Gen Y, Millenials, the Net Generation, MyPoders or Echo-Boomers.
The nebulous population in question – the 42 million Americans currently between the ages of 16 and 25 – is the subject of a new Public Broadcasting Service documentary by television journalist Judy Woodruff that aims to explore the generation of our society that encompasses today’s college and high school students and young professionals.
Woodruff traveled across the country interviewing members of what she has dubbed Generation Next: a hyper-connected and tech-savvy group facing large challenges that comes across as tolerant, hardworking and somewhat coddled by their parents.
“The parents have taken a very intimate interest in these young people, and so they’re growing up with close relationships with their parents. Many young people say their best friends are their parents, or you ask them who they look up to – they say their parents,” she said
Despite the close ties, Generation Next is not particularly well understood by their parents, the Baby Boomers, Woodruff said. She was surprised to find that most older Americans were dismissive of the younger generation, a notion that contradicted her own findings in the documentary.
“Most young people we talked to have given a lot more thought to what’s going on in the world, to what’s going on in their community, their school, their family than most people in my generation have given them credit for,” she said. “Much more thoughtful and much more aware of what’s going on around them then people realize.” Woodruff, who has spent most of her three-decade career covering politics, said the project was an outgrowth of a desire to explore the political electorate.
“The more we talked, the more it became apparent that what hadn’t been done before was a look at the younger generation – not just their voting habits and their politics – but the generation as a whole,” she said.
The documentary describes young Americans were more tolerant of persons of other races and sexual orientations, and less tolerant of party-affiliated politics.
“We saw that in 2004 and we saw that in 2006. We also saw a bump-up in turnout among the youngest voters who support Democratic candidates,” Woodruff said. “Having said that, young people are not necessarily buying the cookie-cutter definition of what’s Republican and what’s a Democrat.”
“You have people who say, ‘Yes, I’m a Republican, but I don’t agree about abortion and gay rights,” for example.”
“Generation Next: Speak Up. Be Heard.” also tackles specific high-visibility issues including generational attitudes toward religion, financial debt, technology and the workplace.
At work, Woodruff said, Generation Next rarely expects job security, anticipating to change jobs or even careers several times in their lifetime.
“It’s already changing attitudes in the workplace. The Baby Boomer bosses are finding young people show up for work and they’re just not as committed to the 24/7 workstyle or the workaholic worklife of their parents,” she said. Members of Generation Next expect to stay with an employer long as they feel fulfilled. They don’t “live to work,” she said, they “work to live” and they fear becoming their parents.
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