How Millennials Are Changing the World

The Battle of the Generations has gone on since the beginning of time. Doubtless, Adam and Eve looked at Cain and Abel with jaundiced eyes when they pierced one another’s nipples with sharp rocks. (Don’t look in the Bible for that one. It’s only implied.) Baby Boomers who are known as scolds to millions of Gen Xers and Millennials were told to “get a haircut” so often you would have thought The Greatest Generation owned stock in barber chairs. Now, the Millennials have offspring. That starts the clock on another round of eye-rolls and “smh” from the newest crop of people. Give it about a dozen years, Ms. Your day is coming. So, before that happens and the Millennials’ children steal their souls, Gildshire takes an objective look at the ways Millennials are changing the world.

They Don’t Eat Cereal in the Morning.

Sales of cold breakfast cereal are way down, and cereal companies are considering going back to prizes in the box. According to research done by the New York Times, Millennials find cereal “inconvenient.” The reason? Because it means doing dishes after. The breakfast bar or piece of avocado toast, sans plate, is the breakfast of this generation.

“Meh” to the Traditional Wedding Timeline

In 1985, seventy-five percent of people between the ages of 25 and 34 were married. That was the heart of the Baby Boomer Generation. Today, marriage is being delayed or skipped altogether.

And if They Do Marry…

Diamond sales are way off! Blame student loans, or high housing costs but Millennial marriages are sealed with a ring of some kind, but the ring is not always a diamond. Less expensive stones or rings carrying the two birthstones are ever more popular.

Millennials are changing the world, and diamond sales are tanking.

Let’s Go to a Movie…Or Not

Wow, the movie theater has stepped up its game, and all at once! For decades Dolby Sound was the only improvement since 1967. Now, you can order food from your seat and have a cocktail delivered at the time you specify. You can thank the Millennials for those recliners and other new amenities at the local Movieplex because they are staying home in droves. Advancements in home entertainment and 84 inch TV screens have made streaming a movie the entertainment alternative it never was for previous generations.

Car Ownership (and even driving at all) is Optional.

Older Baby Boomers can count on their fingers the years that a car payment wasn’t part of the deal. You turned 16 years old, got your license, and bought a car as soon as you could cobble together a down payment. The best-looking gals wouldn’t give you a second look unless you had a job and a car, and the job was the less important of the two. Millennials have learned the fine art of Uber to the point that even a driver’s license is optional, and a car payment even more so. Why buy a car and saddle yourself with a $200 a month car payment, when you can spend $100 a month on Lyft and never see a car insurance or repair bill?

Gym Memberships are Passe’

The Peloton ads you have seen on TV are the stay-in-shape wave of the future. Climb aboard the bike and let a trainer from thousands of miles away horsewhip you into shedding those pounds. A monthly subscription to the service means you never have to leave the house to keep those pounds at bay.

The Stock Market Betrayed Mom and Dad

A stock portfolio was a badge of honor for young Baby Boomers. Only 13% of Millennials consider investing in the market. They prefer gold and real estate. They saw first-hand what happened in 2007, and they don’t trust that it isn’t about to happen again.

Will the generations ever get along? Probably not, and the Millennials must fend off charges that they are “all about themselves.” Were any of the other generations not like that? Again, probably not. The facts are, though, that the Millennials will be in charge for the foreseeable future. Toward that end Millennials are changing the world in ways both great and small.