Movies and the Millennials

I've been lucky enough to have a few slow days during the Thanksgiving holiday to settle in and watch some movies with my wife. We watched movies that we grew up watching:  Rocky, Star Wars, Back to the Future and others.  It was a much needed change of pace.

I'm also currently reading a book about myself. Well, its a study about people my age. Those of us born from 1980-2000 (these dates seem to change with every new study) are called the Millennials (also Gen-Y or the iGeneration) Thom Rainer joins his Millennial son Jess to write The Millennials: Connecting to America's Largest Generation and it has been quite good.

The study points out that people my age seek jobs that both pay well enough and provide the flexibility that allows an employee to enjoy the strong family and friendly ties they have developed over the years. Millennials have grown close to the parents and their friends and they don't want anything to come between those bonds.

One of the findings that the Rainer's pointed out was that this current generation has a tremendous respect for and seeks relationships with previous generations (read: folks older than us). After looking at my own life and conversing with my wife we both agreed with this conclusion.

But why?

Some of the reasons the authors gave had to do with the increased life-expectancy. Millennials were provided more time with there grandparents than earlier generations so they had time to form bonds and opinions of their elders. They also guessed that the strong bond between parents and children naturally led to respect for elders. But I was not satisfied.

And as I was watching movies with my wife I noticed something.

The movies I grew up watching usually centered around someone young gleaning wisdom and guidance from someone older. I suppose you could call it mentorship before mentorship became a popular term.

Look at the movies I mentioned above.

Rocky had Mickey. Luke Skywalker had Obi-Won and Yoda. Marty McFly had Doc Brown.

Now I am not saying that movies are THE reason for the trend. But I can see how they made an impact on my life and persuaded my thoughts toward respecting elders and seeking their wisdom.