the millennial vote...

I am continually amazed by the issue of the “youth” vote. The coverage of it is always so disconnected, never aimed at the growing population that is the “youth” vote. With the 2008 election approaching in the US, there seems to be an increase of attention paid to the millennial voters and I cannot help but feel like none of the coverage and research is ever aimed towards us, just about us. It is an odd feeling when you can step back and see yourself as part of this thing that the media talks about rather than engages with. Yes, we get interviewed, and there have been an increasing number of studies that survey and interview the millennial generation. The PBS Documentary Generation Next: Stand Up, Be Heard (http://www.pbs.org/newshour/generation-next/index.html) is an example of this, but yet there is still a distance maintained between us as study subjects and audience members. It is as if no one has realized that we are paying attention, that we might be forming opinions and making decisions…

I put together some current research on the millennial vote and, maybe not so surprising to us, we are paying attention.

The Progressive Politics of the Millennial Generation

New Politics

http://www.newpolitics.net/node/360?full_report=1

The Century Foundation – Issue Brief

http://www.tcf.org/publications/electionreform/youthvote.pdf

Young Voter Strategies

Background on the Millennial Generation

http://www.youngvoterstrategies.org/index.php?tg=fileman&idx=get&id=1&gr=Y&path=Factsheets&file=Background+on+the+Millennial+Generation.pdf.

Millennial Makeover

http://www.millennialmakeover.com/

- Also checkout author Michael Hais on NPR Radio Times show on the role of the youth vote in the 2008 USA Presidential Elections.

http://www.whyy.org/rameta/RT/2008/RT20080226_20_2.ram

Young Voters are Stoked

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2008/02/02/youth_vote_2008/

good millennial resources...

hey all,

Check out Kanna Hudsan's blog at MillennialGeneration.org, she's got a ton of great info and links on there all about this millennial thing.

talk about identity issues...

Recent studies have shown that we, the youth of America, are more narcissistic than our predecessors. A recent study shows that despite these recent studies just mentioned, there is little evidence that shows us to have increased impressions of ourselves compared to previous generations. The U.S. Navy calls us “narcissistic praise junkies” and “a somewhat alien life force”. Tom Friedman from the New York Times says we are both “more optimistic and idealistic” and “less radical and politically engaged” than is necessary. We are “actively defining the global context.” We are civic generation with a belief in political and social systems. We are the most diversified and unified generation. We are only interested in tangible results. We are over individualized, self-promoting, narcissistic. We are “thin skinned individuals who do not take criticism well and think we are better than we are.” We don’t want to work for it, actually we don’t want to work at all. We work hard, as long as it's on our terms. We even get our own consults representing us to corporate America so our boomer bosses can “manage” us more appropriately. We have the highest sense of entitlement of any generation. We will never be as financially successful as our parents based on current economic conditions. We re-invented the midlife crisis into the “quarter-life-crisis”... does that mean the 25 is the new 50? We have been taught to believe that anyone can do anything, it isn’t true. More of us will get college degrees than ever before. We will carry larger college debt than ever before. We increasingly feel like forces outside of ourselves control the outcome of our lives. We are oversexed. We are a generation made of pop stars and party kids. We are defined by technology. We have no real belief in anything. We have only an ironic response to life. We have no inspiration. We are afraid of being taken. We are cynical. We are hopeful in the future.

We are called Generation Me, Generation Whatever, Generation Y, Generation Next, the Millennials, the next Hero Generation. Who are we? Generation who? Claim your collective. Tell the world, tell your generation, tell yourself what we are...ok so that is probably an exaggeration. But we tend to have unrealistic expectations.

Fill out the survey at the link below claim you collective.

Click Here to take survey

check out references in "what they say"