The Minnillieum Generation - How will they carry on the responsible development of our Built Environment?

Last week Market Watch, a online service of the Wallstreet Journal published another article in their "10 most" series. This time my local newsrag carried this installment so I wandered over the the WSJ site to see what others were saying about the article entitled, "10 things millennials won’t tell you". Believe you me, there was plenty being said, from both the Baby Boomer perspective as well as from others of the article's targeted audience.

Click to See Full Infographic for Millennial Leaders

While I belong to the praised and maligned Baby Boomer generation, I am also curious about what kind of legacy our successors the Millennials or Generation Y as they are often referred to,  are likely to leave behind. Being described as self-absorbed and ambitious. Their job skills and office etiquette being called into questions and even their ability to communicate outside the realms of Twitter and Facebook have given them a certain stigma which many of those in my generation who hold the strings of corporate governance, find difficult to deal with. Yet for all this generalization in the article there are always the exception to the generalizations and those exceptions shine all the brighter for the contrast of their more generalized partners.

What I'm wondering about is how will those who are coming up continue the legacy of understanding we must take a more pragmatic and responsible position on the environment which sustains us. Winnow through the morass of hype, misinformation and bias foisted on us daily by the media. A cacophony of voices from every stripe and type straining to have their voice heard. Our connected world provides the platform for these voices in a way never before possible. Our children grew up with the beginnings of this Information Revolution and are far more comfortable in it than even those of us who helped bring it about. How will this web of strings and connections effect them and their ability to deal with problems of higher complexity than we or our parents ever thought of to begin with?

 The info graphic above is taken from a recent survey done by Telefonica about the perceptions of Millennial's about themselves and the confidence they have in their generation to meet the challenges they see.  With much in the balance and critical decisions to be made, I wonder how this next generation will respond to the demands placed on them?

This reflection is a continuing conversation of the related connections of thoughts and how they link together and form a web of networked strings reflecting the complexity of our current society and its' relationship to the Built Environment.