Week 3 EOC: My Demographics

“Generations, like people, have personalities, and Millennials – the American teens and twenty-something’s who are making the passage into adulthood at the start of a new millennium – have begun to forge theirs: confident, self-expressive, liberal, upbeat and open to change.” Pew Social Trends

The above definition applies to me in many ways. I have often been told that I am overly confident (something I never thought of as a bad thing), too upbeat and “sunshine-y”, and always ready to express myself or my feelings. This generation that I was born into has helped shape me into the person I have become. I don’t think that it is such a bad thing that the generation that is coming up is confident. As a whole, I am not sure if that is why we are also seen as arrogant and often misunderstood. I have found that I am often thought to be snobbish or mean when in reality I am confident.

“Millennials are on course to become the most educated generation in American history, a trend driven largely by the demands of a modern knowledge-based economy, but most likely accelerated in recent years by the millions of 20-somethings enrolling in graduate schools, colleges or community colleges in part because they can’t find a job. Among 18 to 24 year olds a record share – 39.6% – was enrolled in college as of 2008, according to census data.” Pew Social Trends

I find the assumption that my generation will be the most educated very interesting. I know that most of my family has a degree of something or the other. I am currently in college and love being here. I know that without a degree I have a smaller chance of landing my dream job. Most of my friends have either already gone to college or are currently enrolled as well. With the way that society has progressed and with the recent economic downturn, I think that these 2 factors alone have caused my generation to have to be (without a choice) more educated and thus spend money that we would rather save on our overpriced educations. I am happy that I have chosen to go to college and further and better myself, but I really didn’t feel that I had a choice.

“In the United States today, married couples with children make up only 23 percent of the nation’s 116 million households; married couples without children make up 29 percent; and single parents comprise another 16 percent. A full 32 percent are nonfamily households—single live-alones or adult live-togethers of one or both sexes.” Marketing: An Introduction, 10th Ed.

I am a 32 year old, unmarried, with no children woman. I am a rarity. Or so I thought. The highest percent of my generation are nonfamily households just like me, being at 32 percent.  Why have I been told my whole life that I am so different than everyone else? Why have I been made to feel like an outsider or an oddity when in reality I fit the definition of my generation to a ‘t’.  I could be the poster child for the Millennials.