Monday, February 4, 2008

Millennials

Americans born between 1976 and 2000, congratulations: you've been branded.

Although we were called "Generation Y" for a long time, and have had a few other labels tried out on us, such as "MTV Generation," "Tamagotchi Generation," "Internet Generation," etc., I'm confident that Millennials we now are, and Millennials we will remain.

I think this just because of my very unscientific observation that that's the word the media are trending towards using for us.  I also think the term "Millennial" will ultimately become universal because, of all the preliminary monikers, it best captures the zeitgeist of the generation it describes.  "Millennial," with its connotations of great opportunity for either spectacular destruction or utopian recreation, encapsulates the important history-making role the current youth generation holds in American history.  Its sci-fi overtone captures the importance of technology and the internet to this generation.  And finally, it's just extremely accurate.  The Millennials are the generation that came of age at a very significant point in time: the turn of the second millennium.

Tricky to spell, delicious to pronounce, "Millennials," I predict, will henceforth be the name for the generation after Generation X.

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