Millennials Vs The World
As many of us might already know, a recent article in Time magazine described Millennials, “people born from 1980 to 2000”[1], as a generation of fame-obsessed, overconfident, lazy, narcissistic, selfish and entitled individuals. Beyond the author’s intentions, the crisis revealed in the article may be interpreted as one of ‘generational complacency’ in the face of the growing complex and globalized social issues. While it is true for many millennials, including myself, take many things for granted (thanks to our loving parents who nurtured us with high levels of entitlement), it is not entirely true that we are all the things previous generations like to think of us.
On a micro level, yes, we are perhaps lazier, more selfish and even very narcissistic individuals given that we spend countless hours facebooking, twitting, instagraming, pintresting etc. stuff about ourselves and our interests. But in condemning our digital social interactions, our predecessors miss out on something important. It is precisely these new forms of social interaction that are improving the way humans produce, distribute and consume stuff. On a macro level, our lifestyles are more sustainable in regards to the environment, more efficient in regards to the economy and less prejudiced in terms of social equity issues that the world is struggling with today.
Environmentally, we know that the largest source of carbon emissions in America (behind power plants) is transportation, particularly car emissions of gasoline, followed by housing (construction, electricity, waste, etc.) In a study conducted by the World Wildlife Fund, it was noted that, “if everyone lived like an average resident of the USA, a total of four earths would be required to regenerate humanity’s annual demand on nature.” As much as these studies are great and even eye opening in many regards, they assume that the ‘average American’ drives and owns a house. In the case of millennials in America, these studies don’t quite apply. Here’s a simple reason why;
Unlike our predecessors, we drive less and actually prefer to live in cities or close to cities, which allow us to walk, bike and use mass transit, activities which not only reduces the carbon footprint but also improve personal health as well as save time and money that we would have otherwise spent on gas or heckling other drivers in traffic jams.
Vishaan Chakrabarti, architect, urbanist, academic and writer, in his book, ‘A Country of Countries: A Manifesto For Urban America.’ also argues that:
City dwellers, regardless of income level, have a lower carbon footprint than their suburban counterparts primarily because they walk and use mass transit for their daily commutes, and because they live and work in smaller quarters that heat and cool one another partly through party-wall construction. In essence because urbanites share transportation and land in closer proximity, they use far fewer resources per person and destroy far less wilderness than would be required to house everyone in cul-de-sacs of single-family houses.[2]
Economically, far from the average American, most millennials are city dwellers. This means that the majority of us (those able to afford not living with their parents) rent rather than seek mortgages for single-family houses. This is of course for reasons such as unemployment, under-employment, tremendously high college loans, or possibility of job relocation to another state or country.
But even with such economic hardship, we are creating new ways to adapt by creating peer to peer services such as Lyft, Sidecar, Uber, Airbnb, Zaarly, etc. that are slowly redefining many of the failed policies that led to the economic crisis we live in today.
According to some studies, due to increasing safety in cities through new public parks, improving school systems as well as cultural centers, some millennials are in fact beginning to consider raising their children in cities rather than in suburbs[3].
This is encouraging given that cities in America only occupy 3% of the nation’s land mass but create 85% of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as well as provide 86% of the jobs[4], something that is still under-appreciated by those in positions of power; politicians, developers, planners and architects to mention but a few.
In terms of social equity, millennials have been able to challenge old mentalities of separation that cripple people’s way of life. We are generally more tolerant towards other ethnicities simply because we’ve grown up, for the most part, around people with various backgrounds or seen them on television more often than previous generation did. Social networking platforms have also been a great tool for millennials in redefining not only how they communicate and learn from each other but also in regards to being politically active.
From the 2011 occupy Wall Street movement in Zuccotti Park, to the Tahrir Square protests in Cairo, Egypt, Gezi Park in Turkey, millennials have been able to rise up against unfair government regimes. Both social platforms like Facebook and Twitter, as well as public city spaces provided easy access for millennials to gather in such big numbers that isolated locations in low density suburban towns would not be able to provide.
We matter in more ways than mentioned above. We are a group of dynamic individuals ready to act, ready to innovate, ready to offer the world new possibilities if only the previous generations can give a helping hand rather than always chiding us. The sins of our predecessors might have had something to do with some of our unhealthy habits. But if we are to change them, we know we can’t do it alone. If we thought so, we wouldn’t spend countless hours Twitting or Facebooking with our friends, work-mates and families.
[1] See Joel Stein, “The Me Me Me Generation: Why they’ll save us all,” Time, May 20, 2013, p.26 — 34
[2] Vishaan Chakrabarti, “A Country of Countries: A Manifesto For Urban America,” (Metropolis Books, 2013) p.81
[3] See Vishaan Chakrabarti, “A Country of Countries: A Manifesto For Urban America,” (Metropolis Books, 2013)
[4] See Vishaan Chakrabarti, “A Country of Countries: A Manifesto For Urban America,” (Metropolis Books, 2013)
