Millennials

Benjamin Dahl

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Click Here to “Buy-It-Now”: Five Pages of Fiction

Kathleen Phalen is a creative writing instructor at the University of Virginia and the University at Richmond. Additionally, she is syndicated with the Los Angeles Times and writes for three other national publications. In her article “Self-Assured, Stressed, and Straight – Millennial students and how they got that way,” Phalen paints a disturbing picture detailing the technologically advanced Millennial generation’s rise to power. Phalen begins by addressing psychological attributes of this generation when she writes, “Born into an era of the wanted and watched child, these techno wizards accept authority, follow the rules, crave structure, and are smarter than they might first appear” (Phalen 132). Phalen then goes on to assert that “Millennial’s enjoy older people and their heroes are often their grandparents” (Phalen 133). Subsequently, Phalen describes this generation’s troubling need for conformity and their apparent lack of socialization (Phalen). Phalen’s article concludes with Neil Howe, renowned Millennial researcher, positing that it is “America’s duty to test, challenge, lead, and love this generation” (Howe). Quite honestly, I was so infuriated with the context and tone of this article that I needed to put it down and re-read it after calming down. Almost every single point that Phalen makes in her article about this generation, that I am supposedly a part of, is contrary to what I believe in.

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Dahl 2 I disagree with Phalen’s underlying theme but some of the points do hit close to home in regards to outside elements pertinent to my upbringing. I was born and raised in DuPage County, the first child of an upper-middle class family. My parents, particularly my father – a union electrical contractor who owns his own business, have always encouraged growth and exploration. I was also imbued at a very young age with an almost unquenchable lust for knowledge. In light of these things, my parents also felt it necessary to maintain a certain element of control over my activities. I was Phalen’s “wanted and watched child,” in large part due to the fact that my parents had two miscarriages before I was born (Phalen 132). While they always encouraged me to experience new things and expand my horizons, it was always with a tone of reticence. I remember one time in particular when I was about fifteen years old. My church was planning a mission trip to Scotland to teach vacation bible school and I was invited to go by the church elders. After a substantial amount of encouragement my parents ultimately decided to let me go, but there were a few caveats. I was not allowed to carry more than fifty dollars on my person at any given time and I had to check in with them daily. They did give more money to one of the elders for emergency uses but requisitioning any of those funds required a ninety page expense report along with detailed descriptions of the proposed allocation. In addition to this, said elder was watching me like a hawk throughout the course of the trip on my parent’s behest. I ended up having an amazing adventure but it wasn’t without constant worry that I might screw up and disappoint my parents. Coming of age as a Millennial, and I find it quite difficult to even use that moniker to describe

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Dahl 3 myself, allowed me the luxury to break the mold my parents had created for me thus beginning to make my own decisions. Inevitably, this led to the decision that Kathleen Phalen is off base when it comes to most of her generalizations about this generation. While she is indeed correct that this is a generation of tech-savvy children who are watched by their parents, that is where the similarities end. She says some of the most incorrect things in the same breath when she continues, “these techno wizards accept authority, follow the rules, crave structure, and are smarter than they might appear” (Phalen 132). Phalen echoes Mark Greenfield and Kari Chisholm from the University of Buffalo when describing Millenials as “thinking it’s cool to be smart” (Greenfield). As Millenials view intelligence as something to be proud of they will assert this trace publicly, contradicting Phalen’s earlier point about Millenial’s appearances. Rebellion is paramount to the growth of the human race and is typically what history records for the ages. Without the likes of Thomas Jefferson, The Wright Brothers and Martin Luther King, Jr. humanity could very well be a colonized, racist group of individuals destined to never experience other cultures. Rebellion is something that is critical to every generation, particularly the Millennials. If Larry Page and Sergey Brin had not rebelled there would be no Google. If Mark Zuckerberg had not rebelled there would be no Facebook. If Jawed Karim had not rebelled there would be no YouTube. These techno-wizards are all from different periods in this generation and represent some of the most stunning advancements in technology, social networking, and interconnectivity. Had all of these people accepted authority, followed the beaten path and not rebelled as they did the world would be a very disjointed place.

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Dahl 4 As it exists today, the world is more connected than it has ever been. I can log onto eBay, purchase a fountain pen from Hong-Kong in United States currency and be using it in two business days. I can keep in touch with all two hundred and seventeen of my Facebook friends with no more than three clicks of a mouse. In addition to this, Myspace allows me to experience new music from all parts of the globe and YouTube allows me to watch concerts from the same artists. I can contact my friends currently deployed in Iraq and all the people I met while visiting Austria. With the advent of the internet, and all of it’s related implications, the Millennials are more socialized than any prior generation which directly contradicts Phalen’s point. All of these technological advances and accomplishments are not without their caveats. Even though respect for your elders is something that has been preached to me since a very young age I do not agree with Phalen’s assertion that “Millennial’s enjoy older people and their heroes are often their grandparents” (Phalen 132). I’m not saying that I hate older people and I don’t absolutely respect my grandparents, because that is not the case. With that being said, I don’t feel that my feelings are tantamount to what Phalen has described. Knowledge is the currency of this generation and it is proliferated by way of the internet, text messages and e-mail. Unfortunately, the amount of older people, particularly grandparents, willing to adopt these standards is relatively small. Change scares people and without that lust for knowledge older generations are being left behind. In light of this, Millennials are often left feeling removed because all they want to talk about is the latest video on YouTube while their older counterparts would prefer to talk

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Dahl 5 about the S&P 500. Because of this, the conversation ends up faltering and ultimately dies on account of being on two completely different wavelengths. Case in point, in November of 2006 I was employed as the Operations Manager for Micro Center in Westmont. My duties included supervising the Service Department in the event the Service Manager was not present. Prior to my promotion I had been a technician in the Service Department so I was aware how it was supposed to function. On one Thursday afternoon the General Manager meandered into the department when I was fixing a computer for an irate customer. He walked over to me and began to roll up his sleeves like he was going to hunker down and get involved. He began throwing around 1960’s car metaphors about how the computer had no gasoline, oxygen, or spark and that is why it would not work properly. In reality, the problem was pretty simple but ultimately irrelevant. It took the two of us twenty minutes to fix the computer because we were butting heads attempting to communicate with each other about what we thought was wrong. If I had been communicating with the Service Manager the problem would have taken approximately forty-five seconds to fix because he was also a Millennial. While this is only one such personal example, there are experts that agree that Phalen is off base with some of her points. Diana Oblinger is the Executive Director of Higher Education for Microsoft and is one of these experts. Oblinger has also served as a Senior Fellow for the EDUCAUSE Center for Applied Research (ECAR) as well as Vice-President and Chief Information Officer for the University of North Carolina. In her article “Boomers Gen-Xers &

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Dahl 6 Millenials – Understanding the New Students,” Oblinger details changes necessary for the environment to adapt to this new generation. Oblinger also affirms the importance of interconnectivity when she quotes Jason Frand an applied researcher in the field of information technology. In his article “The Information Age Mindset: Changes in Students and Implications for Higher Education,” Frand describes ten attributes of an information-age mindset. He details the importance of connectivity when he writes: Staying connected is essential. Students stay in touch, via multiple devices, as they move throughout the day. Cell phones, PDAs, and computers ensure they remain connected anyplace and anytime. As the network becomes more ubiquitous, increasing numbers of students participate in real-time dialogues from using a variety of devices. (Frand 15) This is important for reasons outside the scope of confirming the points that Oblinger and I have made. The reason that all of these things function so seamlessly regardless of time and location is because of the work of influential people in the technology sector, many such people being Millennials. Without the presence of Google, Youtube, Facebook, Myspace, Skype, etc. the amount of interconnectivity would not be necessary. According to Oblinger, “An even higher percentage (81 percent) use e-mail to stay in touch with friends and relatives. In fact, a slight majority (56 percent) prefer the internet to the telephone” (Oblinger). Millennials favor communication that is instantaneous and all encompassing. They see

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Dahl 7 no reason to merely communicate via voice when you can also share pictures, videos and music. Frand also comments about the Millennial learning style as he writes, “Learning more closely resembles Nintendo than logic. Nintendo symbolizes a trial-and-error approach to solving problems; this contrasts with previous generations’ more logical, rule-based approach to solving problems” (Frand 15). Oblinger, in quoting Frand, clearly agrees with his point that the Millennial learning style is quite different from that of prior generations in terms of its authority in structure. It is being asserted that this generation wants to figure things out for themselves without a logical, rule-based approach, a point which is the complete opposite of what Phalen has said. Kathleen Phalen presents a number of convincing statements and perspectives on the millennial generation. When boiled down, they result in nothing more than abstract generalities and stereotypes. Phalen consistently cites expert opinions with no regard to a voice from the generation in question. It is my belief that the reason for this is the lack of understanding of this generation. The movie “Hackers” from 1995, based loosely on events involving misunderstood Millennials, describes it best with the following quote: This is our world now. The world of the electron and the switch; the beauty of the baud. We exist without nationality, skin color, or religious bias. You wage wars, murder, cheat, lie to us and try to make us believe it's for our own good, yet we're the criminals. Yes, I am a criminal. My crime is that of curiosity. (Hackers)

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Dahl 8 Millennials are the generation of curiosity and the people writing about them are not curious enough to find out what is really going on.

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Works Cited Ballenger, Bruce. The Curious Researcher. 5th ed. New York: Pearson/Longman, 2007. Frand, Jason. "The Information-Age Mindset: Changes in Students and Implications for Higher Education." Educause Review 35.5 (200): 15-24. Greenfield, Mark and Keri Chisholm. “Harmonius Web Design – The Millennial Generation.” University of Buffalo. 8 November, 2007. . Hackers. Dir. Iain Softley. Perf. Johnny Lee Miller. United Artists, 1995. Oblinger, Diana. “Boomers & Gen-Xers & The Millennials: Understanding the New Students.” Educause. July/August 2003. Phalen, Kathleen. “Self Assured, Stressed, and Straight – Millennial students and how they got that way.” The Department of Information Technology and Communication: University of Virginia, vol. VI, no. 2. 2002. Rpt in The Curious Researcher. Bruce Ballenger. New York: Pearson/Longman, 2007. 132-137.

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