This morning I took the Pew Research Center’s Millennials Quiz, which basically tells you if you’re an old fart or not. I scored a 28/100, which places me at the tail end of the Baby Boomers, about ten years before I was actually born. Apparently, I’m an old soul. Or something.
What’s kind of neat about the quiz (BTW, it’s short, only 14 questions and takes just a minute or two) is that after you take it, you can modify any answer and see how it changes your score. What surprised me was that when I changed my answer for “In the past 24 hours, did you watch more than an hour of television programming, or not?” from Yes to No, my score went up, meaning that millennials are watching less television than adults (presumably spending that time looking at different sorts of screens). Also surprising was that when I changed my answer to “How important is a having a powerful, high-paying career?” to “Not at all,” my score dropped and when changing it to “Very” it increased my score. I would not have expected a high-paying career to be more important to the younger generation. I’ve gotten the impression that while gadgets, etc. are still important to them, that being happy was overall more important than being rich. I guess not.
Let us know what you score and how closely it matches your actual age.
Posted in Everyday Life
COD February 25, 2010, 2:05 pm
I got 29.
Rob February 25, 2010, 4:36 pm
I got a 75, which puts me in the Millennial category. I actually belong in the Gen Xer category based on my birth year.
Paul February 25, 2010, 6:05 pm
51/100 here. Sounds about right.
Joseph February 25, 2010, 6:59 pm
88
Never would have guessed.
Joseph February 25, 2010, 7:28 pm
“that being happy was overall more important than being rich.”
BTW, I don’t necessarily see the two as being mutually exclusive. I think the younger generation has an idea of how expensive things are now.
I was born in 1970. My grandfather was born in 1900. When my grandfather was my age, he had three kids, a wife who didn’t work, a brand new car (paid off) and owned a new home (with a mortgage) that was large in its day and certainly all that he and his family needed. To get all that, he held a high school diploma only from a farm school. He moved to the city, got a decent job and and worked an eight hour day; his home was located in a comfortable suburb, that is now, unfortunately, becoming an inner ring suburb. From all of this accumulation, he, in time, bought stocks, bonds, and had a comfortable retirement.
His wife never missed an appointment at the hair salon, never drove, shopped plenty, always had nice clothes and was socially involved. Theirs was a very financially stable and happy marriage. When their kids grew to college age, if they wanted to go, tuition was cheap enough that it wasn’t a problem to afford. When their own children needed downpayments in order to buy their own homes, they had plenty to lend or grant.
My grandfather probably would have said that being happy overall was more important than being rich. He probably never considered that he, actually, was rich, by his parents’ standards, and now, by my standards.
Me? Had to get a law degree and go deeply into debt to get some stability. No wife, no kids . . . I keep my expenses low. I’m hoping to get married some time soon, but I definitely will need a woman who works in order to be able to afford to have kids and put them through college.
My grandfather’s generation had their own gadgets: Telephones were too expensive to actually be purchased. They were rented from the telephone company well into my childhood and the break up of ma bell.
He owned a TV (made in USA), which was a major expense back then, a gasoline powered lawn mower (made in USA), also expensive, and suits for work etc.,
They had beautiful but modest furniture.
You know what I’m getting at after all this.
It’s a hell of a lot more expensive to live now, just to get the basics, and the money doesn’t come in like it used to in order to cover the basics.
Money may not buy love, but it’s better to have a lot of what it takes to get along these days. With prices rising, salaries falling and jobs becoming scarcer and more competitive, any smart Millenial will understand early that the desire to make bucks, and big bucks by our standards–which will probably be average to low bucks by the time they’re working, has got to be close to top priority.
I’m still trying to accumulate with my law degree just half of what my grandfather did with his high school diploma and eight hour job back in the day. No wonder that generation was so able to put a distance between time and money–the latter came easier after the Depression finally ended (Thanks WWII!) which made the former more realistically achieved.
Jeani March 1, 2010, 5:33 am
17! I’m shocked… guess I really am an old fogie after all.