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This is half of a two-part series on perceptions of Millennials. Click here for: “What Is A Millennial Anyway? Meet The Man Who Coined The Phrase"
Covering young people and their money for the last few years I’ve noticed a trend. Many people, or at least a handful of very loud people, hate the term Millennial. At times this has led me to avoid the term and at other times I’ve decided to ignore the naysayers because it’s too useful a phrase. (Technically, it is shorthand for adults born after around 1980.) But lately I’ve come to wonder: Is Millennial a dirty word?
To get a grip on this dilemma I posed two questions to a handful of people who spend a lot of time thinking about this age group, either advocating for them or marketing to them. The questions were:
- Is Millennial a dirty word?
- If not, why do some people think it is?
What follows is a selection of their response --
“ I've heard many say that young people are lazy or financially reckless, but the facts just don't bear that out. We're simply trying our best to respond to a rapidly changing economic landscape. If there's anything that defines a Millennial, it's maintaining optimism about the future despite being asked to do more with less.” Adding, “So sure, we might communicate via text and Snapchat more than you're used to, and maybe we're ambitious and overeager. But I'm proud to call myself a Millennial.”
-- Jen Mishory, 30, executive director Young Invincibles
“The truth is that no one likes being a part of a label. Individuals are unique and we don’t want to be described by the label given to our generation, so “Millennial” may seem like a dirty word because it removes our uniqueness. In reality, ‘Millennial’ isn’t a type of behavior, it’s simply the term used to describe individuals born from 1980 and 2000. Of course these individuals have many shared characteristics, but they also value uniqueness.”
-- Derrick Feldmann, 35, president Achieve, which leads The Millennial Impact Project
“It’s quickly becoming one! It seems like everyone is obsessed with Millennials. While it’s an important consumer segment, Gen X and Boomers are equally interesting right now. The problem is, marketers UNDERSTAND GenX and Boomers. They’ve fought the Millennial tide, and now that they’re raising families, buying homes, and making serious purchases, they’ve become the consumer of now. It’s an obsession because this generation of 80 million is the newest power consumer.” Adding, “It’s really all marketers can talk about. And when communications professionals are focused on communicating one thing - or about one demographic - it can seem all consuming.”
-- Tina Wells, 35, CEO & founder of youth focused Buzz Marketing Group
“Despite ‘Millennial’ being a marketing term, my generation has embraced it. I see the term openly used in conversations with Millennials in a way I've never seen from a Baby Boomer or member of Gen X. Older generations stereotype Millennials as being lazy, entitled, not focused and narcissistic so if you ask them, some will view it as a ‘dirty word.’ Millennials have a lot of pride in that they have faced massive amounts of adversity with a poor economy. ” Adding, “From our research, we've found that every generation has a positive view of their elders, yet every generation has a negative view of the upcoming one.”
-- Dan Schawbel, 31, founder of WorkplaceTrends.com & Millennial Branding, Forbes contributor
“To set the record straight the word Millennial is NOT a dirty word. Unfortunately, the Millennial Generation has been labeled with stereotypes like lazy, entitled, and narcissistic, which has created confusion and frustration amongst many Millennials and generations prior. This generation is often misunderstood and the ‘Millennial Hustlers’ of today don't always get the recognition or credibility they deserve because we tend to fixate more on the negative than the positive about this demographic of people. Millennials are a generation unlike any before and we are pioneering new methods in the workplace, technology and ways of communicating that will have great impact on our near future. It is crazy to me to think that we can define 80 million people with three negative stereotypes. Instead, I believe many Millennials are entrepreneurial, innovative, liberal and charitable.”
-- Chelsea Krost, 24, co-founder of MPulse a Millennial focused marketing agency
“If you want to see an eye roll, just try telling a young adult in their 20s & 30s what the most recent research on ‘Millennials’ says . No one likes to be treated as if they are part of one homogeneous group, so it's not surprising that young adults don't like being grouped together under a single, arbitrary label. There is even a Chrome plugin now that changes every reference to "millennial" on a web page to "snake people" just to make the point.”
-- Adam Nash, 40, CEO Wealthfront, a robo-advisor, which targets young investors
Let us know what you think in the comments section or tweet @samsharf.
