Today’s Millennial Pins: March 4, 2016

Good morning, it’s March 4, a Friday! Here are today’s pins.

location_pin_sphere_red Maybe you caught the most recent Republican presidential debate last night. Maybe you were lucky and didn’t, as it yet again devolved into a combination of insults and really unnecessary question topics. But Politico published a good piece about what Millennials like in Donald Trump, current front-runner in the GOP race. More on this later this morning.

location_pin_sphere_red And McClatchy has a piece about the draw of democratic socialist Bernie Sanders, who isn’t the front-runner among Democrats. It touches on a very simple and obvious point: “When we talk about democratic socialism, it’s not the Cold War socialism. There is a difference,” says Caleb-Michael Files, 24. Millennials – especially Late Millennials (1990-2000) are far enough removed from the Cold War (they were born after the Berlin Wall fell) that “socialism” doesn’t have much of a negative effect on them. Thus they’re more open to considering it as an option. Remember, Sanders does better numbers in the 17-24 cohort, of what data we have.

location_pin_sphere_red It’s time for the February jobs report. The Wall Street Journal is watching Millennial numbers, as they’re starting to improve.

location_pin_sphere_red Apparently the poor grammar of the Millennial generation is improving! A Harris Poll for Dictionary.com says 74 percent of Millennials care about the poor grammar they spot in social media. This is purely observational, but it seems to me that Millennials are spelling out words more often these days. Still, I see pretty terrible grammar from time to time. You can blame a number of actors for this (schools, parents, peers, etc.).

location_pin_sphere_red Millennials are using the internet and apps to manage retirement funds, says this AP article. Specifically they’re using robo-advisers through automated services – like Betterment, Wealthfront and Acorns – to allocate funds into investments. Ironically I did some work on my retirement funds yesterday, but opted to speak to a representative-adviser. Yet throughout the call I worried I wasn’t saying the right things. “It’s the perception that investing is inaccessible,” says Jeff Cruttenden, founder of Acorns. And with that, even trying to get into it means showing a lack of knowledge to a clearly superior group. That’s daunting, and for a generation who’s learned to get around being embarrassed (thanks, internet!), it means either staying out or disrupting. Now they’re disrupting.

location_pin_sphere_red Another Nostalgia Alert! “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon,” which is notorious for pushing Millennials’ need for nostalgia, produced a fake theme song and opening credits for the “Tonight Show” … as an early 1990s Miller-Boyett production. In truth it’s a simple combination of “Full House” and “Family Matters,” which were variations of “Perfect Strangers” and “Step By Step.” It hits all the notes but will be forgotten quickly. And it’s certainly not subversive like the classic “Too Many Cooks.”

 

Advertisement