, and texts often?

To paraphrase an old Van Halen lyric, time will tell if we Millennials stand the test of time.