Categorization

Categorization is human nature. The term Millennial is just another way that professors, companies, focus groups, book clubs, television execs, and film studios can explain how their material or who their topics are geared towards. Let's just be real, it is easier to classify the people born between 1982-2004 as a "Millennial" group because we need to explain the differences and similarities that this group has between the previous generation that came. With that information we can then exploit and market to them. Like the Baby Boomer generation we (I use we because I am technically part of this Millennial Generation) are defined by the factual and historic moments that have affected and shaped the world we live in.

In The Millennial Muddle article it can be read that Neil Howe believes that this new generation will be classified as the heroes and “want to rebuild institutions, only to make them better.” How did he come to these conclusions? Mr. Howe thinks that history goes in cycles and that there are defined features of every generation that will predict the overall traits of the group.

Ms. Twenge, a professor, believes that generations can be defined as well. However, she takes a different take on this “hero” generation. Using the same traits of individualism and children growing up thinking “we are special” because my parents said so; Ms. Twenge believes that this is the “me, me, me” generation.

These two theorizers have used the some of the same traits and spun them to portray contradicting features of the same generation. Do we want to believe Mr. Howe, Ms. Twenge, or take something from both and see where they appear in the millennial generation? If we can even believe that there is such a thing as a millennial generation.

After watching Freaks and Geeks and Veronica Mars, I realized a common topic between adults and children in these shows. Memories of the past were always brought up to compare the situations that parents went through in order to be compared with what their children were going through. As professor Jeff, in Freaks and Geeks, tries to connect with Lindsey saying, “I was a kid once” or Lindsey’s dad describing “You know what happened to my friend who smoked…he’s dead”, they both represent a form of nostalgia and comparison. It’s normal to try to relate what someone is going through, with what you have witnessed in order to make judgments. This fundamental and natural means to identify and connect with a new generation factors into how we define a new culture. Through the common and uncommon features that elders and even youth start to recognize between the two age groups we start to see what new features are in the younger generation.

Can we trust the notion of generational thinking? As professor Vaidhyanathan explains, "Generational thinking is just a benign form of bigotry, in which you flatten out diversity.” We can understand this thinking because in fact not everyone born in that 22 year time span can be defined by the same characteristics or experienced the same events as the dominant group. “Generationalist” thinking is dominated by the majority group. As we saw in Freaks and Geeks and Veronica Mars the millennial generation is dominated by the popular kids at the time, the kids that can be marketed to, the mass consumers who’s parent’s by them T-Birds in high school. However, as another professor mentions, what about the kids that fall outside of this hero or self-centered generation perception? Are they not a part of this already defined generation that they don’t share common traits with?