By Jenni Hammitt
June 30, 2008
With all this talk about Generation Y or the Millennial Generation, I sometimes wonder where I fit in. I'm just shy of 29, depending on which Sociologist's timeline you look at I am either Generation X or Y. I remember all the talk about Generation X back in the 1990s and thinking I related to them. I watched movies like Reality Bites and Empire Records, listened to grunge, and was happy to relate to the whole Generation X Scene. That is until I was a little older, and I started working in the education field.
Suddenly I am faced with people/students that are a little bit younger, and in some ways are so different than I am…and sometimes the same. Generation Y is known for their television viewing habits, their love of technology, naively optimistic outlooks, and an over all lack of responsibility. I find myself getting frustrated with their (in my mind) glaring shortcomings. I just don't my students who can't be bothered to read the syllabus and expect me to spoon feed them each week' s assignments. It annoys me that I have to lock their computers or I will be fighting MySpace and Facebook for their attention.
Don't get me wrong. I'm all about multitasking, and I love to MySpace and Facebook a much a the next person. However, would it kill them to listen for an hour and a half? The same goes for cell phones. Holy Geez….STOP TEXTING…or refusing to turn off their phone in the testing lab. You know it won't kill you to turn the phone off. Oh…you have a baby? Oh that changes the….wait no, centuries of parents lived without cell phones, you can live with out yours for a few hours. If you are given a form, even if no one tells you to fill out your personal information, complete it.
Seriously, if it says: NAME ________________ put your name on it. It isn't that hard. It kills my that their helicopter parents are so afraid of them failing that the parents make all the decisions. This is to the point of them not being able to make a decision without their parents. Somewhere along the line personal responsibility just takes a header out the window. I just don't get it. Maybe I'm just getting old.
At the same time, I am a technology geek. I love social networking. Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, Friend Feed, Twitter and many more sites can call me a user. I get information and answers from the mobile service Cha Cha. I love my I-pod. I suffer from the Sesame Street and MTV induced short attention span many of Generation Y face. In some ways I see that Generation X's apathy and cynicism will not get you what you want. Yes I am a realist. I'm not a fan of people I don't know, but you have to have a certain level of optimism. Being a whiney self loathing slug isn't the way to make progress.
So, I'm not fully on board with Generation X, but I'm not exactly Generation Y material. Where does that leave me? This sort of gives generation gap a whole new meaning. I know I can't be alone. There are many of us floating somewhere between the generations. We have characteristics of both. I'm not saying it is a bad thing. Maybe we have the best of both worlds.
© 2008, Jenni Hammitt. All rights reserved.
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I’ll turn 27 in August. I have 2 or 3 friends that are my age. The rest are around 32 or 33 with a few in the mid to late 30s range, and one of my best friends will turn 50 this year. I have always felt a huge generation gap. I keep in touch more with teachers from elementary, junior high and high school than I do other students, and the friends of mine that are my age are not typical 20 somethings, just like me. Typical 20 somethings bore me. The only way I can tolerate them is with alcohol in a loud bar because then and only then I might be able to get down to their level.
I’m 40 and the way you describe yourself pretty much describes me, too.
As for cell phones in class or during testing, if I were a teacher, I’d clearly state in the syllabus that if a cell phone rings during a test, or is used at all during a test, the offending student automatically fails that test. I have a friend who is a professor at CCCC, and his classroom rule on cellphones is that if one goes off in class, there’s an immediate pop quiz worth 5 points. One day, his phone rang, so he did the responsible thing and gave everyone 5 points.
I agree. I have friends who are 21 and I have friends in their 50′s, but generally my friends are older. I see where the younger generation has some strengths Generation X and older do not have. It is their weaknesses that scare the heck out of me.
I see Gen Y as uniquely prepared for a life of adventure/crisis. They have been exposed to so much information so quickly and with such intensity that they’ve literally grown up anticipating crisis. ADHD runs rampant with them, and that is largely due to their diets and parents’ lifestyle choices. Yet even beyond that, I wonder if this generation isn’t bored to tears with status quo because they are meant for something more.
I don’t identify with them as much as I wish I did, but I see them as infinitely more flexible and adaptable to change than former generations.