In a diary I wrote this week, I got into a pretty heated argument with someone about the term Millennial. I was using it to refer to young voters - essentially the generation that comes after Generation X. My interlocutor thought it referred to a Christian sect intent on ushering in the apocalypse, and suggested that I change my nomenclature ASAP or risk confusing progressive allies.
There's a lot of controversy over the naming of my generation.
I tend to call myself a Millennial (born 1978), and I would ascribe certain general characteristics to that generation - based in large part on the research of Strauss and Howe and the New Politics Institute. I also base this on recent trends in political participation and my own work in engaging young voters in progressive politics. I tend to think we are team players, more civic minded and engaged than our recent predecessors, and that we are an entrepreneurial group that is in many ways participating in a revival of social capital on and off line.
I'm curious to know what my fellow kossacks think of this. If you are between the ages of 18 and 30 (or younger), how would you label yourself? If you are older, under what name do you label the next generation? Why do you think that? What politics and habits do you ascribe to this generation? I'm hoping to get a pretty clear picture about how the community views young voters.
Hope you'll participate, and seeing as this is somewhat of a "meta" category, please considering giving a recommend so we can get the opinions of as wide a swath of the community as possible.