Guys, we have to step up our game, or we’re going to be smoked by our own parents. According to a new study from San Diego State University, baby boomers in their youth were more committed to social and environmental engagement than Gen-Xers or Millennials.
The study looked at decades of survey responses from high school seniors and college freshmen, and found that civic engagement among young people had flagged across the board. But concern about the environment showed the steepest decline. When they were around 18 years old, a third of baby boomers said it was important to get personally involved in environmental activism, compared to only a quarter of Gen-Xers and 21 percent of Millennials. And 15 percent of Millennials said they’d never done anything to help the environment, while only 5 percent of their parents had said the same.
The Associated Press spoke to a couple of college students and professors about these results, and heard several theories for the dropoff in environmental engagement: increased skepticism, narcissism, confusion, fatigue from witnessing endless over-politicized debates. But really, does it matter why? The important thing is, we CANNOT be shown up by our parents here! You know they’re going to be all smug about this, so get it together, everyone.
