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media, the exporting of daily steps on FitBit, their whereabouts ev­ and the speed of change, millennials world­ ery hour of every day on PlaceMe and their wide are more similar to one another than genetic data on 23 and Me. They have less to older within their nations. civic engagement and lower political par­ Even in , where family history is ticipation than any previous group. This more important than any individual, the is a that would have made Walt , and the one- Whitman wonder if maybe they should try policy have created a generation as overcon­ singing a song of someone else. fidentand self-involved as the Western one. They got this way partly because, in And these aren't just rich-kid problems: the , people wanted to improve kids' poor millennials have even higher rates of chances of success by instilling self-esteem. , materialism and tecl11).ology It turns out that self-esteem is great for AM ABOUT TO DO WHAT OLD PEOPLE addiction in their ghetto-fabulouslives. getting a job or hooking up at a bar but not have done throughout history: call those They are the most threatening and ex­ so great forkeeping a job or a relationship. younger than me lazy, entitled, selfishand citing generation since the "It was an honest mistake," says Roy Bau­ shallow. But I have studies! I have statistics! brought about social revolution, not be­ meister, a psychology professor at Florida I have quotes from respected academics! cause they're trying to take over the Es­ State University and the editor of SelfEsteem: Unlike my , my and tablishment but because they're growing ThePuzzle ofLow SelfRegard. "The early find­ my great-grandparents, I have proof. up without one. The IndustriafRevolution ings showed that, indeed, kids with high Here's the cold, hard data: The inci­ made individuals far more powerful­ self-esteem did better in school and were dence of narcissistic personality disorder they could move to a city, start a business, less likely to be in various kinds of trouble. is nearly three times as high forpeop le in read and formorganizations. The informa­ It's just that we've learned later that self­ their 20s as forthe generation that's now tion revolution has further empowered esteem is a result, not a cause." The problem 65 or older, according to the National In­ individuals by handing them the tech­ is that when people try to boost self-esteem, stitutes of Health; 58% more stu­ nology to compete against huge organiza­ they accidentally boost narcissism instead. dents scored higher on a narcissism scale tions: hackers vs. corporations, bloggers "Just tell your kids you love them. It's a in 2009 than in 1982. Millennials got so vs. , terrorists vs. nation-states, better message," says Jean 1\venge, psy­a many participation trophies growing up YouTubedirectors vs. studios, app-makers chology professor at the University of San that a recent study showed that 40% be­ vs. entire industries. Millennials don't Diego, who wrote Generation Me and The lieve they should be promoted every two need us. That's why we're scared of them. Narcissism Epidemic."When they're little it years, regardless of performance. They seems cute to tell them they're special or are fame-obsessed: three times as many IN THE U.S., MILLENNIALS ARE THE CHIL· a princess or a rock star or whatever their middle school girls want to grow up to be dren of baby boomers, who are also known T-shirt says. When they're 14 it's no longer a personal assistant to a famous person as as the , who then produced cute." All that self-esteem leads them to be want to be a Senator, according to a 2007 the Me Me Me Generation, whose selfish­ disappointed when the world refuses to af­ survey; fourtimes as many would pick the ness has only exacerbated. firm how great they know they are. "This assistant job over CEO of a major corpo­ Whereas in the familiesdisplayed a generation has the highest likelihood of ration. They're so convinced of their own wedding photo, a school photo and maybe a having unmet expectations with respect greatness that the National Study of Youth military photo in their homes, the average to their and the lowest levels of and Religion foundthe guiding morality middle-class American familytoday walks satisfactionwith their careers at the stage of 60% of millennials in any situation is amid 85 pictures of themselves and their that they're at," says Sean Lyons, co-editor that they'll just be able to feelwhat's right. pets. Millennials have come of age in the ofManaging the New Workforce:International Their development is stunted: more peo­ era of the quantified self, recording their Perspectives on the Millennial Generation. "It is ple ages 18 to 29 live with their parents sort of a crisis of unmet expectations." than with a spouse, according to the 2012 What millennials are most famousfor Clark University Poll ofEmerging . besides narcissism is its effect: entitlement. And they are lazy. In 1992, the nonprofit If you want to sell seminars to middle man­ Families and Work Institute reported that agers, make them about how to deal with 80% of people under 2 3 wanted to one day young employees who e-mail the CEO have a job with greater responsibility; ro MILLENNIALS directly and beg off projects they findbor­ years later, only 60% did. ing. English teacher David McCullough Millennials consist, depending on AREN'T TRYING TO Jr.'s address last year to Wellesley High whom you ask, of people born from 1980 School's graduating class, a 12-minute re­ to 2000. To put it more simply for them, TAKE OVER THE ality check titled "You Are Not Special," has since they grew up not having to do a lot of nearly 2 million hits on YouTube. "Climb math in their heads, thanks to , the mountain so you can see the world, the.group is made up mostly of teens and ESTABLISHMENT; not so the world can see you," McCullough 20-somethings. At Bo million strong, they told the graduates. He says nearly all the are the biggest age grouping in American THEY'RE GROWING response to the video has been positive, es­ history. Each country's rnillennialsare dif­ pecially from millennials themselves; the ferent, but because of , social UP WITHOUT ONE video has 57 likes forevery dislike. 28 Though they're cocky about their place in the world, millennials are also stunted, YTHE- BEAUTY GURU having prolonged a life stage between teen­ Samml Maria, 23, has become ager and that this magazine once a London-based YouTube sensation with videos that called and will now use once again feature fashion and makeup in an attempt to get that term to catch on. tips. Her clips regularly The idea of the teenager started in the 1920s; earn more than 100,000 views in 1910, only a tiny percentage of kids went to high school, so most people's social in­ teractions were with adults in their family or in the workplace. Now that cell phones allow kids to socialize at every hour-they send and receive an average of 88 texts a day, according to Pew-they're living un­der the constant influence of their friends. "Peer pressure is anti-intellectual. It is anti­historical. It is anti-eloquence," says Mark Bauerlein, an English professor at Emory, who wrote The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies YoungAm ericans and Jeop­ardizes Our Future (Or, Don't 'ltustAnyone Un­der 30). "Never before in history have people been able to grow up and reach age 23 so dominated by peers. To develop intellectu­ally you've got to relate to older people, older things: 17-year-olds never grow up-if they're just hanging around other 17-year-olds." Of all the objec. tions to

C:..., Obamacare, not a lot of people argued ... against parents' need to cover their kids' ....:z: health insurance until they're 26 . ....- Millennials are interacting all day < :z: but almost entirely through a screen. a, You've seen them at bars, sitting next to -... one another and texting. They might look z calm, but they're deeply anxious about -en !I:'"" missing out on something better. Sev­ z'"" enty percent of them check their phones - every hour, and many experience phan­ tom pocket-vibration syndrome. "They're doing a behavior to reduce their anxiety," says Larry Rosen, a psychology p�ofessor at California State University at Domin­ guez Hills and the author of iDisorder. That constant search for a hit of dopamine ("Someone liked my status update!") re­ duces creativity. From 1966, when the Tor­rance Tests of Creative Thinking were first administered, through the mid-198os, cre­ativity scores in•children increased. Then they dropped, falling sharply in 1998. Scores on tests of ATHE ACTOR empathy similarly fell sharply, starting A native of Orange County, in 2000, likely because of both a lack of California, Brent Rivera, 15, face-to-face time and higher degrees of has acted In a handful of narcissism. Not only do millen­nials lack commercials and has amassed the kind of empathy that allows them to nearly half a ml/lion feel concerned for others, but they also followers on Jnstagram have trouble even intellectually un­ derstanding others' points of view. - What they do understand is how to turn themselves into brands, with "friend"29 and "follower" tallies that serve as sales SOCIETY I MILLENNIALS

figures. As with mostsales, positivity and confidenceworkbest."People are inflating themselves like balloons on ," TALKIN' 'BOUT THEIR GENERATIONS says W. Keith Campbell, a psychology pro­ MISSIONARY fessor attheUniversity of Georgia, whohas The Civil War ended during their Franklin Roosevelt (b. 1882) GENERATION William Jennings Bryan writtenthreebooksaboutgenerationalin­ childhood, and they reached early BORN adulthood with a passion for (b.1860) creasesinnarcissism (including When You 1860- 82 social causes. They hit middle Love a Man Who Loves Himself). When ev­ COINAGE age with the passage of eryone is telling youabouttheirvacations, Historians WIiiiam Prohibition; late in life, they were partiesandpromotions,youstartto embel­ Strauss and the architects of the . lish yourownlifetokeepup.Ifyou do this well enough on Instagram, YouTube and , you canbecome a microcelebrity. THE LOST This generation arrived during waves of Mae West (b. 189.3) Millennials grew up watching reality­ GENERATION immigration and rampant urban F. Scott Fltzgerald,. (b. 1896) TV shows, most of which are basically BORN poverty. As young adults, they were 1883-1900 I documentaries about narcissists. Now doughboys and flappers of the Roaring theyhave trainedthemselves to bereality­ COINAGE '20s. Crushed by the Ernest Hemingway's in midlife, they paid high taxes in their TV-ready. "Most people never define who epigraph to The Sun later years to help fund World War II . they are as a personality type until their Also Rises in 1926 30s. So for people to be defining who they are at the age of 14 is almost a huge evolu­ THE GREATEST As children they gained access to Betty Friedan (b. 1921) tionaryjump," says casting director Doron GENERATION education and the protection of Ronald Reagan (b. 1911) Ofir, who auditioned participants for Jer­ BORN child-labor laws. They came of age sey Shore, Millionaire Matchmaker, A Shot at 1901-24 during the Depression and fought in Love and Ru.Paul's Drag Race, among other COINAGE World War II. Postwar, they built shows. "Do you follow me on1\vitter?" he in The suburbs and highways, cured polio and asks at the end ofthe interview. "Oh, you , gave birth to the baby boomers. published In 1998 should. I'm fun. I hope that one day they provide an Emmy for casting of reality THE SI LENT shows- because, youknow, I'd assume I'm Children of the Depression, they have Nell Armstrong (b. 1930) GENERATION Carol Burnett (b. 1933) a shoo-in. I would like thatgoldstatue. And been referred to as "the lucky few," a BORN thenIwilltake a photo of it, andthenI will generation smaller than t he one before 1925-42 it and which suffered fewer casualties Instagram it." Ofir is 41, buthe has clearly CO IN AGE of war. Later, many of them moved into spent a lot of time around millennials. Referred to in TIME, white collar jobs and led society I have gone just about as far as I can Nov. 5, 1951 toward the Idea of early retirement. ~ in an article without talking about my­ •- } self. So first, yes, I'm aware that I started this piece-in which I complain about BABY They were suburban children who Oprah Winfrey (b. 1954) millennials' narcissism- with the word ROOMERS came of age in the Summer of Love. In Tom Hanks (b. 1956) I. I know that this magazine, which for BORN midlife, they became yuppies who lost decade~ didnotprintbylines,startedput­ 1943-60 fortunes In the stock-market crash tingauthors' names onthe cover regular­ COINAGE of 1987. Many have had their savings First printed on dented by the and ly in 2004 and that one ofthe first names Jan. 23, 1970, in the will postpone retirement. was mine. As I mocked reality shows in Washington Post the previous paragraph, I kept thinking aboutthe fact thatI got to the final round Many were latchkey kids of working Jennifer Lopez (b. 1969) for 1995's Real World: London. l know my BORN moms and divorced parents; they grew Jon Stewart (b. 1962) number of 1\vitter followers far better 1961-80 into young adults marked by a sense than the tally on my car's odometer; al­ COINAGE of ennui. Studies have shown that though Facebook has a strictly enforced Popularized by Douglas members of this generation may have limit' of 5,000 friends, I somehow have Coupland's novel reversed t he historical trend of earning Generation X, published more In real dollars than their parents. 5,079. Itwasimpossiblenottoremember, in 1991 the whole time I was accusing millenni­ als of being lazy, that I was supposed to THE MILLENNIALS finish this article nearly a yearago. Also known as Generation Y, they came BORN of age in of 9/ 11 and I moved home for the first six months 1980-2000 after college. WhenI got hired atTIME, my amid the rise of new media. First-wave COINAGE millennials are now in their early co-workers hated me for cozyingup to the Credited to careers amid a slow global economic editorofthe magazine. I talk to one ofmy Strauss recovery, with high unemployment and parents everyotherday anddependonmy and Howe concerns about future national debt. dad for financial advice. It's highly possible

30 thatI'm a particularly lame 41-year-old, but you grow up during the Great Depression still, none of these traits are new to mil­ andfight offthe Nazis, you wantsafetyand BY ANDREA FORD AN OERIC DODD S lennials; they've been aroundatleast since stability," says Tucker Max, 37, who set an ' TEACHERS ARC SAYING the Reformation,when MartinLuther told example for millennials when instead of THAT NEYER IN THEIR EXPERIENCE Christians they didn't need the church to using his Duke law degree to practice law, WERE YOUNG PEOPLE SO talkto God, andbecame more pronounced he took his blog rants about his drunken, at the end of the 18th century in the Ro­ THIRSTILY AVID OF PLEASURE AS lecherous adventures and turned them mantic period, whenartists stopped using into a mega-best-selling book, I Hope They NOW . . SO S£LFISH .. their work to celebrate God and started Serve Beer in Hell, that he got an indepen­ Cornella A.P. Comer, then In her 40s, using it to express themselves. In 1979, dent publisher to print. "Everyone told you In , February 1911 Christopher Lasch wrote in The Culture of thateveryone above you had to s---onyou Narcissism, "The media give substance to, before you got to s--- on people below you. I I HAVE NO PATIENCE WITH and thus intensify, narcissistic dreams of And millennials didn't want to do that." THE MODERN NEUROTIC fame andglory, encourage commonpeople In fact, a lot of what counts as typical to identify themselves withthestarsandto millennial behavior is how rich kids have GIRL WHO JAZZES FROM hate the 'herd,' andmakeitmoreand more always behaved. The Internet hasdemocra­ MORNING TO NIGHT.' difficult for them to accept the banality of tized opportunity for many young people, From The Murder on the Links by Agatha everyday existence." I checked my e-mail giving them access and information that Christle, publlshed In 1923 three times during thatsentence. once belonged mostly to thewealthy.When

I I was growing up in the , I thought 'THIS GENERATION SO WHILE THE ENTIRE FIRST HALF OF THIS I would be a lawyer, since that was the article is absolutely true (I had data!), mil­ Of AMERICANS lennials' self-involvement is more a con­ HAS A RENDEZVOUS tinuation ofa trend than a revolutionary WITH DESTINY.' break from previous generations. They're not a new species; they've justmutatedto ALOT OF WH AT Frank/In Roosevelt, In a speech at adapt to theirenvironment. the 1936 Democratic Convention For example, millennials' perceived COUNTS AS entitlement isn't a result of overprotec­ 'YOUTH TODAY tion but an adaptation to a world of abun­ MILLENNIAL HAS LITTLE CYNICISM, dance. "For almost all of human history, BECAUSE IT NEVER almosteveryone was a small-scale farmer. And then people were farmers andfactory BEHAVIOR IS HOW HOPED FOR MUCH.' workers. Nobody gets very much fulfill­ ment from either of those things," says RICH KIDS HAVE TIME, Nov. 5, 1951 , a psychology professor at Clark University, who invented the phrase ALWAYS BEH AVED ·JnH A l 1u ll emerging adulthood, which people foolishly IECOGNIZfD AS INDIV IDUALS, use insteadofthe catchy twixters. T'wixters IUT INDIVIDUALS PUY putofflife choices because they canchoose ASMALLER AND SMALLER ROLE from a huge array of options, some best option I knew about for people who IN O II t ofwhich, like jobs in , didn't sucked atmathinmy middle-class suburb, Senator Robert Kennedy, exist ro years ago. Whatidiot would try to but I saw a lot more options once I got to on , In TIME, July 7, 1967 work her way up ata company when she's Stanford. "Previously ifyou wanted to be going to have an average ofseven jobs be­ a writer but didn't know anyone who is in 'OUR GENERATION HAS fore age 26? Because ofonline dating, Face­ publishing, it was just, Well, I won't write. HAD NO GREAT WA°R , NO GREAT book circles andtheability to connect with But now it's, Wait, I know someone who DEPRESSION . OUR WAR people internationally, they no longer have knows someone," says Jane Buckingham, IS SPIRITUAL. OUR DEPRESSION to marry someone from their high school who studies workplace changes as founder IS OUR LIVES.' class oreven their home country. Because of Trendera, a consumer-insights firm. "I life expectancy is increasing so rapidly and hear story after story of people high up in From Fight Club by Chuck Pa/ahnluk, publlshed In 1996 technology allows women to get pregnant an organization saying, 'Well, this person in their 40s, they're more free to postpone just e-mailed me and asked me for anhour 'GOD DIDN 'T GIVE ME TH ESE big decisions. The medianage for anAmer­ ofmy time, and for whatever reason I gave TALENTS TO JU ST SIT AROUND BE ING ican woman's first marriage went from ittothem.'So the great thingis that they do 20.6 in1967 to 26.9 in 2011. AMODEL OR BEING FAMO US. feel entitled to all of this, so they'll be more And while all that choice might end in innovative and more willing to try new I WANT TO LEA DA HUGE CHAR ITY disappointment, it's a lottery worth play­ things and they'll do all this cool stuff." ORGANIZATION . I WA NTTO ing. "I had one grandfather fight in the Because millennials don't respect au­ LEAD ACOUNTRY FOR ALL I KNOW .' Pacificandoneinthe Atlantic theater. One. thority, they also don't resent it. That's Alexis Nelers, member of·the Bllng Ring· became a pilot; one became a doctor. When why they're the first teens who aren't GETTY IMAGES (1) 31 SOCIETY I MILLENNIALS

rebelling. They're not even sullen. "I grew terrible vacation slide shows. "Can you up watchingPeanuts, where you didn't even imagineifthe boomers had YouTube, how see the parents. They were that 'Wah-wah' narcissistic they would've seemed?" asks voice. And MTV was always a -free Scott Hess, senior vice president of human zone," says MTV president Stephen Fried­ intelligence for SparkSMG, whose TedX man, 43, who now includes parents speech, "Millennials: Who They Are and in nearly all the channel's reality Why We Hate Them," advised companies shows. "One ofourresearch studies onmarketing to youth. "Can you imagine earlyonsaidthata lot of thisaudi­ how many frickin' Instagrams ofpeople ence outsources theirsuperego to playingin the mud during Woodstock we their parents. The most simple de­ would've seen? I thinkinmany ways you're cisionofshould I do thisorshould blaming millennials for the technology I do that-our audience will check that happens to exist right now." Yes, they in with their parents." A 2012 Google checktheir phones during class, but think Chiome ad shows a college video­ about how long you can standinline with­ chatting all the details of herlife to herdad. out looking at your phone. Now imagine "I amvery used to seeingthings where the ,.., being used to that technology your whole cliche is the parent doesn't understand. !I; life and having to sit through algebra. Mostofmyfriends, their parents are onso- :; Companies are starting to adjust not -< cial and they're following themor sharing :; just to millennia ls' habits but also to their stuff with them," says Jessica Brillhart, a ~ atmospheric expectations. Nearly a quar­ filmmaker at Google's Creative Lab, who ; ter of DreamWorks' 2,200 employees are workedonthe commercial. It's hardtohate ::::: under 30, and the studio has a 96% reten­ your parents when they also listen to rap ... tion rate. Dan Satterthwaite, who runs and watch Jon Stewart. the studio's human-relations department In fact, many parents of millennials , andhas been inthefield for about 23 years, would proudly call their child-rearing r::: says Maslow's hierarchy of needs makes style peer-enting. "I negotiate daily with l, it clear that a company can't just provide myson who is 13. Maybe all thatcoddling ~ money anymore but also has to deliver has paid off in these parent-child relation­ self-actualization. During work hours ships," says Jon Murray, who created The at DreamWorks, you can take classes in Real World and other reality shows, in- , photography, sculpting, painting, cinema­ eluding Keeping Up With the Kardashians. .,_. tography and karate. Whenone employee I He says that seeing regular people cele- ~ explained that jujitsu is totally different bratedonTV gives millennials confidence: , from karate, Satterthwaite was shocked at "They're going after whatthey want. Itcan ° his boldness, thenadded a jujitsu class. be a little irritating thattheywantto be on Millennials are able to use their lever­ the nextrungsoquickly. Maybe I'm partly age to negotiate much better contracts responsible for it. I like this generation, so with the traditional institutions they I have no issueswiththat." do still join. Although the armed forces Kim Kardashian, who represents to had to lower the physical standards for nonmillennials all thatis wrong with her recruits and make boot camp less inten­ generation, readily admits thatshe has no sive, Gary Stiteler, who has beenanArmy particular talent. But she also knows why recruiter for about 15 years, is otherwise she appeals to her peers. "They like that I more impressed with millennials than share a lot ofmyself and tliat I've always any other group he's .worked with. "The been honest about the way I live my life," generation that we enlisted when I first she says. "They want relationships with started recruiting was sort of do, do, do. businesses and celebrities. Gen X was This generation is think, thinkaboutitbe­ kept at arm's length from businesses and fore you do it," he says. "This generation is celebrity." When you're no longer cowed three to four steps ahead. They're coming by power, you are going to like what a insaying, 'I want to do this, thenwhenI'm friend tells you about far more than what done withthis, I wantto do this.'" anad campaign does, even ifthatfriend is ATHE PHOTOGRAPHER Here's somethin g even all the psy­ a celebrity trying to makemoney and that 01/vla Bee, 19, lives in chologists who fret over their narcissism friendship is just a reply to one tweet. Brooklyn and uses /nstagram to studies agree about: millennials are nice. While every millennial might seem document her dally fife. She They have none ofthat David Letterman like an oversharing Kardashian, posting says she makes extensive use irony and Gen X ennui. "The positivism vacation photos on Facebook is actually of other social-media platforms has surprised me. The Internet was always less obnoxious than couples' trap­ for networking purposes 50-50 positive and negative. And now it's ping friends in their houses to watch their 90-10," says Shane Smith, the 43-year-old 32 - TIME May 20, 2013 SOCIETY I MILLENNIAL&

CEO of Vice, which adjusted from being chance than previous rebellions. They want a Gen X company in print to a millennial constant approval-they post photos from company once it started posting videos on­ the dressing room as they try on clothes. line, which are viewed by a much younger They have massive fear of missing out and audience. Millennials are more accepting have an acronym for everything (includ­ of differences, not just among gays, wom­ ing FOMO). They're celebrity obsessed but en and minorities butin everyone. "There don't respectfully idolize celebrities from a are many, many , and you can distance. (Thus Us magazine's "They're just dip into them and search around. I prefer like us!" which consists of paparazzi shots that to you're either supermainstream or of famous people doing everyday things.) a riot grrrl," says , a 17-year­ They're not into going to church, even old who runs Rookie, an online fashion though they believe in God, because magazine, from her bedroom when she's they don't identify withbiginstitu­ not at school. It's hard, in other words, tions; one-third of adults under 30, to join the when there's the highest percentage ever,are re­ no culture. "There's not this us-vs.-them ligiously unaffiliated. They want thing now. Maybe that's why millennials new experiences, which are more don't rebel," she says. important to them than material There may even be the beginning of goods. They are cool and reserved and a reaction against all the constant self­ not all that passionate. They are informed promotion. Evan Spiegel, 22, co-founder of but inactive: they hate Joseph Kony but Snapchat, an app that allows people to send aren't going to do anything about Joseph photos, video and text that are permanent­ Kony. They are probusiness. They're finan­ ly erased after 10 seconds or less, argues cially responsible; although student loans that it's become too exhausting for millen­ a, have hit record highs, they have less house­ nials to front a perfect life on social media. ~ hold and credit-card debt than any previous "We're trying to create a place where you g generation on record-which, admittedly, can be in sweatpants, sitting eating cereal ~ isn't that hard when you're living athome on a Friday night, and that's O.K.," he says. ~ and using your parents' credit card. They But if you need the ultimate proof S love their phones but hate talking on them. that millennials could be a great force for ~ro They are not only the biggest genera- positive ·change, know this: Tom Brokaw, ~ tion we've ever known but maybe the last champion of the Greatest Generation, fil large birth grouping that will be easy to loves millennials. He calls them the Wary ~ generalize about. There are already micro- Generation, and he thinks their cautious­ generations within the millennial group, ness inlife decisions is a smart response to ! launching as often as new iPhones, de­ their world. "Their great mantra hasbeen: pending on whether you learned to type Challenge convention. Find new and bet­ before Facebook, Twitter, iPads or Snap­ ter ways of doing things. And so thatethos chat. Those rising microgenerations are transcends the wonky people who are in­ all horrifying the ones right above them, venting new apps and embraces the whole i who are their . And the group af­ economy,"he says. The generation that ex­ o ter millennials is likely to be even more perienced Monica Lewinsky's dress, 9/n, S empowered. They're already so comfort­ the longest wars in U.S. history, the Great Q, ableinfront ofthe camera thatthe average Recession and an Arab Spring that looks ~ American 1-year-old has more images of atbest like a late winter is nevertheless op­ himselfthan a 17th century French king. timistic about its own personal chances So, yes, we have all that data about nar­ of success. Sure, that might be delusional, cissism and laziness and entitlement. But but it's got to lead to better results than a generation's greatness isn't determined wearing flannel, complaining and mak­ by data; it's determined by how they re­ ing indie movies about it. act to the challenges that befall them. And, just as important, by how we react SO HERE'S A MORE ROUNDED PICTURE OF to them. Whether you think millennials millennials than the one I started with. ATHEENTREPRENEUR arethenew greatest generation ofoptimis­ All of which I also have data for. They're A self-described Inspirational tic entrepreneurs or a group of80 million earnest and optimistic. They embrace the speaker from Dubai, Va// people about to implode in a dwarf star of system. They are pragmatic idealists, tin­ Shekhanzal, 25, founded Dubai tears when their expectations are unmet kerers more than dreamers, life hackers. City Pass, a tour/st service depends largely on how you view change. Their world is so flat that they have no lead­ that has more than 22,000 Me, I choose to believe in the children. ers, which is why revolutions from Occupy likes on Facebook God knows they do. -WITH REPORTING Wall Street to Tahrir Square have even less BY JOSH SANBURN  34 - TIME May 20, 2013