Fascinating reality of self(ie) generation

pendent, 57 per cent say their views on social issues “have become more liberal” over the course of their lives. This is in direct opposition to older generations, who, Pew says, have about half or more of the group saying their social views “have become more conservative.”

One might argue that millennials simply haven’t lived long enough to hit the triggers that might engender more conservatism — marriage, families, mortgages — but it could just as well be that this group of young people is fundamentally different.

Part of the political issue is, again, that millennials seem to shun institutions. Only about a third of them said there was a “great deal of difference” between the Republican and Democratic Parties.

Still, Republicans have the most to worry about with this group. As according to the Pew survey puts it: “Even so, this generation stood out in the past two presidential elections as strikingly Democratic.

“According to national exit polls, the young-old partisan voting gaps in 2008 and 2012 were among the largest in the modern era, with millennials far more supportive than older generations of Barack Obama.”

Ten years ago, 24 per cent of millennials identified as Republicans, but that number has steadily dropped and now stands at a paltry 17 per cent. By contrast, the per cent identifying as Democrats over the period fell only from 30 per cent to 27 per cent.

Furthermore, the millennials were the sole generation in which a majority supported bigger government with more services as opposed to smaller government with fewer services for people.

And although most millennials, like most people in older generations, disapproved of the new health care law, millennials were the only generation in which a majority said it was the government’s responsibility to ensure universal health care coverage.

Part of this divergence results from the fact that millennials are more racially diverse than any other generation, with 43 per cent of Americans in this age group non-white.

When you look just at white millennials, a majority still support smaller government and reject the notion that it’s the government’s job to ensure universal health care.

All in all, we seem to be experiencing a wave of liberalminded detach-ees, a generation in which institutions are subordinate to the individual and social networks are digitally generated rather than interpersonally accrued. This is not only the generation of the self; it’s the generation of the selfie. -