The Values of Millennials

When the first tracks were being laid down for the first train, critics claimed that those high speeds would cause a human being’s blood to boil. People are scared of change, and in today’s society change is inevitable. Technology is driving force of change today. The true question is whether or not technology is fundamentally modifying the values of Millennials.

Many people view young adults as mindless drones with Ipods and cell phones obsessed with material things. In fact, the media often portrays millennia in a negative fashion. The evidence seems to overwhelmingly support the claim that today’s youth are materialistically driven.  It seems obvious that many of us are spoiled considering the fact that almost all of us have laptops and just a few generations ago people our age might have been happy with just a baseball.  A CNN poll from January 22, 2007 entitled Wealth is top priority for today’s youth, claimed that young America is addicted to items.  Is this view accurate? Are we really fundamentally different from our predecessors, or are we boarding that first train to a land of progress? I conducted a survey asking first year college students to list ten things they would want to do during their lifetime in an effort to understand what drives them. A majority of my subjects were minorities so many of the conclusions drawn might apply to them more so than to whites. My findings suggest that the Millennial generation, and most notably the minority grouping, is not fundamentally driven by a desire for materialistic desires, but instead by humanistic ambitions to improve their society and to enjoy their own lives.

One of the glaring incongruities that caught my attention when reading the previous polls conducted by CNN and The Children’s foundation was that neither of these polls established an age range. They switched freely in their argument from “Young adults” to “Kids.” This lack of boundary revokes the legitimacy of their claim. Maturity is a key factor in this issue. Regardless of generation, kids want candy or toys. This item obsession does not carry over to young adults. I am part of what is now being called the Millennial generation, and I personally do not view myself as materialistically driven. I also do not believe that I am the only exception in this issue, since my friends do not view themselves as materialistically driven.