‘Millennial’ is Overrated. Here’s a Better One.

The so-called ‘millennial’ generation is a confusing, and most importantly, ignorant of the world’s fast-moving dynamics.

The categorization of generation is already a mess to begin with. Who determines which people belong to which generation, anyway? It’s unclear, and the term ‘millennial’ is becoming a synonym to ‘entitled youth’ rather than referring to an actual generation.

Any article (or Facebook status rants) talking about how entitled the so-called ‘millennial’ is, most likely, written by the older generation. It is quite possibly is the result of ephebiphobia: the fear of younger generation. And it’s been happening since before the complainers were even born.

Children began to be the tyrants, not the slaves, of their households. They no longer rose from their seats when an elder entered the room; they contradicted their parents, chattered before company, gobbled up the dainties at table, and committed various offences against Hellenic tastes, such as crossing their legs. They tyrannised over the paidagogoi and schoolmasters.

This quote, commonly thought to be Socrates or Plato’s work, was actually crafted by Kenneth John Freeman for his dissertation in 1907. It’s been repeatedly misquoted by people throughout history, for it’s became such a relatable saying in many different eras.

A simple explanation of why this happens is because the older generation does not think the younger generation was raised ‘right’. Seeing the youth can simply take a shower probably, makes them angry since they needed to go to the well to get the water first. The previous generation might also complain about how the youth cannot ride their own horses and uses the tram instead. It’s a never-ending complains.

In the end, it might be the product of jealousy and envy of things that the older generation couldn’t enjoy back then. Also, most of them forget that they are the ones raising the youth. If anything, they are the ones to blame.

What people usually mean to refer to is most likely ‘digital native’, a term popularized by Marc Prensky in 2001. Simply put, digital native refers to a generation who lives coexistent with the digital language of computers, videos, video games, social media, and other sites on the internet since the very beginning.

On the other end of the spectrum is the ‘digital immigrant’, the generation who grows without ‘the digital’ but is forced to adopt it. They’ve experienced how different and, most probably, tricky life was before. They can clearly see the changes from long, thorough newspaper articles to social media posts as the primary daily news source.

The complains that we’ve seen about ‘millennial’ is even found in Prensky’s paper:

But Digital Immigrants typically have very little appreciation for these new skills that the Natives have acquired and perfected through years of interaction and practice. These skills are almost totally foreign to the Immigrants, who themselves learned –and so choose to teach –slowly, step-by-step, one thing at a time, individually, and above all, seriously.“My students just don‟t _____ like they used to,” Digital Immigrant educators grouse. I can‟t get them to ____ or to ____. They have no appreciation for _____ or _____ . (Fill in the blanks, there are a wide variety of choices.)

These terms do not necessarily mean when the generation is born, rather on how accessible the digitalization is to them. Thus, it’s determined not only by time; social-economic condition; but also by the culture in which people live.

People in the first world can complain about ‘millennial’ who’s now in their late 20s, but third world countries might see these ‘millennial’ teenagers are being attached to their smartphone. That is probably why we cannot really point out how old the ‘millennial’ actually is: they’re actually refering to other phenomena.

Prensky uses these terms to point out how the education system back then was not suitable for the students. In Prensky’s research scope, the students are digital natives who have vastly different lives with the education system designer, the digital immigrants.

Instead of blaming how entitled the youth is, Prensky shows the reality of the fast-moving world and how the digital immigrant should adapt to the current era to successfully comprehend, or simply let the digital native eventually do it themselves.

But, one of the most crucial assets of the digital immigrant is their experience and knowledge. The digital immigrant should be able to show the digital native about their legacy, the past, and the future. Their their biggest strength is to remind the native about their wisdom and guide the digital native to a better future.

There is also the possibility of repeating history. The current digital native can be the immigrant in the next living era, in which they will again struggle to relate with the newer natives. Hopefully, by that time, there will be fewer misused terms for them to use.