Defining Millennials
So how do you define the term Millennials? The term Millennials is usually considered to apply to individuals who reached adulthood around the turn of the 21st century. The precise delineation varies from one source to another; however, Neil Howe and William Strauss authors of the 1991 book Generations: The History of America’s Future, 1584 to 2069, are credited with coining the term. Howe and Strauss define the Millennial cohort as consisting of individuals born between 1982 and 2004. Overall, the earliest proposed birthdate for Millennials is 1976 and the latest 2004. Given that a familial generation in developed nations lies somewhere between 25 and 30 years, we might reasonably consider those the start and end points (techtarget.com).
Millennials grew up in an electronics-filled, increasingly online, and socially networked world. They are the generation that has received the most marketing attention. As the most ethnically diverse generation, Millennials tend to be tolerant of difference. Having been raised under the mantra "follow your dreams" and being told they were special, they tend to be confident. While largely a positive trait, the Millennial generation’s confidence has been argued to spill over into the realms of entitlement and narcissism. They are often seen as slightly more optimistic about the future of America as other generations -- despite the fact that they are the first generation since the Silent Generation that is expected to be less economically successful than their parents (techtarget.com). One reported result of millennial optimism is entering into adulthood with unrealistic expectations, which sometimes leads to disillusionment. Many early Millennials went through post-secondary education only to find themselves employed in unrelated fields or underemployed and job hopping more frequently than previous