There was an interesting study featured on PBS tonight on how they are classifying my generation. The study was done by the Pew Research Center classifying those currently from 18-28 as “Millennials.”

What was most interesting was the latest political trends of us Millennials:

However, over the course of 2009 the Democratic Party’s advantage among Millennials in party affiliation weakened considerably from its high point in 2008. The most recent party affiliation data (from the fourth quarter of 2009) show that in terms of straight partisan identification, Democrats held a 36% to 24% lead over the GOP among Millennial voters, a significantly narrower edge than the nearly two-to-one margin (41% vs. 22%) in 2008. At the same time, the percentage of Millennials who said they lean Republican has nearly doubled, from 8% in 2008 to 15% at the end of 2009.

Some of the points in the study are quite obvious: we were raised on technology and the Internet, we sleep close to our cell phones, and we are the most open-minded when it comes to diversity.

The other big data point was the number of us in college. They say we are on track to becoming the most educated generation in American history. Part of the education push is that it takes an educated work force to survive the technology revolution. The other, more depressing aspect, was that going or staying in school is a way to escape the worsening economy. With my generation being the fast-paced, results-oriented, techno-savvy generation it is, it’s no wonder the bolstered Democratic support has waned in the last year. We don’t like waiting for our economic recoveries and we don’t have enough money to hide in school forever.

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