Millennials, the mythical generation of current twenty-and-early-thirty-somethings that newspapers, magazines, and websites love to try and understand are getting their own celebratory week. This week in D.C. is Millennial Week, which recognizes millennials doing notable things and whatnot.
Considering so much ink has been spilled trying to define millennials in the past few years, we thought we’d try and sum up everything that millennials have been called. Of course, this is just a sampling of the many, many articles written about the millennial generation, but it gives a pretty fair assessment of what the narrative is. So, in that sense, millennials are:
- Competitive and attention-seeking, The New York Daily Post reports, from a study conducted by a Dutch research firm.
- Liars, NBC4 reports from a study that shows Millennials fake sick days more than any other generation.
- Confused, about politics, finances, and culture, The Atlantic reports.
- Risk-averse, according to a chart reported by The Wall Street Journal.
- Absolutely screwed, Salon says
- Narcissistic, or possibly the greatest generation, says The Atlantic and TIME.
- Cynical do-gooders, The Harvard Business Review declared after sifting through reports by the Brookings Institute.
- The best workers, Forbes says.
- Don’t know anything about the job market, USA Today thinks.
Or, to sum it all up in millennial speak, here’s a tl;dr word cloud that describes the millennial generation:
