THE NEW GREATEST GENERATION TTT KeU IAN s nV EVGSa TMi sty Vel che ate a Z . aems TALIS AM Anour 70 DO WHAT OLD PROFLE have done throughout history: call those younger than melary, entitled, selfish and shallow. But have studies! Ihavestatistcs! Thave quotes from respected academics! Unlike my parents, my grandparents and ‘my great grandparents, [have proof. Here's the cold, hard data: The inci dence of narcissistic personality disorder isnearly three times as high for people in their 20s as for the generation that’s now 65 or older, according to the National In stitutes of Health; 58% more college stu dents scored higher on a narcissism scale in 2009 than in 1982. Millennials got so ‘many participation trophies growing up that a recent study showed that 4o% be lieve they should be promoted every two yeats, regardless of performance. They are fame-obsessed: three times as many middle school girls want to grow up to be personal assistant toa famous person as, want to be a Senator, according to a 2007 survey; fourtimesasmany would pick the assistant job over CEO of a major corpo- tation, They're so convinced of their own greatness that the National Study of Youth and Religion found the guiding morality of 60% of millennials in any situation is thatthey'Iljust beable to feel what'sright. ‘Their development is stunted: more peo- ple ages x8 to 29 live with their parents ‘than with a spouse, according to the 2012 Clark University Poll of Emerging Adults. ‘And they are lazy. In r992, the nonprofit Fanilis and Work Institute reported that 80% of people under 23 wanted to one day have a job with greater responsibility; 1 yearslater, only 60% did. Millennials consist, depending on ‘whom you'ask, of people born from 1980 ‘0 2000. To put it more simply for them, since they grew up not havingtodoa lotof ‘ath in their heads, thanks to computers, the group is made up mostly of teens and 2osomethings. At 80 million strong, they are the biggest age grouping in American. history. Each country'smillennials are dif ferent, but because of globalization, social ‘media, the exporting of Western culture andthe speed ofchange, millennials world: ‘wide are more similar to one another than to older generations within their nations. Even in China, where family history is ‘more important than any individual, the Internet, urbanization and the one-child policy have created a generation asovercon: Fidentand selfinvolvedas the Westernone. ‘And these aren’t just rich-kid problems: ‘poor miliennials have even higher rates of parcissism, materialism and technology addiction in their ghetto fabulous lives. ‘They are the most threatening and ex- citing generation since the baby boomers brought about social revolution, not be- cause they're trying to take over the tablishment but because they're growing. upwithoutone. The Industrial Revolution, made individuals far more powerful— they could move to acity,starta business, read and form organizations. Theinforma- tion revolution has further empowered individuals by handing them the tech- nology to compete against huge organiza tions: hackers vs. corporations, bloggers vs.newspapers, terrorists vs.nation states, YouTube directorsvs.studios, app-makers vs, entire industries. Millennials don't need us. That's why we're scared of them, dren ofbaby boomers, who re also known, asthe Me Generation, who then produced the Me Me Me Generation, whose selfish ness technology has only exacerbated. ‘Whereas in the 1950s families displayed a -weddingphoto,aschool photoandmaybea lita photoin theirhomes, the average ‘middle- wo ‘Though they're cocky about their place in the world, millennials ae also stunted, hhaving prolonged life stage between teen- ager and adult that this magazine once called twisters and will now use once again jn an attempt to get that term to catch on, ‘The idea ofthe teenager started inthe 19205, in ro. only atiny percentage of kids went tw high school, so most people's social in- teractions were with adults in their family or in the workplace. Now that cell phones allow kids to socialize at every hour—they send and receive an average of 88 texts a day, according to Pew—they'e living un- der the constant influence oftheir friends. “Peer pressure is anti intellectual. It is ant historical. It is anti-eloquence,” says Mark Bauerlein, an English professor at Emory, ‘who wrote The Durnbest Generation: How the Digital AgeStupefis Young Armercansand op ‘nizes Our Future (Or, Don Trust Anvone Un der 30)."Neverbeforein history have people bbeen able to grow up and reach age 23 $0 dominated by peers. To develop intellect ally you've gotto relateto older people older things:17year-oldsnever grow upiftheyre just hanging around other 17-year olds Of allthe objections to Obamacare, nota lot of people argued against parents'nced to cover theirkids health insurance until they'e 26. Millennials are interacting all day but almost entirely through a screen. ‘You've seen them at bars, sitting next to one anotherand texting. They might ook calm, but they're deeply anxious about missing out on something better. Sev- enty percent of them check their phones every hour, and many experience phan- tom pocket vibration syndrome. “They're doinga behavior to reduce their anxiety” says Larry Rosen, a psychology professor at California State University at Domin- guex Hills and the author of Disorder. ‘That constantsearch fora it of dopamine (‘Someone liked my status update”) re: duces creativity. From 1966, when the Tor- ance Testsof Creative Thinking were first ‘administered, through the mid-1980s,cre ativity scores in children increased. Then they dropped, falling sharply in 1998. Scores on tests of empathy similarly fell sharply, startingin 2000, likely because of bothallack of face-to face time and higher degrees of narcissism. Not only domillen- nialslackthe kind of empathy thatallows them to feel concerned for others, but they also have trouble even intellectually un- derstanding others’ points of view. ‘What they do understand is how to ‘turn themselves nto brands, with “friend” and “follower” tallies that serve as sales 31figures, As with most sales, positivity and confidence work best."Peopleare inflating themselves like balloons on Facebook,” says W. Keith Campbell,a psychology pro- fessoratthe University of Georgia, who has ‘written three books about generational in- ‘creases in narcissism (including When You Love a Man Who Loves Himself). When ev- ‘eryoneistelling youabout their vacations, partiesandpromotions,youstarttoembel- lish your own life to keep up. If youdo this ‘well enough on Instagram, YouTube and ‘Twitter, you can become a microcelebrity. Millennials grew up watching reality ‘TV shows, most of which are basically documentaries about narcissists. Now they have trained themselves to be reality- ‘TVeady. “Most people never define who they are as a personality type until their 308. So for people to be defining who they are at the age of r4 is almost a huge evolu- tionary jump” says casting director Doron fir, who auditioned participants for Jer sey Shore, Millimaire Matchmaker, A Shot at ove and RuPaul’s Drag Race, among other shows. "Da you follow me on Twitter?” he asks at the end of the interview. “Oh, you should, I'm fun. hope that one day they provide an Emmy for casting of reality shows—because, you know, [dassumel'm shoo in, would like thatgoldstatue. And then will takea photo ofit,and then Twill, Instagram it” Ofiris 4r, but he has clearly spent alot of time around millennials. Thave gone just about as far as Tcan in an article without talking about my- self So first, yes, 'm aware that I started ‘this piece—in which I complain about millennials’ narcissism—with the word LL know that this magazine, which for decades did not print bylines, started put tingauthors' names on the cover regular ly in 2004 and that one of the first names ‘was mine. As I mocked reality shows in the previous paragraph, I kept thinking about the fact that I got to the final round for 1995'5 Real World: London. I know my number of Twitter followers far better ‘than the tally on my car's odometer, al- though Facebook has a strictly enforced limit of 5,000 friends, I somehow have 5,079. Itwas impossible not to remember, the whole time I was accusing millenni- als of being lazy, that I was supposed to finish this article nearly ayear ago. moved home for the first six months aftercollege. When I gothired at Tar, my ‘co-workers hated me for cozying up to the editor of the magazine. tall to one of my pparents every other day and depend on my ‘dad forfinancialadvice.{t'shighly possible TALKIN’ "BOUT THEIR GENERATIONS sion Taster windy not fen ano acter, “coimaeet ie = ‘adulthood with a passion for a1 —s ‘social causes. They hit middle oe eter Historians Wiliam Prohibition: ate in ite, they wore Strauss and NeilHowe “the architects ofthe New Deal TER | agetonamet dng nes tate 9 immigration end rampant ufban Soo Fags, 1896) poverty. As young adults, they were doughboys and fapoers ofthe Resting ‘omace "20s, Crushed by the Great Depression Ermest Hemingway's in midlife, toy pad high taves in tele epigraph to The Sun later years toNelp fund’ World Wer . Also Rises in 1926 TEREST agen vay grasses ease sa scion Seman? Sanaa oe ef na oe Shem ‘during the Depression and fought in es ore iieenme eaten gee ed She socain, “ye taboos ie HEL eaten ate Opes eye ttm 9) i Sarmctincemen tee: Mamie? ro Feary Sanncilind itand which suffered fewer casualties cece Steen naaroey eet Sebi me,” tues cola ode eter ‘BABY BOOMERS ccame of age in the Summer of Lovo. inom Hanks 2986) ee a oS tres ce aR fortunes in the stockmarket crash au artiawtee rsa, aetmdon “aalineocatocase EO ne GN ee ee wot Rat GENERATION X Many were atchkey ide of working ear Lope, 969) som moms nd evorced pares: they grew “so tort 2962) into young ets marked bya sence ee ‘of ennui. Studies have shown that Pocuarzed by Dougas — memibors of this generation may have Couplanc's novel versed the historical trend fearing GonoraonX pubis more in real dolas then thei pare THE MILLENNIALS [Aso known as Generation Y, they came Mark Zucterer (1984) BOR oo ‘of agen the shadow of 9/11 ard (ty Ga > amid the ise of new media, Frstwave (1989 conse rlernials ore now in their eaty Credited to careers ami a slow global economic 7 Strauss recovery, wit high unemployment and ans Howe concerns sbout future national dab 2‘Y AWDREA FoRD AND cate DODDS TERAN TEACHERS ARE SAYING THAT NEVER IN THEIR EXPERIENCE WERE YOUNG PEOPLE SO THURSTILY AVID OF PLEASURE AS NOW... SO SELFISH... Cornelis AP Come, tenn er 40s, Tho Alte, Februory £911 “| HAVE NO PATIENCE WITH THE MODERN NEUROTIC GIRL WHO JAZZES FROM MORNING TO NIGHT.’ ‘From Tha Murcer on the Links by asthe (rtp n 1928 “THIS GENERATION OF AMERICANS HAS A RENDEZVOUS WITH DESTINY.’ Frankl Reosevet, m2 speech at {he 1996 Democrats Cowen “YOUTH TODAY HAS LITTLE CYNICISM, BECAUSE IT NEVER HOPED FOR MUCH.’ TIME, Nx 51961 THEY WANT 10 BE RECOGNIZED AS INDIVIDUALS, BUT INDIVIDUALS PLAY i SMALLER AND SMALLER ROLE i SOCIETY.” “OUR GENERATION HAS HAD NO GREAT WAR, NO GREAT DEPRESSION. OUR WAR IS SPIRITUAL. OUR DEPRESSION 1S OUR LIVES.” From Fie Cb by Chuck Plant, published in 2996 “GOD DIDN'T GIVE ME THESE TALENTS TO JUST SIT AROUND BEING ‘A MODEL OR BEING FAMOUS. | WANT TO LEAD A HUGE CHARITY ORGANIZATION. | MANT TO LEAD A COUNTRY FOR ALT KNOW.” ‘Aled Neer member of the Bing ing” ‘thatI'maparticularly lame 41-year-old, but still, none of these traits are new to mil Jennials;they've been aroundatlleastsince the Reformation, when Martin Luther told Christians they didn't need the church to talk-to God, and became more pronounced at the end of the 18th century in the Ro- ‘mantic period, when artists stopped using their work to celebrate God and started ‘using it to express themselves. In 1979, Christopher Lasch wrote in The Culture of Narcissism, “The media give substance to, and thus intensify, narcissistic dreams of fameand glory,encouragecommon people ‘toidentify themselves with thestarsandto hhatethe herd and makeitmore and more difficult for them to accept the banality of everyday existence." I checked my email three times during that sentence, article is absolutely true Chat dat), mil: lennials selFinvolvement is more a con tinuation ofa trend than a revolutionary ‘break from previous generations. They'e nota new species; they've just mutated to adaptto their environment. For example, millennials' perceived entitlement isnt a result of overprotec: tion butan adaptation to a world of abun- dance. “For almost all of human history, almost everyone was a small-scale farmer. ‘And then people were farmersand factory ‘workers. Nobody gets very much fulfil ment from either of those things," says Jeffrey Arnett, a psychology professor at Clark Univesity, who invented the phrase ceonerging adulthood, which people foolishly use instead ofthe catchy twixters. Twisters ‘putofflifechoices because theycan choose froma huge aray of career options, some ‘of which, like jobs in social media, didn't exist ro years ago. What idiot would try to ‘work her way up ata company when she's going to have an average of seven jobs be- fore age 26? Because of online dating, Face- bookercles andthe ability toconnectwith peopleinternationally, they nolongerhave ‘to marry someone from their high school class or even their home country: Because lifeexpectancy sincreasingsorapidlyand technology aliows women to get pregnant in their 40s, they're more fre to postpone Digdecisions. Themedianage foran Amer- ‘can woman's first marriage went from 20 6in 967 10 269n 2011. ‘And while all that choice might end in disappointment, is a lottery worth play- ing. “I had one grandfather fight in the Pacificandonein the Atlantictheater. ne ‘became apilot;one becamea doctor. When you grow up during the Great Depression and ightoff the Nazis, youwantsafety and stability” says Tucker Max, 37, who set an ‘example for millennials when instead of using his Duke law degree to practice law, he took his blog rants about his drunken, lecherous adventures and turned them {nto a mega bestselling book, 1 Hope They ‘Serve Beer in Hel, that he got an indepen- dent publisher o print. “Everyone told you that everyone above youhad tos--on you before you got tos-—on people below you. ‘And millennials didn’t want todo that” In fact, a lot of what counts as typical millennial behavior is how rich kids have always behaved. The Internet hasdemocra tized opportunity for many young people, giving thom access and information that ‘once belonged mostly tothe wealthy: When Iwas growing up in the 1980s, T thought I would be a lawyer, since that was the A LOT OF WHAT COUNTS AS MILLENNIAL BEHAVIOR IS HOW RICH KIDS HAVE ALWAYS BEHAVED ‘best option I knew about for people who sucked at math in my middle-class suburb, ‘but I saw a lot more options once I got to Stanford. “Previously ifyou wanted to be a write but didn’t know anyone who isin publishing twas jst, Well, won't write. But now its, Wait, [know someone who knows someone” says Jane Buckingham, ‘who studies workplace changesas founder of Trendera, a consumer insights firm. “I hear story aftr story of people high up in an organization saying, Well, this person just emailed me and asked me foran hour bf my time, and fo whatever reason I gave ivtothem! Sothegreatthingisthatthey do feel entitled toall ofthis,sothey'lbe more innovative and mare willing to try new things and they'lldoallthiscoal stuf.” Because millennials don’t respect au thority, they also don’ resent it. That's why they'e the first teens who aren't 33rebelling. They're not even sullen. “I grew “upwatching Peanuts, where youdidn'teven see the parents. They were that ‘Wah-wah’ voice, And MTV was always a parent-ree zone,” says MTV president Stephen Fried- ‘man, 43, who now includes parents in nearly all the channel’ reality shows.‘One four research studies carly on said thata lotofthisaudi- ence outsources their superego to theirparents.The most simple de cision ofshould do thisorshould Ido that—our audience will check in with their parents” A 2012 Google Chrome ad shows a college student video chattingall thedetailsofherlifetoher dad. “Lam very used to seeing things where the cliché is the parent doesn't understand. ‘Most of my friends, their parents are on so- cial and they're following themor sharing stuff with them,” says Jessica Brillhart, 2 filmmaker at Google's Creative Lab, who ‘workedon the commercial Its hard tohate your parents when they also listen to rap andwatch jon Stewart. In fact, many parents of millennials would proudly call their child-rearing style peerenting. "I negotiate daily with ‘my son who s 33, Maybe all that coddling. has paid offin these parent-child elation ships” says Jon Murray, who created The Real World and other reality shows, in- cluding Keeping Up With the Kardashians. He says that seeing regular people cele- ‘brated on TV givesmillemnials confidence: “They're goingafter what they want.Itcan. bealittleirrtating that they want tobeon thenextrungso quickly. Maybel'm partly responsible frit, [like this generation, 30 Thavenoissues with that” Kim Kardashian, who represents to nonmillennialsall that is wrong with her generation, readily admits that she has no Particular falent. But she also knows why she appeals to her peers. “They like that share alot of myself and that I've always ‘been honest about the way Ilive my life” she says. “They want relationships with businesses and celebrities. Gen X was kept at arm’s length from businesses and celebrity” When you're no longer cowed by power, you are going to like what a friend tells you about far more than what anad campaign does, even ifthat friends acelebrity trying tomakemoney and that friendship is just reply toone tweet. While every millennial might seem like an oversharing Kardashian, posting ‘vacation photos on Facebook is actually less obnoxious than 1960s couples’ trap ping friends in their houses to watch their * 2M Had ADIN SUROH> ALTE PHOTOGRAPHER via Bee, 19, ves in Brooklyn and uses instagram to ‘document her daly ite. She says she makes extensive use of other soclatmeala platforms for networking purposes terrible vacation slide shows. “Can you imagine ifthe boomers had YouTube, how narcissistic they would've seemed?” asks Scott Hess, senior vice president ofhuman intelligence for SparkSMG, whose TedX speech, “Millennials: Who They Are and Why We Hate Them,” advised companies con marketing to youth. “Can you imagine hhow many frickin’ Instagrams of people playing in the mud during Woodstock we ‘would've seen? think in many ways you're blaming millennials for the technology that happens to exist right now" Yes, they check their phones during clas, bu think about how long youcan standin line with- cut looking at your phone. Now imagine being used to that technology your whole lifeand having tosit through algebra. Companies are starting to adjust not just tomillennials'habits but also to their atmospheric expectations. Nearly a quar- ter of DreamWorks’ 2,200 employees are under 30, and the studio has a 96% reten- tion rate. Dan Satterthwaite, who runs the studio's human elations department andhas been in thefieldforabout23 years, says Maslow's hierarchy of needs makes it clear that a company cant just provide money anymore but also has to deliver selfactualization. During work hours at DreamWorks, you can take classes in photograph, sculpting, painting, cinema- tography and karate. When one employee explained that jujtsu is totaly different from karate, Satterthwaite was shocked at hhis boldness, then added ajujitsu class. Millennials are able to use their lever age to negotiate much better contracts with the traditional institutions they do still join. Although the armed forces hhad to lower the physical standards for recruits and make boot camp less inten- sive, Gary titeler, who has been an Army recruiter for about 15 years is otherwise ‘more impressed with millennials than any other group he's worked with. “The generation that we enlisted when I frst started recruiting was sort of do, do, do. Thisgenerationisthink, thinkaboatitbe- fore you doit” he says. "This generation is three to four steps ahead. They're coming insaying,Iwant todothis,then when 'm done with this, 1 want todo this!” Here's something even all the psy. chologists who fret over their narcissism studies agree about: millennials are nice. ‘They have none of that David Letterman irony and Gen X ennui. “The positivism Jhassurprised me. The Internet was always 50°50 positive and negative. And now it’s 90-10," says Shane Smith, the 43-year-oldCEO of Vice, which adjusted from being Gen X company in print to a millennial ‘company onceitstarted posting videos on- line, which are viewedby amuch younger audience, Millennials are more accepting of differences, not just among gays, wom- enand minorities butin everyone. “There aremany, many subcultures, and you can dip into them and search around. I prefer that to you're either supermainstream or aiot grr," says Tavi Gevinson,a 17-year: ‘old who rans Rookie, an online fashion ‘magazine, from her bedroom when she's not at school. I's hard, in other words, to join the counterculture when there's no culture, “There's not this us-vs-them thingnow. Maybe that's why millennials don‘trebel” she says. ‘There may even be the beginning of 1 reaction against all the constant self ‘promotion. Evan Spiegel, 2, cofounder of Snapchat,anapp that allows peopletosend photos, video and text thatare permanent- ly erased after 10 seconds or less, argues thatit’s come tooexhausting formillen rials to fronta perfect life on social media. “Were trying to create a place where you can be in sweatpants, siting eating cereal ona Friday night, and that’s OX,” he says. But if you need the ultimate proof thatmillennials could bea great force for positive change, know this: Tom Brokaw, champion of the Greatest Generation, lovesmillennials. He callsthem the Wary Generation, and he thinks their cautious, nessin life decisions isasmartresponse to theirworld.“Theirgreat mantra hasbeen: Challenge convention. Find new and bet terwaysofdoing things. Ando that ethos ‘transcends the wonky people who are in venting new appsandembracesthe whole economy,” hesays. The generation that ex perienced Monica Lewinsky's dress, 9/1, thelongest wars in US. history, the Great Recession and an Arab Spring that looks atbestlike alate winterisneverthelessop- timistic about its own personal chances of success. Sure, that might be delusional, ‘but it’s got to lead to better results than ‘wearing flannel, complaining and mak ing indie movies about it. SO HERE'S A MORE ROUNDED rICTURE OF ‘millennials than the one I started with. ‘All of which I also have data for. They're ‘earnest and optimistic. They embrace the system. They are pragmatic idealists, tin kkerers more than dreamers, life hackers. ‘Their worldissolatthat they haveno lead- ers, which is why revolutions from Occupy ‘Wall Street to Tabrir Square have even less "TIME May 20,2053, ACHE ENTREPRENEUR Aseltdescrited inspirational ‘speaker from Dubai, Val ‘Shektanzal, 25, founded Dubal Cy Pass, a tours service that has more than 22,000 likes on Facebook ‘| J0 m0 WOH |W 9B YUH |AUMVOND YW IUOPUUCD Ww chance than previousrebellions.They want constant approval—they post photos from the dressing room as they try on clothes. ‘They have massive fear of missing out and have an acronym for everything (includ- ing FOMO) They're celebrity obsessed but dont respectfully idolize celebrities from a distance. (Thus Usmagazine's "They ‘rejust like us” which consists of paparazzi shots of famous people doing everyday things) They're not into going to church, even they believe in God, because they don't identify with big institu tions;one-third of adults under 30, the highest percentage ever arete ligiously unafiliated. They want new experiences, which are more important to them than material goods. They arecoolandreserved and notall that passionate. They are informed ‘but inactive: they hate Joseph Kony but aren't going to do anything about Joseph Kony, They ae probusiness. They'efinan- cially responsible; although student loans haveit record highs, they have less house- holdandereditcard debt thanany previous generation on record—which, admittedly, {n't that hard when youte living at home and using your parents’ credit card, They lovetheirphones buthatetalkingon them. ‘They are not only the biggest genera- tion we've ever known but maybe the ast large birth grouping that will be easy to generalize about. Therearealready micro generations within the millennial group, Taunching as often as new iPhones, de- pending on whether you learned to type before Facebook, Twitter, iPads or Snap- chat. Those rising microgenerations are all horrifying the ones right above them, who are their sibling, And the group af ter millennials is likely to be even more empowered. They're already so comfort- ablein frontofthe camera thatthe average ‘American ryear-old has more images of hhimselfthana 17th century French king. So, yes, we have all that dataabout nar- cissism and laziness and entitlement. But a generation's greatness isn't determined by datas it’s determined by how they re- act to the challenges that befall them. ‘And, just as important, by how we react to them. Whether you think millennials arethenew greatest generation ofoptimi tic entrepreneurs or group of fo million people about to implode in a dwarf star of tears when their expectations are unmet depends largely on how you view change. ‘Me, I choose to believe in the children. God knows they do. —wirn xeroxrinG JOSH SANBURN 35