Generation Me--Revised and Updated

by Jean M. Twenge

  It’s possible that the teamwork idea shifted with those born in the late 1980s and 1990s, but as far as I know, no data exists on teamwork among this group. The personality data showing more self-focus, less empathy, and more narcissism suggests that teamwork will not be high on their list. So why are young people so often seen hanging out with large groups of friends? Well, because they are young, and young people have always been more attracted to larger groups while socializing. It’s an age effect, not a generational one. My view is that young employees may like feeling connected with many people—partially due to their online social networking use—but that they will become frustrated with working in teams if their individual effort is not recognized.

  QUICK SUMMARY: THE SEVEN PRINCIPLES OF WORKING WITH GENME

  1. Focus on results instead of BIC (butt in chair).

  2. Offer flexible hours.

  3. Explain to GenMe’ers why they’re doing the project, why it’s important, and why their role is important.

  4. Don’t invent new programs around helping others; those that worked before will work now.

  5. Realize that compensation is more important to GenMe, who face high rents and student loan bills.

  6. Give feedback more frequently.

  7. Create more rungs on the ladder of career advancement, so promotions occur more often.

  THE TAKE-HOME MESSAGE

  When the Boomers began their careers, they entered a traditional corporate culture. Employees stayed at the same company, and often in the same job, for years. Your boss was “Mr. Jones,” not “Dave,” and when he asked you to do something, you did it and did not ask why. You may have waited years to get promoted. No one worked at home, and almost everyone kept the same nine-to-five schedule.

  Things have, obviously, changed. Many businesses are finding that they can give GenMe’ers what they want—flexibility, less hierarchy, more context—and get better performance from their employees. As with most things, the key is in finding balance. Working at home isn’t productive for every business or every employee. If asking why and calling bosses by their first names becomes disrespect, that’s not a good outcome. Every manager and every business must find the practices that both satisfy this generation and make the company profitable.

  I face a similar dilemma in my classroom. I primarily teach juniors or seniors in college, just before they start their first postcollege jobs. For some students, their ideal class is one where they can get an A with little to no effort. But that’s not the best for them in the long run: they likely won’t learn the material, nor will they learn a work ethic. Others want special accommodations. “I have to take the final late so I can go to Vegas for my birthday,” said one. I thought, “What is your boss going to say if you make the same request a year from now—‘I have to miss the big presentation because I’m going to Vegas for my birthday.’ ” So I said no.

  I have no problem giving the students what they want in other realms—those that enhance, rather than take away, from their learning. I tell them how the material applies to their lives, ask for their opinions and perspectives, use interactive materials, give four exams a semester instead of two, spell everything out carefully in the syllabus, and show short videos. They like these things, and they learn more. Everybody wins, and these same principles of engagement and frequent feedback can be applied to the workplace.

  Fairness is also key. If I said “Sure” to the guy who wanted to put his out-of-town birthday extravaganza ahead of his education, he would feel as if he’d won. But the other students would lose—why should they have to take the final at the regular time when someone else gets special treatment and might hear answers from those who’d already taken it? Even birthday dude loses in the long run, when he tries this trick with his boss and makes a bad impression. It’s the same at a company. Take the generational accommodations too far, and employees might get what they want, but not what they need for the long haul. What they need is a company that makes a profit and coworkers who don’t resent them for being “special.” The organizations that can find this balance between want and need will be the most successful in the coming years as Generation Me comes to dominate the workplace.

  9

  * * *

  What Do We Do Now?

  So here’s how it looks: Generation Me has the highest self-esteem of any generation, but also the most depression. They are more free and equal, but also more cynical. They expect to follow their dreams, but are anxious about making that happen. In a recent poll, 2 out of 3 adults said that young people in the United States today face more challenges than opportunities.

  GenMe faces a very different world from what they were led to expect as children. The messages of their youth were unflaggingly optimistic: You can be anything. Just be yourself. Always follow your dreams. To borrow Alan Greenspan’s phrase, their upbringing was “irrationally exuberant.” Irrational, because when they reach adulthood, they often find themselves lonely, rejected by graduate schools, stuck in a boring job, and/or unable to afford a house. Like the housing market of the mid-2000s, the bubble of high expectations bursts once GenMe hits adulthood. Older generations have also struggled during young adulthood, but GenMe has been led to expect bounty in a time of famine. In a 1980s Talking Heads song, a rich man wonders, “How did I get here?” and says, “This is not my beautiful house! . . . This is not my beautiful wife!” as if he is unsure how he obtained the riches around him. GenMe feels the opposite—they wonder instead, “Where is my beautiful house? Where is my beautiful wife?” (And “Where is my fulfilling job and my shot at fame?”) The gap between expectations and reality has widened to a yawning gulf of disappointment. That disappointment is the main source of the anger many in GenMe feel—why, they ask, did you tell us we were special when we can’t even get an entry-level job to pay off our gargantuan student loans?

  The good news is that GenMe turned around some of the more negative GenX trends. Although 16% of teens said they seriously considered suicide in 2011, this was down from a staggering 29% in 1991. In the high school survey, fewer 2010–12 students said they fought with their parents five or more times a month (37%), down from 46% in 1989–91 and 41% in 1976–78. Teen pregnancy decreased markedly, as did the crime rate. The last few years have also seen lower rates of fighting, cheating, and stealing among teens.

  However, these encouraging trends may be due to the kids themselves rather than any systematic change in our culture. As the book Freakonomics demonstrated, much of the crime drop after the 1990s can be traced to a surprising source: the nationwide legalization of abortion in 1973. After this time, millions of unwanted children were simply not born. Those children—all of them unwelcome, and many of them poor—might have been the most likely to commit crimes as teenagers and young adults. They might also have been the most likely to get into fights, carry weapons, and drink alcohol. The teen girls among them might have been the most likely to become pregnant. But they didn’t, because they didn’t exist. So American culture probably can’t take credit for the improvements that began in the early 1990s, when more teenagers than usual grew from babies who were planned and wanted.

  THE DELICATE ART OF PREDICTING THE FUTURE

  What can we expect from Generation Me in the future? With the youngest of this generation (those born in the late 1990s) still in high school, there’s a lot of future to predict. As more GenMe’ers reach adulthood over the next few years, a full-scale collision will occur between their high expectations and the unfortunate realities of modern life. More and more young people in their 20s will be disappointed that they cannot pursue their chosen profession, that their job performance is criticized, and that they cannot afford to buy a house. This will lead to a lot of anxiety, depression, and complaining. Older generations will perceive this as whining, but they should realize that they created this monster by telling kids they could do anything they wanted—and that it really is more difficult to get by economically. More and more employers will notice tha
t their young employees expect quick promotions and flexible schedules.

  GenMe will continue the shift toward equality across races, men and women, and gays and lesbians. The country will become progressively more color-blind, which might reduce racism, but is also likely to reduce support for affirmative action programs. Race will become increasingly complex as it moves beyond the old issue of white versus black. Hispanics are already the largest minority group in the United States, and Asians, though a small percentage of the overall population, are a large presence at universities and in the professions. More and more young people are multiracial, with parents from different racial groups, making race issues even more difficult to define. Race will become less important as a defining characteristic as more children with multiple racial identities are born.

  In the 2006 first edition of Generation Me, I wrote, “Because young people are much more tolerant of homosexuality than older people, gay marriage and other reforms might well become a reality in the next few decades.” That did indeed happen, and it took only seven years—not decades. In the coming decade, gays will continue to move toward the mainstream of American life, and more will come out of the closet at younger ages as this identity becomes more accepted. Young people’s tolerant attitudes toward homosexuality will stay with them as they age, so that in a few decades the majority of people in their 50s and 60s will be accepting of gays and lesbians. Transgender people will also become increasingly accepted and supported by society and their families.

  Women will continue their pursuit of college degrees and their moves into the professions. This will be especially true in fields that deal with people rather than things (a preference that has a large sex difference). Because doctors, lawyers, and politicians all work with people, women will be the majority of young people in these professions within the next ten to twenty years. Engineering and physics, on the other hand, are likely to always remain majority male.

  GenMe has a strong desire to have children: 74% of 2012 college freshmen named “raising a family” as an important life goal, compared to only 59% of Boomer college students in 1977. Whether young people will reach this goal is uncertain, given their career ambitions, the paucity of affordable child care, and the growing child-related costs of such things as housing and health care. In this area GenMe’s ideals will again conflict with reality, leading to anger and dissatisfaction. More and more young people want to become parents, but more and more will find that they cannot have children and maintain a middle-class standard of living. Many who do have children will find themselves unprepared to be full-time caregivers (a role often necessitated by the high cost of child care). Given that only 1 in 1,000 incoming college students chose “full-time homemaker” as their probable career, many GenMe’ers, mostly women, will find themselves staying at home when they never expected to do so.

  If the United States does not develop a better system of child care, more women will choose not to have children. If that is the case, the United States will experience the underpopulation problems already prevalent in Europe and Japan. The Social Security system will fall apart, and the economy will falter. The ideology of the population may also change, perhaps negating some of the equalizing trends I just predicted. If women in conservative religious groups have significantly more children than other women, the political leanings of the country will begin to shift. This may already be happening, although it does appear that young people as a group are liberal on many social issues such as gay rights and race relations.

  And what will GenMe’s children be like? It is difficult to tell right now if GenMe’ers are adopting the same child-rearing approach as their parents, but it appears that they are. As a result, the next generation may be even more self-focused. Over time, more and more parents might draw the line at children’s bad behavior and begin using more discipline. Another trend that will shape today’s and tomorrow’s children is the decreasing standard of living for young families. As the economic squeeze of housing prices and child-care expenses intensifies, fewer children will get good-quality day care or have their own yard to play in. The next generation will have fewer siblings, as fewer families will be able to afford large houses, day care for multiple children, and several college tuition bills. Only children will become more common. The gulf between rich children and poor children will grow as economic pressures sort people more definitively into the haves and the have-nots.

  In the following sections, I’ll discuss what these trends mean at a practical level. Chapter 8 already addressed the implications for employers and executives, who are managing this generation right now and will be for years to come. Here, we’ll start with how to sell to this still–often-misunderstood generation. I’ll then move on to what comes next—things that all of us together, and parents and young people in particular, can do to change things for the better in the future, for this generation and the next.

  FOR MARKETERS AND ENTREPRENEURS

  Marketers and salespeople already know about—and use—the self-focus of Generation Me. This generation is, by definition, interested in products that satisfy their personal wants and help them express themselves as individuals. At the same time, this generation feels tremendous anxiety about succeeding in life. The market for products that help young people get into college or graduate school, polish their résumés, and do well in interviews will continue to grow. Young women in particular will respond to an advertising campaign that shows them how to dress professionally in a way that is still attractive. This balance is still difficult to strike, and more and more young women are anxious about their job or graduate-school interviews. They’ve gotten mixed messages from TV and movies about how to dress on such occasions, since these sources often show professional women showing lots of leg and cleavage (anything for ratings). Sisterly advice in this department will be welcomed.

  Young people are also starving for good advice on career paths. Fifteen years ago, who had ever heard of a “life coach”? Companies like My Guidewire (myguidewire.com) ask if you are “unhappy with your job” or “wanting to shift from surviving to succeeding” and promise to help you “gain a competitive advantage” (for a monthly fee). Expect this market to expand as more and more young people find it difficult to navigate the transition from college to first job or find themselves dissatisfied with their first job (or second or third). With more college graduates emerging with business and psychology degrees, many young people will gladly pay someone to help them find a job that uses their skills.

  The continuing rise in the age at first marriage and young people’s long working hours both suggest that Internet dating services and “speed dating” will continue their rise in popularity. Services that attempt to match people on certain characteristics will do particularly well, as they save time by sifting through the pool of candidates. Products aimed at single people will also be good bets. Grocery items in smaller packages might do particularly well; people who live alone are sick of watching half a loaf of bread turn to mold and half the cheese learn to walk inside the fridge. The popularity of the two-serving bag of salad is a good illustration of a product whose time has come: it saves the busy person from taking apart heads of lettuce and provides the product in the right amount. It also makes a nice profit. Other products that can corner this market will do well.

  With the move away from dating and toward hookups, the already huge market for appearance-enhancing products will continue to expand. Women—and increasingly men—will flock to the clothes and products that convey sexual appeal. The plastic surgery trend will continue as standards for appearance require unreachable perfection.

  One sobering fact is that young people today have less money left over for luxuries, decreasing the market for some items and increasing it for others. Spiraling costs for housing, health care, and day care mean less discretionary income. The continued demand for child care and the increasing cost of day-care centers both suggest that home day cares will continue to be profitable, as will nanny
services. There will also be an increasing demand for affordable preschools, as more and more research proves its benefits. The trend toward educational products for children will continue as parents realize that the competition for the best schools will only increase in the coming decades.

  With the birth rate declining, more couples—and single people—will opt to have pets instead of children. “I’d rather have a dog over a kid,” said Sara Foster, 30, in a 2014 New York Post article. “It’s just less work, and honestly, I have more time to go out. You don’t have to get a babysitter.” Animals have befriended and helped humans since the caveman days, and research studies show many health benefits for pet owners. The new twist, though, is to bestow human privileges on pets and treat them like children. In a 2011 survey, 77% of pet owners said they bought their pets birthday gifts, and 58% referred to themselves as their pet’s “mommy” or “daddy.” Pets are a fast-growing market, with spending increasing every year, including for human luxuries such as purified water and nail polishing. Much of the advertising for these products uses the phrase “pet parent” instead of the now-outdated “pet owner.” You can now buy a pet stroller. A company called Party Animals will plan your pet’s party for you. On a recent airplane trip, the woman sitting in front of me brought on a full-size bulldog who sat, uncaged, in the seat next to her. She talked to the dog for most of the flight. On another occasion, I overheard a man say about his cat, “Oh, Mr. Mittens loves holidays.” In future years, I predict an increasing movement to treat animals like humans, partially because they will replace children in some families. Pet products will continue to be a growing market segment.