Saturday, December 1, 2018

Differences between Millennials and iGen

Some differences, with no implied ranking:

  • Members of iGen graduated into an economy at full employment.
  • There are many more CompSci majors in iGen (at least at top schools).  (A good just-so dividing line is the break up of the alleged Apple/Google wage cartel in 2014.)
  • Memories of the world pre-9/11.  I started the sixth grade in 2001, so don't have the best perspective, but at least have some perspective.
  • During my politically formative years (say, 2005 to 2014), the war on terror, the Great Recession, and income inequality dominated conversation.  All of these seem to be much less important to the iGen cohort.  Conversely, race has been much more at the forefront.  Another just-so dividing line could be the killing of Trayvon Martin in 2012, or the founding of BLM the next year.
  • Having a smart phone in high school.
  • The economics majors I graduated with in 2012 were almost uniformly drawn to the field at least in part because they wanted to understand the financial crisis and Great Recession.  Coursework favored macro and finance.  Econ majors I interview for work now seem unconcerned (sometimes ignorant) about the downturn.  There is much more interest in micro topics, especially IO and labor.
This list is obviously incomplete, but I think all the above reflect more-or-less abrupt differences that affect the character of the average Millennial or iGen member.  The emergence of dating apps is another popular nominee, but that shift seems more superficial to me.  As far as I can tell, the apps are used as often as not to set up old-fashioned dates.  They may lead to more highly sorted marriages, but that would be a continuation of a trend rather than a break.

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