Serendipity35

Do generations, like people, have personalities?

Several studies released by PEW Research on the Millennials say they are confident, self-expressive, liberal, upbeat and open to change.

Generational analysis has a long and distinguished place in social science, and PEW believes it can identify unique and distinctive characteristics of a given age group, though they concede that it is not an exact science.

Some of their conclusions are that Millennials are:
more ethnically and racially diverse than older adults
less religious
less likely to have served in the military
on track to become the most educated generation in American history
more upbeat than their elders about their own economic futures as well as about the overall state of the nation.

They are a generation that embraces multiple modes of self-expression.
75% have created a profile on a social networking site
20% have posted a video of themselves online
40% have a tattoo (half of those with tattoos have two to five and 18% have six or more)
but a majority have placed privacy boundaries on their social media profiles

ECONOMICS
90% either say that they currently have enough money or that they will eventually meet their long-term financial goals.
37% of 18- to 29-year-olds are unemployed or out of the workforce (the highest share among this age group in more than three decades)

They are the least overtly religious American generation in modern times. 25% have no religious affiliation, but not belonging does not necessarily mean not believing. Millennials pray about as often as their elders did in their own youth.

60% were raised by both parents (a smaller percentage than with older generations) but they place parenthood and marriage far above career and financial success.
Only 21% are married now (that's half the share of their parents' generation at the same stage of life)
34% are parents (In 2006, more than a third of 18 to 29 year old women who gave birth were unmarried.)

Millennials are good for the education business. Among 18 to 24 year olds a record 39.6% was enrolled in college as of 2008, according to census data.

Politically Millennials backed Barack Obama by more than a two-to-one ratio (66% to 32%) and had the largest disparity between younger and older voters recorded in four decades of modern election day exit polling. But about half of Millennials say the president has failed to change the way Washington works, which had been the central promise of his candidacy. Of those who say this, three-in-ten blame Obama himself, while more than half blame his political opponents and special interests.

I have written elsewhere that I think we have gone from a "generation gap" that was strong in the 1960s to a "generation lap" that exists today. I think the younger and older generations are coming closer together rather than pushing apart. And I think that technology plays a part in this overlapping.