In my recent post about our autonomous vehicle team, I was commenting about how impressed I was with these students. The “Millennial Generation”, or those born from around 1982 to around 1998, are the primary age demographic I see in my engineering classes at the university. Here are some of the characteristics of these young people, as listed by Neil Howe and William Strauss in their book “Millennials Rising: The Next Great Generation”:
- special
- sheltered
- confident
- team-oriented
- achieving
- pressured
- conventional
Of course, most of us older folk know that these young people run circles around us with their tech-savvy skills and their use of social networking sites and text messaging. And I’ve heard some adults of my generation wonder if online networking masks an inability to establish and grow in “real” relationships.
If that is true in general, then we must have an extraordinary cohort of students at my institution, because so many of them are thoughtful, articulate, open-minded, and hard-working. I for one have been able to expand my circle of relationships because of what I’ve learned from them.
If we in religious orders fail to recognize the opportunities for outreach that these folks are demonstrating for us, then shame on us!
You’ve got a point. I think that religious communities should take advantage of what this younger generation is showing them, or they will fail to attract this younger generation to religious life.
I think that communities that don’t take advantage of this are writing themselves a death sentence.
Anne
fellow Sisterblogger
I agree. I think the folks who believe that younger folks are losing their ability to relate are missing the fact that some of the new tech means that “here” and “we” are much more expansive concepts than they used to be. These millennials live with a different notion of time and space than older generations.
We have a lot to learn from the new generations… Of course, they are looking to us as well to learn what it means to be in community and live out the faith every day! Let’s pray we can be real witnesses to them! God bless!
Thanks, Anne, Baya, and Steve, for your perspectives. I agree with all of you! Welcome, Steve, to this little blog community! I hope you’ll continue to add your views.
I think you are right on about needing to live what we profess. My sense is that younger folks are looking for meaningful experiences of community life. I also have a sense that the way we live our vocations to religious life is watched more closely than we may think by those who are intrigued about our way of life. So yes, let us be real witnesses to the Gospel of Jesus!