Two-thirds of ''Millennials'' Are Less Likely To Join The Military

[DeSwiss]

OMG! Navy Calls MySpace Kids "Alien Life Force" (And They Hate the War, Too)

Wired Blogs
By Noah Shachtman
September 28, 2007 | 6:10:00 PM
Categories: Info War

The MySpace generation is a "somewhat alien life force," a http://www.sm.nps.navy.mil/nwc/07/Plenary%20Sessions/Mitchell%20-%20MPT&E%20presentation%20deck.ppt">Navy recruiting presentation contends -- with a language and lifestyle that's almost unrecognizable to adults. And because the kids are such "coddled," "narcissistic praise junkies," they'll be beyond tough to bring into the military. Propensity to join the armed forces among these so-called "millennials" has dropped to as little as 3%; that's down from 26% in 2001.

Entropic Memes uncovered the bleak, often unintentionally hilarious report from the http://www.sm.nps.navy.mil/nwc/07/">Annual Navy Workforce Research and Analysis Conference, which also glumly notes that the Iraq war has brutalized recruiting efforts. Up to two-thirds of millennials are "less likely to join the military" because of the war, according to the presentation.



The typical kid today "has always been online," and "has never known a world without digital phones." Because of that, he a worldwide social network; his "best friend may be Chinese," the report says. "Teens are creating new forms of social behavior that blur the distinction between online and real-world interactions -- and largely ignore the difference between the two." The dual life is "creating a whole new language." The presentation warns recruiters that they're liable to experience more than "just a generation gap" with today's kids. To older military types, the youngsters will appear to be "a somewhat alien life force."

To be able to speak to these creatures, the presentation offers some handy translations, like "suuuuuuup!!! (Translation: What’s up?)." It also invites recruiters to make sure they know about emoticons, Napoleon Dynamite, Bolt, "Brangelina’s baby," and the Black Eyed Peas. The report also notes important cultural distinctions between the youth of today and the youth of yesteryear. Kids live such busy, structured life, that they often use "planner(s) before middle school." They are also unusually tight with their "active, involved, 'helicopter' parents." These "kids grew up hearing nothing but praise, all the time, everywhere. Recent childhood has been defined by ego-stroking... can get disgruntled if not praised for simply 'showing up' at work," according to the report, which calls the millenials "a 'coddled' generation."



More: http://blog.wired.com/defense/2007/09/omg-navy-calls-.html

- I guess the recruitment of gang members and the militia men isn't panning out either. Outsourcing???

[JVS]

1. It's nice to see that the military respects its potential members so greatly

[nadinbrzezinski]

6. Sadly they have a small point

insofar as the coddled part is concerned.

The part that really scares them is... if your best friend is in China, or god forbid in Iran, demonizing that people gets a little harder

That article actually is a mine for science fiction and possibly for the creation of a world community

But as to the coddled part... I can identify... I've seen it.

And the language... I know it... since that is part of the market I work with... but with my nieces, part of that generation, I now require them to actually spell out when they write. Why? When both join the workforce, GTG will not cut it, niether will peeps...

[DeSwiss]

11. What's even more mind-numbing....

...is that they conclude the "Millenials" were born online. The same place they posted this....

[Reverend_Smitty]

2. Or maybe they don't want to enlist...

to fight a bullshit war that has no clear purpose or way out with a country that never attacked us...but it's MySpace's fault...

[DeSwiss]

12. Or to paraphrase Groucho....

"...I would never join a club that would have George W. Bush as a member."

[Tom Joad]

3. Army of NONE! These kids are not your soldiers.... check out this vid

http://tomjoad.org/notyoursoldier.htm

and this book:

[Swamp Rat]

4. The Romans outsourced

then experienced major blowback.

[nadinbrzezinski]

7. We already are outsourcing

and the blowback will be legendary

[Tom Joad]

9. Puerto Rico is saying NO. The No child left behind act mandates schools giving the pentagon info...

unless a child "opts out"
In Puerto Rico the number "opting out" is very high. kids don't get the calls from recruiters.

[nadinbrzezinski]

13. I'm not talking Puerto Rico

I'm talking kids from third world countries, such as El Salvador, Peru and even Mexico

Enlist, do a tour and get a green card. There have been pleny of stories about this over the last few years.

I find this despicable at multiple levels...

As to Puerto Rico... I've known folks in the Navy who were from Puerto Rico... I think the opt out for NCLB is starting to happen all over

[Tom Joad]

17. That's true, i know about this recruiting from other nations....

as for "opting out" WE need to make it happen. Start a campaign in your community.

[PDenton]

19. that's just like Rome- mercenary status = citizenship

And of course, Roman mercenaries destroyed the fabric of Rome when they took over and replaced Roman civilization with their barbarian ways and personal aggrandisement. The public works went to shit, their military had no loyalty, and they kept getting raped by new waves of fresh barbarians. Mercenaries broke Rome, I wonder if they will break the US? I guess the only saving grace is the US doesn't need as many fighters now days as Rome did.

[Rex]

5. 'coddled' 'narcissistic praise junkies'

You mean like your FUCKING worthless Commander & Chief? Hey Navy idiots, you missed a whole THREE generations - lost to the WWW.

Fuck you, no one wants to DIE in Iraq! Get it through your fucking heads!

FU

[Tom Joad]

8. hehe... i confess... the army also recruits online. they sometimes have a chatroom

go there and ask funny questions... like

I'm a woman... is it true 1/4 of women in the military are sexually assaulted?

or... I was thinking about signing up.. but then i heard about all the people coming back with PTSD, and they can hardly get enough treatment, what's up with that?

or ... I'm having second thoughts about signing up, seems the war just keeps on going and not getting anywhere... why should i risk my life for that?

[LiberalAndProud]

10. This is just silly.

We can't recruit them because their spoiled little brats ...

Translate for truth:

These young people are too smart to sign up for an endless stop-loss in Iraq.

My "millenials" show up to work every day with a laudable work ethic. They have NO desire to join the military because I reared them well.

[Odin2005]

14. Bwahahaha! My generation knows BS when we see it.

Poor little M-I Complex can't get us to go fight for their BS wars. :nopity: :rofl:

We are the most Democratic-leaning living generation, 'nuff said. Oh, and I wish people would use the label "Millennial" for my generation a lot more, I HATE HATE HATE the term "Generation Y", it's so lame...

[MisterP]

15. these freaks keep trying to turn those born after 1980 into the "new greatest generation"

because 9-11 happened and they need fresh meat for the grinder, er MIC

[Der Blaue Engel]

16. OMFG

Thank goodness for the "translation." Those of us over 20 would never have been able to "decode" that mysterious "alien language." :eyes:

[PDenton]

18. LOL! this is basicly true

Late stage Gen X (MTV generation) was raised sort-of like that too, not as extreme of course. And the sad thing is this coddling doesn't prepare you for the real world at all. It's a rude awakening, in fact. I think the military is going to be hard pressed to connect with young kids now days. These kids are going to grow up being the same cynical bastards that Gen X became.

Want to blame somebody, military... blame the same rightwing think tanks that lap up Ayn Rand and Libertarianism and crap out failed social policies of winners and losers, welfare queens vs. white people, and no responsibility to anybody but yourself; " me first, fuck you". Sacrifice is meaningless to them. "To much who has been given, much will be expected", suppossedly uttered by Jesus Christ 2000 years ago, has no meaning.