Do you think the Millennials are less selfish? If so, why are the Millennials less selfish? When I am writing about singles, I am mostly thinking of Generation X members, which are now in their thirties and forties. The Millennials are younger and less inclined to think in the same ways as the Gen X. They are different, and they are more focused in some ways. Those who are young and know foreign politics are much more insecure than we were as the Baby Boomers. We had the Soviet Union, a big bloc as our national enemy. Now, the younger generation has the awareness of terrorists, who could be in their local grocery store or backyard.
Great privilege and mortality are part of their view. Something worse is always in their future and that is a good thing. They know they are privileged, but they do not take it for granted. If they look at the Dow Jones and it is down, they know their future will be worse, so they decide to work harder to do better. Also, they have witnessed terrible natural, fragile, vulnerable states, such as the Japanese tsunami. Therefore, they do not have the false vision of youthful immortality we and Gen X had. So, they think "What about this life makes it meaningful and what can I do to make it more meaningful? I think this attitude has led to more vocations.
There was no motivation for Gen X to do something worthwhile for themselves or the community. There was too much material success too easily.
This new generation sees death all around them, and that is a good thing for their generation. They do not take life, money, peace for granted.
However, they are still more individualistic than the Baby Boomers and Gen X.
Maybe they will be able to make decisions. But, they still fear commitment, because they have not seen commitment successfully lived with Gen X as parents. Gen X is still stuck in a juvenile state.
The Gen X members may never get out of that. And, their lives have caused the fear of commitment in the next generation-the Millennials. If all your friends are single and you have a single parent, it is much harder to commit.
Most Millennials had few people to connect to, even in sport. Now, they want to connect. They have had to laboriously create common ground. The Internet has helped them connect.
And, yet, they want to have love and homes and stability. I call them Generation WE as opposed to Generation ME. They just do not know how to do it. They do not say that they are WE. They love social stuff. Their need is for WE. They just have to learn how to do it. This is why Twitter and Facebook are so popular. Self-promotion is the motivation, but now they are finding each other on these social network. The need takes over from the motivation.
In 2005, Facebook users were mostly male, between 16-21, computer literate. It was a male-tech bubble. Now, in 2012, most of the users are female, with a much older base, and broader groupings. But, it is a random community. The blogging community is not random, but targeted.
The Internet and especially Facebook, have become real societies- with a view of the Western world. And, China is working on its own, by the way.
The Millennials are ripe for evangelization. They are more open to a spiritual life than Gen X.
