There are 75.4 million millennials in the U.S., making them the country's largest living generation. Naturally, with a group that large, any generalization you try to make will be...let's just say "flawed." Even so, these preconceived notions keep getting repeated -- and widely accepted.
In this clip from Motley Fool Answers, Alison Southwick and Robert Brokamp dig into the stereotypes and see if they're supported or refuted by cold, hard facts and scholarly research. Next on the list: The idea that millennials are all flocking to vibrant urban centers after collecting their college degrees. But is that really an accurate reflection of them? Let's find out.
A full transcript follows the video.
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This podcast was recorded on July 26, 2016.
Alison Southwick: Commonly held belief about millennials No. 4: Your typical millennial is college educated and living in the city -- but also, somehow, sleeping on their parents' couch. According, however, to BLS data, most millennials didn't graduate from college, and they aren't living in the city, and generally hate being called millennial, by the way. And also, people in their 20s are far more often moving to the suburbs than to the cities. In the other direction.
Robert Brokamp: Huh!
Alison: So, why is this? Why is there this perception? Someone in one of these articles I read [wrote] that the generally held belief is that reporters who work for digital news media sites are predominantly millennials living in cities...
Robert: Yeah.
Alison: ...so they are predominantly reporting on themselves and the millennials that they see around them.
Rick: So narcissistic.
Alison: So narcissistic. Which we would expect of someone in their 20s anyway, so fine. You get a pass. The idea is that they are only reporting on what they see, and they're completely ignoring the fact that most of America lives in places like Omaha and in the suburbs, and not in L.A., D.C., and New York City.
