Living in a Millennial Age

I suppose it’s a question of which came first, the chicken or the egg?

A recent Pew Research paper on Social and Demographic Trends suggests that Millennials, those people ranging from 18 to 33 years of age, follow along with the norms portrayed in Hollywood and television.

They are less likely than earlier generations to be affiliated with a particular church, less likely to be married, more often than not committed to a political party and more liberal than their elders. In their liberality they have more children out of wedlock, and are more accepting of homosexual marriages.

The argument can be made of course, that entertainment media simply reflects societal norms, mimicking current lifestyles to generate the most interest for ticket sales and cable subscriptions.

I suspect that it’s a bit of both, and more the former than the latter.

The research shows declining percentages from generation to generation in marriage and church affiliation. I remember a well known movie critic, writing back in the 1980s of a party he attended in Hollywood. The topic of conversation at the party came to the portrayal of ministers in film. The critic asked why they were being portrayed as buffoons and hypocrites. An actress turned to him and said “Aren’t they all like that?”

When asked if she had ever met any, she laughed and said no. The critic wrote that Hollywood exists in a vacuum, totally apart from the real world. But isolated from reality or not, entertainers are not shy when it comes professing their feelings in regards to social and political issues. And the soap box afforded them by their lofty status as icons gives weight to their words that many academics would give their right arm for.

The Pew report tellingly noted that Millennials are locked into a self created digital network,  that supplies them with the news that informs their world. While this may seem liberating, its also constricting. The report says that Millennials place less trust in government that previous generations. 

Frederick the Great said public schools would control the masses for the state. Better add the internet and social networking to that list.

http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2014/03/07/millennials-in-adulthood/