Reflecting on the millennial experience ...

FRIENDSHIP IN THE AGE OF LONELINESS by Adam Smiley Poswolsky is described as “An Optimist's Guide to Connection” and it seemed appropriate to consider given the upcoming return to school and many attempts to strengthen connections and community. Poswolsky, a motivational speaker on the millennial workplace, shares insights about friendship rituals, developing intergenerational friends, and basically just reaching out. In fact, the various sections of his text summarize his main points: be more playful; be a better friend (less judgmental and more accepting); invest in friendship (e.g., go deep rather than wide); stay in touch; embrace ritual; and be a minister for loneliness in your community. All of this seems particularly poignant given concerns about teens and smartphones such as those described in this Guardian article (and mentioned in previous posts). Poswolsky provides links to book discussion questions, to a ritual library (filled with ideas for meet-ups and contacts), and to a complete resources guide; I wonder if he will consider adding some teen specific ideas in the future? As writers like Lisa Damour or those at New Harbinger point out, teens are in a unique place and will need our support more than ever. If you have other sources to suggest, please do.  

A related text, CAN'T EVEN: HOW MILLENNIALS BECAME THE BURNOUT GENERATION by Anne Helen Petersen, was published late last year and received starred reviews from Booklist and Kirkus. Petersen profiles millennials (aged roughly 24 to 39), but focuses more on their economic issues – expressing grave concerns about work life balance, wages, and achieving the American Dream. She argues that the burnout is “about a work ethic and anxiety and exhaustion particular to the world I grew up in” (pressures for applying to college, getting a job, living through the Great Recession, etc.). Then referring to the pandemic’s impact, she “invites readers to think of every argument, every anecdote, every call for change, as amplified and emboldened.” Sections of the text deal with finances like student debt or the high cost of housing and childcare, a myriad of work issues, and parenting concerns. The tone is upbeat and action-oriented as Petersen advocates for finding that “irrefutable pivot point…, a different way of thinking about work, and personal value, and profit incentives.”