The Top 8 Myths About Millennials

When we find ourselves talking to people about the Millennial Generation or reading articles about the youth vote, there are a number of myths that seem to consistently pervade these discussions.

Here are the top 8 myths I have heard about Millennials and the arguments to counter them.

1) Millennials are apathetic.

This is the mother of all young voter myths. Young people just don't care about politics and voting. This myth has gained strength over the years because traditional political campaigns fell for the self-fulfilling prophecy. They thought it would be a waste of money to contact young people who wouldn't vote, which led to young people not voting because they were never contacted by campaigns. Young voters were not apathetic, they just weren't being engaged. The development of peer-to-peer programs by youth political organizations and the creation of youth outreach components of campaigns have resulted in dramatic increases in youth turnout over the last few elections.

2) Millennials are uninformed.

I recently had to deal with this myth in the comments on a recent Rock the Vote blog post. Some older people have the belief that youth are ignorant and lack the reasoning ability to think critically about issues. One of the reasons that this myth has prevailed is that there is a difference in the issues that are important to the AARP and those that are important to young voters. How informed do you think the average AARP member is on the issues of college affordability, net neutrality, or digital rights management?

As a matter of fact, Millennials are very informed about the issues that are important to them and are following the 2008 election closely.

3) 2008 is an anomaly for youth involvement.

This is a favorite for those pundits that have only paid attention to the youth vote this year. Since 2000 youth turnout has been steadily increasing, and the record youth turnout in the 2008 primaries did not come to be in isolation, but is just continuing the trend. The trending indicates that the youth vote will continue to be strong in the 2008 general election and beyond.

4) Millennials are selfish.

This myth is the exact opposite of the truth. Millennials are more engaged in community service than older generations (CIRCLE). It is also important to recognize that Millennials are the majority of those currently fighting the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Millennial generation is a civic-minded generation.

5) Millennials are lazy.

The claim that Millennials are lazy is the bookend myth of "Millennials are selfish." Critics of the generation point their fingers at statistics showing that Millennials are more likely to move back in with their parents after graduating from college in order to save money, or the record-high sales of video games to create an image of lazy kids sitting around playing video games all day.

Conveniently the counter to this myth is similar to the answer to the selfish myth. In addition, Millennials actually tend to pack more activities in their day than other generations, especially high school and college students.

Here is where the cynical members of prior generations attack the optimism and hope of Millennials. Young people are not naive, they are still realistic, but they have not given up on the possibilities of the world and believe in their ability to make those changes.

7) Millennials will become conservative when they get older.

This is a very popular myth and is currently the defense mechanism used by the Republican Party to help cope with the looming electoral realignment. Research has shown that this myth is not true, and that in fact a young person that votes for the same political party in three consecutive elections is likely to identify with that party for the rest of their life.

8) Millennials have a feeling of entitlement.

This myth results from the inability of older generations to understand the concept of actually trying to find a job that you would love and not settling for a job that you will hate for 40 years. There is a big difference between having a feeling of entitlement and choosing to not be relegated to something that may make you miserable for years. In my opinion, the Millennials have chosen a much healthier philosophy.