It seems like hardly a day goes by without someone scaremongering about how all us ‘millennials’, who came of age as part of the selfie/internet/porn (delete as appropriate) generation, are more self-obsessed and narcissistic than previous generations.
It’s easy to look at people like Jeremy Paxman making these remarks, and snarl about how out- of-touch Baby Boomers are making sweeping generalisations about young people in our society but, sadly, a new study has been published, which might be a little bit more difficult to wave away. Researchers have only gone and sampled more than 48,000 adults in 20 countries worldwide including the UK, the US, China and Russia. Yep, That’s pretty extensive research isn’t it?
The report, entitled* The Disruptive Mindset of Millennials Around the Globe*, was conducted by Dutch research firm Motivication International and is among the first to capture trends that affect young people globally. Some of their findings are positive about our generation. ‘Millennials are unconventional thinkers and they are open to change, much more so than older generations,' said the project's research director Martijn Lampert.
But then the research hits us with a killer blow: nearly half of the millennials questioned indicated that they like being noticed, which is almost twice as much as the post-war generation. And it’s not just Coca-Cola-swilling, natural-resource guzzling, internet-obsessed westerners who admit to this 'narcassism' – it was a trait found in millennials around the globe.
This is by no means the first time this particular charge has been chucked our way. In an article titled Millennials: The Me Me Me Generation, Time Magazine pointed to the fact that, while our grandparents might have had a wedding, graduation or family photo on their mantelpiece, we've grown up in the era of the 'quantified self' – where people record 'their daily steps on FitBit, their whereabouts every hour of every day on PlaceMe and their genetic data on 23 and Me. They have less civic engagement and lower political participation than any previous group.’
But do we have to accept that Facebook et al has made us all more narcissistic and less socially aware and engaged? Or that taking selfies makes us automatically vain? Just have a quick look at your Facebook feeds – yes, there will be the obligatory holiday selfies, but there will no doubt also be people sharing articles about important humanitarian issues and causes that people have not only shared in, but discovered on social media. Look at the impact made by the #nomakeupselfie, which raised £8 million for Cancer Research UK in six days. Far from being an exercise in narcissism, that campaign (despite what some of us thought at the time) was something that encouraged people to leave their vanity at the door in order to add to the greater good. And it was a campaign run on social media by millennials.
However, one aspect of this global research we probably can't call bullshit our way past is the study's finding that millennials are far more competitive than their older peers. Nearly a third claiming that competing with others, as opposed to working collaboratively, ensures better results, whereas around just a quarter of respondents from two previous generations thought this to be the case.
But seriously, does anyone actually find the results all that surprising? Employers may claim that there are more graduate job vacancies than ever, but the latest figures show that nearly a fifth of young people are still out of work and, for the lucky few who can find a job, wages have stagnated at the same levels as 2008. We're more competitive than we've ever been because we've had to become that way if we have any hope of keeping afloat in our careers. So far from being something to lambast millennials for, couldn't you argue that shows some serious spirit?
Follow Sophie on Twitter @sophiecullinane
Picture: Eylul Aslan
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.