A generational change: The new ethos of the young and the restless

I totally get it that my students are different from me, perhaps even more than how my generation and I were different from our predecessors.  Which is why I don't care much when students have their smartphones always visible to them on their desks in the classrooms.  Or when students have their laptops open ... as long as they are able to respond to the questions I have for them, and jump in with relevant and interesting comments.  After all, I experienced this even with my daughter, who was a big time multi-tasker even a decade ago, which seems like a century ago.

Which is why the following from a NY Times report on the  Millennials (Gen Y) does not surprise me at all:

Perhaps most important, many of the behaviors that older generations interpret as laziness may actually enhance young people’s productivity, say researchers who study Generation Y.

Members of Gen Y, for example, are significantly more likely than Gen X’ers and boomers to say they are more productive working in teams than on their own, according to Don Tapscott, author of “Grown Up Digital: How the Net Generation is Changing Your World,” a book based on interviews with 11,000 millennials.

To older workers, wanting help looks like laziness; to younger workers, the gains that come from teamwork have been learned from the collaborative nature of their childhood activities, which included social networks, crowd-sourcing and even video games like World of Warcraft that “emphasize cooperative rather than individual competition,” Mr. Tapscott says.

Employers also complain about millennials checking Facebook and Twitter on the job, or working with their ear buds in.

Older workers have a strong sense of separate spheres for work and play: the cubicle is for work, and home is for fun. But to millennials, the boundaries between work and play are fuzzier, said Michael D. Hais, co-author of “Millennial Makeover: MySpace, YouTube, and the Future of American Politics.”

There is a big time blurring between work and fun that is even more than how it is in my life.  To recall the words of a really, really old dude, "the times they are a-changing." Again. And again.