Millennial? No, Boomer

A survey from Pew Research came across my twitter feed. It is designed to measure “How Millennial Are You?” Pew’s report is titled “Confident. Connected. Open to Change.” These are, apparently, the defining characteristics of the millennial generation, those who came of age in the new millennium—i.e. people born after 1981. I am a baby boomer, although born at the very end of the boom. With a father who returned from serving in WWII, married, and had three kids, my family background defines that generation. Baby Boomers in aggregate score 11 on Pew’s quiz. I scored a 92, without having piercings or tattoos (two of the fourteen questions). My score may be anomalous overall, but I am certainly not alone. Being millennial in spirit if not in age, I posted the link on facebook where several of my “friends” responded with their scores. What many of my facebook friends and I have in common is not only our young boomer age and our millennial quiz score, but theatre. Those who responded with high scores are playwrights and performers and designers, people who tend to be confident, connected, and open to change. My totally unscientific conclusion is that to be hip, you don’t have to be born after 1981 or live in Portland – you just have to be a theatre person.

About lindaessig

Linda Essig is Dean of the College of Arts & Letters at Cal State LA and principal/owner of Creative Infrastructure LLC. The opinions expressed on creativeinfrastructure are her own and not those of Cal State LA. You can follow her on twitter @LindaInPhoenix.

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3 Responses to Millennial? No, Boomer

Carlos Manuel says:

May 12, 2013 at 4:35 am

I chuckled as I read this blog entry for many, my reasons, but mainly because I am one of the “friends” Linda talks about. I took the quiz and I received a 98 (I believe the highest score from all the people who have taken the quiz within Linda’s group) so I guess I am a Millennial.

I’m also a theatre artist: playwright/director/actor and someone who is very adaptable to whatever today brings. I use twitter, Facebook, google+, text messaging, Tango, Skype, and write my own blog.

Whoever comes out with the different categories we have for each generation would think that yes, based on the results, I am a Millennail but according to the demographic labels I’m part of Generation X (which I just found out about). Do I care if I’m part of one of the other? No, I don’t. It makes no difference. What matters to me is the fact that I, personally, like to adapt and learn about knew things, and be free to decide for my own, and do as I please and express myself as much as I can without harming others.

In my own personal opinion, these are the days of technology and if I want to keep up, I need to learn how to use them and adapt to them because that is what is happening now. If that makes me a Millennial, so be it. I don’t care. I’m actually trying to keep up afloat with the new generations so when my nephews and nieces and my students used words like, “Yolo.” I know exactly what they are talking about… Now, if they could only do the same in reverse so when I mention a movie from 1980 (which is the first year of the Millennails) they know what the hell I’m talking about.

Bob Diehl says:

May 11, 2013 at 10:50 pm

I scored 82 was born in ’53 did theater throughout school – into college – and have enjoyed being in the audience since.

meganorlowskirussell says:

May 11, 2013 at 10:29 pm

As a performer and a “Millennial” I think I would do well. And I have my ears pierced and a tiny tattoo.

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