As a Group, Millennials are Unlike Any Other Youth Generation in Living Memory

摘要

Strauss and Howe define the Millennials as those individuals born between 1982 and 2002. As new generations develop and societal culture changes, so must the efforts of organizations wanting to recruit them, namely the U.S. Army. To recruit America's best and brightest, the Army must appeal to these youth, as well as to those persons who influence them. The Army must refocus its recruiting efforts to zero in on what motivates America's young people and create goodwill with the people who influence them to effectively attract the Millennials. Conducting any type of information operations, to include recruiting, requires an understanding of the target culture. At the start, decision makers must separate distinct generational characteristics from current societal stereotypes. Many significant, life-changing events have occurred in the Millennials' lifetime (1982-2002) that either shaped them as individuals or shaped other generation's perceptions of them to include the crash of PANAM flight 103, the Oklahoma City Bombing, the basement bombing of the World Trade Center, the Embassy attacks in Kenya and Tanzania, the shootings at Columbine High School, the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and, surprisingly important to the Millennials, the Monica Lewinsky/Bill Clinton scandal. A look at some actual characteristics of Generation Y, followed by some common misconceptions about them, will aid in an understanding of how the Army can refocus some of their recruiting efforts to attract this group.