Millennials are one of the largest generations to date. 77 million strong, they make up a quarter of the US population. With members spanning from adolescents to young adults, they will have a significant impact on the future of our country and of our planet. To meet some of the world’s biggest challenges, they will have to utilize their diversity, youth, and technological capabilities to enact change.
Unfortunately, Millennials have developed a dependence on the seemingly boundless distractions of the Internet, which is mainly consumed through their smartphones. They rely on instant text messages to communicate, causing their face-to-face conversation skills to diminish significantly. Social networks are used to compare one’s self to others, despite how few human qualities an online profile can represent. If Millennials continue to favor the virtual world over our physical one, who will address the environmental, agricultural, and sustainability issues of tomorrow? Can this crippling behavior instead be used for good?
