Man Argues That Millennials Are The Most Significant Generation Since Those Born During The Industrial Revolution
“You are a part of making and shaping this moment.”
Austin Distel | Unsplash While every generation has its own special contributions to and experiences in society, an actor and writer named Andy took to social media to share his argument as to why millennials are the most significant generation since those born during the Industrial Revolution in the 18th century.
He mentioned Daniel Quinn’s book "Ishmael," which provided the basis for much of his thought process. In the book, three different events or eras in human history are mentioned as being so revolutionary that they quite literally changed everything, and few generations have a clear understanding of life before and after these moments.
That's why one man argued that millennials are the most significant generation since the Industrial Revolution.
As Andy explained, life was completely different before and after the growth and innovation of the Industrial Revolution. It’s something we study in our history books but can really only imagine since it happened such a long time ago.
Andy argued that there was another significant event in human history comparable to the Industrial Revolution that many alive today have been through: the Information Revolution.
The first major event to change the world was the advent of agriculture
First up is the advent of agriculture, when "the way of life for humans fundamentally changes,” he explained. “We go from a hunter-gatherer society to the beginning of what we understand as civilization. And then from there for about 12,000 years broadly speaking, life kind of becomes the same again. This massive change happens and then things just kind of plateau again.”
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The second major event that changed the world was the Industrial Revolution
While things largely stayed the same for thousands of years, Andy argued that this all changed when the Industrial Revolution occurred.
“And then, within a single person’s lifetime, a single generation, the entire fabric of humanity is changed again,” he said. “The Industrial Revolution happens and the technology that comes out of it fundamentally changes the course of human history.”
He went on to explain just how significant the Industrial Revolution was for those who lived through it.
“If you were born a couple generations before this, your life would have been pretty much the same as hundreds of generations before you,” he stated. “And if you were born just a couple of generations after the Industrial Revolution, your life would be pretty similar to the several generations after you. But if you were born in the Industrial Revolution, you saw a literal shift in the collective human experience.”
The third and final historical event that changed the world was the Information Revolution
Andy explained that the final event that quite literally changed everything came with technological innovations.
“The invention and the proliferation of the internet is the third moment in human history where it can clearly mark a before and after,” he said. “And the internet as we know it really only started to take off in the late '90s. So if you’re born in the '80s or early '90s, meaning if you’re a millennial, you have the distinct experience of living life before, during and after this pivotal moment in human history.”
MART PRODUCTION | Pexels
“Just like the people who grew up during the Industrial Revolution or the Agricultural Revolution, if you grew up during the Information Revolution, your life spans across these two distinct eras of human existence, and surely that must mean something, right?” he continued. “I don’t know if that makes millennials more optimistic and hopeful, or just constantly existentially lost.”
Millennials are the "first digital generation."
Millennials were born between the years 1981 and 1996. As Andy pointed out, they saw the advent of technology for personal use as we know it today. Encyclopedia Britannica called them the “first digital generation.”
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Perhaps it would be incorrect to say millennials are “more special” than other generations. Each certainly has its own unique attributes that make it stand out. However, millennials lived through a life-changing time that no one else can really understand the way they did. That’s something that shouldn’t be overlooked.
Mary-Faith Martinez is a writer with a bachelor’s degree in English and Journalism who covers news, psychology, lifestyle, and human interest topics.