We’ve all read the studies about millennials. Or perhaps you are a millennial and would like to read some good news about your generation.
Millennials are the most studied and talked about generation to date. While Baby Boomers are called the “Me Generation,” Millennials are called the “Me Me Me Generation.”
We’ve heard that millennials are lazy, entitled, self-obsessed and narcissistic. We’ve seen some of them not show up to work, school or appointments. We’ve watched millennials we love waste their lives staring at a computer screen or their i-Phones.
And yes, they are selfish. But, then so are we. They are living their lives and making choices and learning and growing and maturing just like those of us over 30.
Millennials are our children and grandchildren, our employees and co-workers, our friends and our clients. At Care Net, millennials are also some of our volunteers, donors and ministry friends.
Millennials are some of the most passionate people we know. They care for the vulnerable and want to make a difference. They may participate in 5Ks for their favorite cause, start a fair-trade coffee shop to benefit an organization fighting human trafficking or care for patients at Care Net’s First Care Clinic to help save and change lives.
And sometimes their decisions are better than ours were.
For example, did you know that a majority of millennials are in favor of protecting vulnerable pre-born lives? 53% of individuals between 18 and 31 think that abortion should be either illegal or legal only in cases of rape, incest, or to save the life of the mother. This is in the midst of a culture where 56% of Americans overall believe that abortion should be legal in all or most cases.
In their personal lives, millennials are making healthier choices about their sexuality than their predecessors.
Millennials have had an average of eight sexual partners – which may sound like a lot — until you compare it to previous generations beginning in the 1960s. Boomers had an average of 11 sexual partners and Generation X an average of 10. Younger millennials — born in the 1990s — are more than twice as likely to be sexually inactive in their early 20s as the previous generation was.
The percentage of high school students who are currently sexually active (meaning they had sex during the past three months) dropped from 38% in 1991 to 30% in 2015.
So, at a time when we tend to think that virtually all young people are sexually active – we need to rethink that stereotype because the numbers tell a different story.
Millennials may have grown up in an era of instant gratification, surrounded by movies, music and a culture that normalizes sex as the natural conclusion of any date – but some, many in fact, are choosing a different path from what everything around them says is “normal.”
And for those millennials who are being tossed around by our culture’s ideas of sexuality, and sometimes experiencing heartache, unintended pregnancy or sexually transmitted infections, we will be there to offer care and comfort paired with medical services to help them through their difficult time.