April 2, 2015

How much of a Millennial are you? I'm 96%!

According to this Pew Research Center test "How Millennial Are You?"
Take our 14 item quiz and we’ll tell you how "Millennial" you are, on a scale from 0 to 100, by comparing your answers with those of respondents to a scientific nationwide survey.
I got there via this WaPo column titled "Your generational identity is a lie," by Philip Bump:
We obsess over our generations the way we obsess over our horoscopes, recognizing that it's a dumb approximation of who we are but mining every description for the details that we think are correct....

In its work, the Pew Research Center uses generational boundaries like "Millennial" (which it defines as those born between 1981 and 2000, a somewhat early end point compared to others). "They are somewhat arbitrary," said Kim Parker, director of social trends research at Pew, of the generational descriptors. But generations as a concept can be "a worthwhile tool for storytelling, taking a lot of data and trying to put it into an interesting prism that speaks to people."
Yeah, that does sound like a horoscope.

53 comments:

Hammond X. Gritzkofe said...

We obsess over our generations the way we obsess over our horoscopes...

The journalistic "we."

But yet a true statement. I don't read horoscopes. Generation X, Generation Y, Millenial - just labels I have heard.

HoodlumDoodlum said...

96%? I only pulled a 91! The Professor must taken it on the tattoos and peircing questions, I guess.

robother said...

96% Millennial! (I scored 6.) Now I know why Ann's image is taken at such a strange angle: to conceal the tattoos and facial piercings.

traditionalguy said...

76%. Millennial. I suspect that is because I don't play video games in a tattooed and pierced body.

Hammond X. Gritzkofe said...

Quiz fail:

In general, would you describe your political views as…Conservative / Moderate / Liberal?

Libertarian: fiscally conservative, socially liberal.


Meade said...

26% Millenial. But I can get it up to 100% if I get a tattoo, pierce something other than my ear lobes, stop watching TV, play video games on a daily basis, join Facebook, stop contacting any government officials, and time travel to the past and find a way to get my parents to break up before I turn 18.

Danno said...

A result of 46% for me.

eddie willers said...

I'm my grandfather.

Meade said...

Oh, plus I would need to place more importance on being successful in a high-paying career instead of being satisfied with just being a lawn boy.

Wilbur said...

24% for Wilbur.

I'm my own grandpa.

Meade said...

also get the number of my daily text messages on up above 49.

traditionalguy said...

You can do it Meade. But then you will become a Trans-generational.

Big Mike said...

So where's your tattoo? Please tell me your piercing is not in your navel.

Meade said...

Time travel I can do but getting my parents to split up will be nearly impossible. Those two were crazy about each other.

Julie C said...

Or your tongue.

I got 28%. Now, get off my lawn!

MountainMan said...

I got a 53 and I was surprised it was that high because I am 64 and a Boomer. I think my results are biased because I have a highly technical job in IT, so I have an iPhone, iPad, MacBook, PC, etc., and I text with a lot of othe people (but mostly my kids, who are 37, 34, and 32) and also use Facebook and LikedIn a lot. Other than that I really don't think I have a lot in common with Millenials and I should know, I work with a lot of them.

Meade said...

Sorry to disappoint you, Big Mike, but my piercing WILL be in my navel. Where else?

Jim said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Big Mike said...

@Meade You. Don't. Want. To. Know.

Amadeus 48 said...

I want to know about Ms 96%. Where is her tatoo? What does it say? OMG what has she pierced?!!!

Fernandinande said...

Is 5.0 good or bad?

We obsess over our generations the way we obsess over our horoscopes...

IOW, not at all.

Ann Althouse said...

I don't know how I scored so high. No tattoos. Only earlobes pierced. And my parents were always married.

Anonymous said...

At least some of the questions seem to have been coded backwards. I clicked on the which-groups-agree-with-you links and they said Millennials were most likely to grow up with married parents, and everyone in the Silent Generation is pierced.

Sean Gleeson said...

I got an 88, but I think the survey suffers from coding errors. When I drilled down to the per-question results, their "People who answered the same as you" charts made no sense at all.

Just for instance, I checked "married" for my parents' status, and their graph showed that a mere 11% of the old "silent" generation also had married parents. Obviously wrong.

Anyway, I always do poorly on these sorts of quiz. I get frustrated by assumptions or ambiguities built into the questions. (E.g., Does watching a show on Amazon Prime count as "television programming"? Are there actually "people of different races"?)

I do have a tattoo, though.

Balfegor said...

I am actually a Millenial (1982), but I still only got 49. Which doesn't particularly surprise me. Harrumph.

Tank said...

Not much. Let's face it, millennialis have screwed up this world !

Bruce Hayden said...

Boomer (year older than Ann) and got a 68. Whoops - changed my politics to moderate, and got it up to 71. After all, it is all relative, and in my view, I am middle of the road. Piercings are good for 9%, as are tattoos. The big one though appears to have been wanting a high powered career - wanting it badly enough is worth 20 points. And, I am too near retirement for that.

William said...

I scored 18. That's pretty high for a guy who thinks that every invention since the tv remote control has been an instrument of oppression.

Known Unknown said...

Libertarian: fiscally conservative, socially liberal.


I chose moderate to cover 'both sides', but yeah, that's too limiting a question.

I got a 76. No tattoos, or piercings. Didn't play video game in the past 24 hours, but I do play them somewhat regularly.

dbp said...

51. I was born at the very end of the baby boom and am a Millennial, though a couple of points fewer and I would have made Gen X.

I am doubting the value of this survey.

The Godfather said...

I am a pre-baby-boomer. I didn't know we were the "silent" generation. My first presidential vote (you had to be a grown-up to vote in those days) was for Goldwater. Silent Majority, maybe, silent generation, Hell no!

It is my fervent prayer that piercings and tattoos will become anathema to the young people soon -- my eldest granddaughter is 11.

Dr.D said...

I got an 11, and I figure that is just about right. I have little or nothing in common with the Millies, so I expected as much.

tim in vermont said...

If "watching TV" means non internet delivery of content with actual commercials, I guess I should change my answer, because I rarely do that.

I don't even watch HBO anymore, though I have HBO, Cinemax, Stars, everything but Showtime, I just don't watch them. Wife won't get rid of them, but she doesn't watch them either.

Tyrone Slothrop said...

I scored 64% non-Millennial, thank you very much. I went back through the questions after I finished and modified the one about the importance of a high-paying job. I changed it from "very important but not the most" to "somewhat important" and it dropped my score from 48 to 36. Am I to understand from this that having a high-paying job is more important to Millennials than to boomers? Really?

Michael K said...

I got a blank screen so I guess I'm a zero. That was;t so hard !

southcentralpa said...

Mid 40s,and I scored in the single digits ... I am SO looking forward to being an old fogey!

Clyde said...

18%. It says I'm a Baby Boomer, and it's right.

heyboom said...

31

Fernandinande said...

dbp said...
I am doubting the value of this survey.


It's a better parlor game then "pick a number between 0 and 100".

42.

Mary Beth said...

Is there a link that works for the WaPo article? It's not coming up in a search for that title.

Mary Beth said...

Nvm, found it. - http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2015/04/01/your-generational-identity-is-a-lie/

I found it by searching for part of the quoted paragraph. That took me to another blog. This blog ranked highest in that search. The WaPo article didn't even make the first page. (I didn't look past that so I don't know if it came up at all.)

AllenS said...

I registered a 9.

Truthavenger said...

I scored a 1.

Just 1.

Wish I knew which answer I screwed up that prevented a perfect zero.

paminwi said...

Hey Truthavenger I beat you by 1!

Deirdre Mundy said...

I got 25-- between a baby boomer and a gen Xer. I was born in 1977.

Freeman Hunt said...

I got 72, an excellent estimation of my age. Still in Gen-X, but right on the border.

Bruce Hayden said...

Am I to understand from this that having a high-paying job is more important to Millennials than to boomers? Really?

For one thing, many of us boomers are nearing retirement. Old enough for Social Security, and eligible for Medicare shortly. 20-30-40 years ago, a high paying job and career were very important to a lot of baby boomers. But, realistically, we aren't going to go much further in our careers - for those who haven't retired yet (my freshman year roommate and fraternity brother retired 6-8 years ago).

Bruce Hayden said...

Let me add though that the Millennials really are more ambitious than Gen-Y and Gen-X. Well, a lot of them are, though some have already dropped out. I was a ski bum after college for a couple years, before starting grad school. My kid wouldn't think of it, despite having the perfect setup (free condo near a number of ski resorts). Instead, they went straight from undergrad to getting exposure to their lab that summer, so that they could hit the ground running in their PhD program the next fall. Was one class short of their master's degree after 3 semesters, and will get it this spring. Most of the kids they know who didn't go straight to grad school did so to have a better chance in Med school.

As I said above, I was a ski bum for a couple years after college. Might not have gone straight through if we had not had Vietnam hanging over our heads. My next brother did the same. I knew a lot of guys who took a couple years to find themselves after college. That doesn't seem nearly as common these days.

The Millenials seem a lot more driven than Gen-X and Gen-Y. Part of it, I suspect, is that they see how bad they have it, as compared to earlier generations, and know that they will have to work hard to do well. And, many are willing to do so. Think of it - they will pay in for social security and Medicare for much of their working lives, but are unlikely to get their money back. And, they are the primary contributors towards ObamaCare cross-subsidization. The Boomers who aren't yet on Medicare are being supported by Millenials who can't afford to buy their own houses or even get married. But, whenever I start to feel sorry for them, I remember that they were instrumental in getting Obama elected and reelected.

Mr. D said...

26. Tail end Boomer, but my siblings are all Gen X. Can't shake my newspaper habit.

SGT Ted said...

I'm a genXer according to the poll.

SGT Ted said...

36% was the score.

richardsson said...

I scored 19. I'm not surprised. None of this generation stuff. I'm a baby boomer by birth but I dropped out of that identify in 1969. Being "In with the In Crowd" has never been my desire.

Michelle Dulak Thomson said...

38%. I gather I scored so high because I said interracial marriage was a good thing. Otherwise ...