Generational issues seem to constantly come up to be left unexplored, but i refuse to leave this can of worms unopened. I am well aware that generations don't like to talk about each other, specially when prescriptions that come with talking about a generation are often generalizations, and sometimes aren't always nice. I experienced this first hand recently, having read an article from Tim Williams at Leader Messenger titled: "Generation-Y Slack Workers". As you can tell from the title, this article amounted to an arm chair take on those born mid-1970s to early 2000s [otherwise known as Millennium Babies] and how they were a lazy generation, who made for poor retailers, and don't know how to work. But in reading this article I reflected on all those days I spend with the grandparents, being told how "back in my day, we worked so hard and you young'n's just don't know". It seems in my mind, the member of the Baby-Boom Generation who wrote the article was getting ahead of himself, this Millennium Generation hasn't even found its spot in the world just yet. I know that the generation who fought in World War Two and lived threw the Great Depression did really take some strife, to say the least [known as the Greatest Generation]. I also know the generations which followed have had to deal with the Cold War that loomed on [known as the Silent Generation] and finally the generation who had to rebuild the world and re-think the world following the Cold War, and consider themselves self made [the Baby-Boomer Generation]. Whether these proscriptions are fair is one thing, but does the most recent and following generations [Generation x, and Generation y] really deserve such bland and boring names, or am I hoping for too much with my expectation that my generation will amount to be worth more then just a letter towards the end of the alphabet?
On my surfing of the internet I did find what amounted to some optimism of my generation, participially when it comes to this generation makes new use of the internet. I am just talking about the art of blogging - well kinda - but I am mostly talking about internet tools like Facebook and Amazon, Ebay and Craigslist, not only a new playing field when it comes to communicating but also when it comes to making money. One such article in The Sydney Morning Herald by Sarah Whyte ["Generation Y steps up and shows who's boss"] coining Generation Y as instead Generation E - the Entrepreneurial Generation. This article sees the newest generation increasingly wanting to branch out, selling new products over Ebay for instance, and bring a social aspect that Facebook provides to advertise a product [the article mentions two young men making good money selling leather jackets over Ebay]. Millennium Babies understand the value of the internet, but creating new business opportunities isn't the only way its being used. Almost a month ago now, New Zealand was struck by a large earthquake in Christchurch, and with the devastation being broadcast nationwide many wanted to help, what could they do? Facebook! Within a few days of the disaster 2000 people had signed up to a page on Facebook called "Accommodation for Earthquake Stricken Cantabrians" where fellow New Zealanders offered accommodation and "UC Volunteer Army" where university students could volunteer. How these new internet tools are being utilized is far from amounting to just being narcissistic and simply teeny-pop social, like some older people would have you think. Instead, the internet is increasingly evolving to take a new field to offer a helping hand and do business, a lesson that the Baby-Boomers should take seriously, if they want to hold out retirement just a little bit longer. That isn't the key reason I'm enthusiastic about my generation however.
As much as this may be Generation E, I think this Generation will increasingly be Generation D - Dealing with Disaster Generation. I was brought to this conclusion, not only reflecting on how this generation was brought to action with Christchurch, but also with relation to the youth in Japan and how they have met the call to action with the recent Tsunami there. A Time Magazine article "Rising to the Challenge" written by Hannah Beech certainly hit home with this point, not only with a what seemed like a waking youth, with unemployed students keen to help in any way they can. This was not only a new generation waking to a natural disaster, but challenges to existed around them, particularly with unemployment so high in Japan with the established Baby-Boomers holding all the posts, the newest generation has been increasingly lost. With this new generation energized, their remains the prospect that the newest generation might strive to ignite Japan's economy, left in stalemate for the last two decades - at least that is the hope the article expresses. It is my suspicion however that the Millennium generation is going to get use to having to pick up the pieces after a national disaster, specifically when it comes to weather events. With an increasingly dynamics climate turning once in every hundred years events into once in every few, this generation may really have no choice. However, D doesn't just stand for Disaster, but also for Dealing with State Debt. Its clear that a number of western nations continue to stack up large bills they intend on leaving for the generation's that follow - and that means us. That doesn't even mention the fact that with the Baby-Boomer generation retiring, there is going to be more people living off superannuation then well be paying taxes, which is a recipe for disaster.
While the newest Millennium Generation and the Baby-Boomers increasingly run along side each other, we have an evolving world increasingly in wake, but also in wait. Because so many of the disaster that rest on the horizon have been created and left to wait by generations past. Challenges economic in nature like Debt, and global like Climate Change, are going to be dealt with by this generation. Not because thats what we decide, but mostly because they will be in our face, and it will be increasingly clear what needs to be done, and that we need to have the audacity to do it. This is where my enthusiasm really does rest, and where I move to recent 'x' and 'y', and move from 'e' and 'd', and instead towards this generation being 'A' at the front of the alphabet. I think this generation is the Audacity Generation. Because having to deal with the challenges put to us, I think this generation would respond: not to the next! We will be an adaptive, innovative, and solution focused bunch. In doing so, I think their remains the prospect that this generation could have a huge achievement on its hands. It should be said tho, that ultimately, what the accomplishments of generation 'y' will be remain for the future to hold. And in that being the case, I think instead generations should name themselves, rather then let the leaving generation remain critical of them with their grandfather complex, and bestow them with their name - and potentially demonstrate their lack of creativity and vision. There remains the prospects for the Millennium Generation and no one should claim to have summed them up so early. Specially when it comes to naming them after the last few letters of the alphabet, don't limit us just yet to a 'y' or an 'x'.
