In a world where everyone is a super hero, no one is

I read an interesting article today. It was about how you should “manage Millennials.” I’m sure every Baby Boomer and XYZ Generation has been told a couple dozen ways how Millennials need to be treated now that they’re entering the workforce. But what was interesting is this article talked about a study of 600,000 people over 8 years, and it shows that two Millennials are more likely to have differences between each other, than a Millennial and a Baby Boomer(https://www.inc.com/jeff-haden/a-study-of-600000-people-shows-secret-to-managing-millennials-is-to-quit-thinking-of-them-as-millennials.html).

The reason this struck me is that I’ve worked with a couple Millennials in the last year, and they really didn’t fit the box they were supposed to, as far as how they acted. I found them to be “normal.” Not entitled. Not demanding. Just…normal.

I remember back to the days when I was a young whippersnapper (at least in my parent’s or grandparent’s opinions). My generation had, as has every generation before and since, THE plan to change the world. To right all the wrongs. To fix all the problems. And we did. Some. And they will. Some. Every generation is going to see things differently, and want to do things differently, than the ones that have gone before.

Technology will make incredible changes in our lives. Both for good, and bad. The technology that our kids/grandkids were brought up on has shaped their personalities and changed the way they look at the world. Will they, in twenty years, realize that some things shouldn’t have been invented (like we did, and do)? Of course. But we can’t tell them that, any more than our parents could us.

This generation will have families, and raise them with whatever set of mores they feel are best. They might be more socially conscious, or that may last until the concept of having money to make their lives better causes them to change. Or not. Only time will tell.

I do have to laugh, though, when I see a “younger person” wearing clothes that would have been at home in the 60’s and 70’s, and they think they are on the cutting edge of fashion.

My point is, you can be a Coke person or a Pepsi person, a cat or a dog person, a mountain biker or a dirt biker, a twenty-something or a sixty-something or an any other-ty something, but you’re still (probably) a normal person (unless you’re a writer or a psychopath – and there IS a difference!). In these days of dividing rhetoric, we need to remember that we’re all more alike than different, despite what people keep telling us (people who have no more knowledge than we do, just a louder opinion). That other stuff is what makes us unique, interesting, and diverse.