Author Kate Miller once wrote, “We are missing something. Our youth today is empty. No longer do the children dream and believe they can change the world. Apathy has destroyed the beautiful idealism of our youth. The intricate illusions and fearless aspirations. The gleam in a child’s eye. God help us. All hope is truly lost.”
While this quote may seem a bit exaggerated, if not melodramatic, it communicates an opinion that is not rare amongst older generations: that the youth of today is disinterested, self-involved and not nearly as driven and hard-working as those who came before us.
Supposedly the “millennials,” a moniker used to describe the generation of young adults born between the late 1970s and the 2000s, is one of an increasing disconnect to the real world and a growing absorption into the virtual world. It is “Peten Pan”-esque generation that is lazy, irresponsible and immature.
With all of this griping and criticism, one has to wonder if perhaps Kate Miller was right in saying that “all hope is lost.”
However, those who are quick to criticize Generation Y fail to acknowledge the massive strides that this generation has made in major areas our society.
Those who find the millennials to be entirely apathetic to current events and the state of the world outside of their MacBooks fail to notice that civic engagement among youth is alive and well and apparently on the rise.
The 2008 presidential election brought with it the second highest youth voter turnout in the history of the United States, with somewhere between 22 and 24 million young Americans voting. Young people, many of whom felt alienated by and uninterested in politics, were compelled by the election fervor to have a say in the democratic process of our country, and they did so not just through casting ballots but by making phone calls, knocking on doors and encouraging their friends and peers to vote as well.
The excitement of the 2008 election has not appeared to slow down the interest of the youth in civic and community engagement.
In Fort Wayne, 19-year-old college freshman and former senior class president Nick Tash is running for a seat on his city’s City Council, stating his belief that “being involved is the best, most effective way to make a difference,” and “diversity of age in our decision-makers is important.” His platform includes support for sustainability, job creation and the arts.
Here at IU, three IU Student Association ticket leaders and their teams of volunteers put in hours upon hours of strategizing, organizing, campaigning and getting out the vote for the chance to have a say in the inner workings of student government. And it wasn’t just these select leaders who were interested in making their wishes heard; a larger percentage of the student body than previous years actually took the time to decide whose platform they found most appealing and cast their votes.
Throughout the entire United States, volunteerism amongst youth is rising as well. According to one study, 73 percent of 12 to 17-year-olds volunteered in the year 2009, and young persons in the 16-to-24 age bracket made up more than half of all volunteers in that same year.
Heather Jack of the volunteer-based, not-for-profit The Volunteer Family said the youth of today “truly (has) the potential to become our country’s most philanthropic generation.”
And in regards to the increasing tech savvy of the millennials, it would be foolish not to acknowledge the immensely positive aspects of recent technological developments that go beyond the more negative aspects of decreased face-to-face human interaction and a slight overabundance of entertainment.
The technologies that have been developed and continue to be developed by millennials are making our society as a whole more productive, more efficient and better connected. This benefits not only the youth, but all age groups and generations to come.
So is our generation more self-absorbed and individualistic than generations past? Perhaps.
But before we buy into the entire slew of negative stereotypes that accompany our generation, we should stop and remember what we have to be proud of: an improving rate of civic engagement, increasingly tolerant and progressive viewpoints and innovation and technological advancement that is unparalleled by any of the generations that have come before us.
E-mail: kabeasle@indiana.edu
