Generational changes: What are the biggest differences between millennials and boomers?

The media has made a lot of the culture war between boomers and millennials. Millennials blame boomers for the destruction of the environment and the creation of an exploitative labor system that has led to the worst wealth disparity in decades, while boomers argue that millennials have killed department store chains and eat too many avocados. There are arguments to be made about the undermining of tradition and social values and for the importance of progress. Underneath it all, what are the biggest differences between these two generations?

Comfortable online

Millennials were the first generation to be comfortable living the majority of their lives online. Social media is an obvious place to start, but it is also one that boomers have embraced as well. Millennials do the majority of their shopping online, prefer to stream movies and tv shows, and in the past year, have become incredibly adept at socializing and working online too. They have even embraced online gambling, as it is more convenient and offers more variety than traditional casino gambling. For example, skycitycasino.com is the counterpart of a traditional land-based casino, but their customer base does not necessarily overlap. Boomers may be slower to adapt to technology, but many of them have begun to see how helpful the internet can be.

Belief in societal change

The boomer generation believed in social change and was able to make progress towards equal rights for minority communities. Millennials also want to work towards making society better for everyone. The primary difference between boomers and millennials, however, is that boomers wanted to improve the system while millennials are more open to the idea of changing the system itself. So, while progressive boomers would support increasing the minimum wage to help people out of poverty, millennials would like to see the implementation of a universal basic income to eradicate poverty and allow people more freedom. Boomers criticize this as laziness or a desire not to work, but in reality, it is about freedom — if people were not reliant on their corporate or retail jobs to survive, they would be more inclined to choose jobs that they are passionate about, which would benefit society as a whole.

Environmentalism

Millennials care more about the environment than boomers do. This is largely because they are having to deal with the aftereffects of the boomer generation’s wanton disregard for the health of the planet. This year, we have experienced some of the worst storms and wildfires in recorded history, as well as unprecedented heatwaves across much of the world. The drought in North America, for example, has starved ranch land to the point where ranchers are having to cull their herds.

Since millennials and younger generations will be the ones left to clean up the mess that has been made of the planet — if it’s even possible at this point to do anything more than damage control — they are more invested in making changes sooner rather than later. This leads to millennials caring more about initiatives like recycling, holding companies accountable for their carbon footprint and finding a more sustainable diet. Locavore eating is one such diet that older generations scoff at, but it is one that could have long-term benefits for the environment.

Celebration of individual identity

There is a lot of discussion in the news in recent years about transgender people, and this has raised further questions about identity and self-expression. Embracing one’s gender identity is just one area that boomers have struggled to understand. There is also tension surrounding millennial choices to marry at an older age or not marry at all, to have fewer children or be childfree, and to focus on a career or travelling rather than relationships. Millennials are far more willing to disregard tradition and live a life that they find fulfilling than their boomer parents were.

On a less serious level, millennials are more comfortable embracing their individual identity than their boomer parents were. Conformity is still a powerful force, but more and more members of the younger generations are happy to embrace their personal interests and aesthetics, even if it makes them stand out from the crowd. One glance at the Aesthetics Wiki shows just how open younger generations are to living a life that they feel comfortable in.

This list of changes may be taken as painting boomers in a bad light and that might feel a little unfair. When you consider, however, that the boomer generation took a strong economy, a society with a good safety net and a healthy planet, and managed to, very effectively, destroy all three, it is easier to understand where some of the resentment towards them comes from.

(Devdiscourse's journalists were not involved in the production of this article. The facts and opinions appearing in the article do not reflect the views of Devdiscourse and Devdiscourse does not claim any responsibility for the same.)