They were born at a time when the very culture was shifting to 1)accommodate them - 2)changing tables in restrooms, 3)BABY ON BOARD signs in minivans. Yet, as a group, they led lives that are more 4)”adult-free” than those of previous generations.
When they are not with their friends, many live in a private, adult-free world of the web and video games. Aminah Mckinnie, 16, hopes to work in the computer industry. She doesn't 5) “hang out”, she says. “I shop on the Internet and am looking for a job on the Internet. I do homework, research, e-mail and talk to my friends on the Internet.” She is not unusual. Data released last year found that 6)teens spend nine percent of their waking hours outside school with friends. They spend twenty percent of their waking hours alone. “Teens are isolated to an extent that has never been possible before,” says Stanford's Damon. “There is an 7)ethic among adults that says, 'Kids want to be 8)autonomous; don't get in their face'.”
Meanwhile, this generation is strongly peer-driven. “This is much more a team-playing generation,” says William Strauss, coauthor of the 1997 book “The Fourth Turning. “ 9)Boomers may be bowling alone, but Millennials are playing soccer in teams.” That makes belonging so crucial that it can be a matter of life and death. In Littleton, a year ago, the two teenage shooters stood apart, alienated from the 10)jock culture that infused Columbine High School. Yet in a landmark study of7,000 teens, researchers found that teen social groups are as fluid and hard to pin down as a bead of mercury. “Students often move from one group to another, and friendships change over a period of a few weeks or months.”
As a group, the generation is also infused with an optimism not seen among kids in decades. “I think a lot of adolescents now are being taught that they can make a difference,” says Sophie Mazuroski, 15. “Children of our generation want to. I am very optimistic.”
Coming of age in a time of interracial marriages, many 11)eschew the old notions of race; maturing at Internet speed, they are more connected than any generation. Both may 12)bode well for tolerance.
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