Over at law.com, Hofstra Law librarian Tricia Kasting has an essay for law school staff and instructors on the psychology of the new generation of law students, dubbed "The Millennials." According to Kasting, and a lot of high-paid consultants, "Millennials" are the replacement for "Generation X" and are different from the Xers:

Millennials are those with birth years 1982 to roughly 2002. They are a larger group than the Boomers, and they are the most diverse generation ever. The core personality traits are: special, sheltered, confident, conventional, team-oriented, achieving and pressured.

Special: have been told they are special all their lives.
Sheltered: kept from harm's way and have highly structured lives.
Confident: see special; they expect good news and believe in themselves.
Conventional: accept social rules.
Team-oriented: they like to work together and keep in contact with peers.
Achieving: see special, confident and team-oriented; they expect to accomplish a lot.
Pressured: much is expected from them.

They have used technology all their lives and are comfortable with it, but they also expect stimulation and dislike mundane work. Mass media has left an impression that work should be fun, be exciting and immediately pay high salaries. Their expectations of achievement and career success are often not be realistic, and without the structure provided by their parents they may be directionless. . . .

They are used to structure and like to have clear defined rules and policies. They respect authority and will generally conform to the rules. A Millennial will protest to authority about a rule they don't like but accept when the reasons are explained. . . .

Millennials are confident and achievement oriented. They expect to do well and accept the services we offer as the natural order. They are not sure how to do something, but are confident they can learn.

  So here's the question: Are these changes real?

  I tend to think not, but then I'm pretty skeptical about claims of generational change. My pet theory is that the baby boom generation really was different, and focus on the baby boomers forty years ago created a market for and interest in these sorts of generalizations even if they're not supported by particularly strong evidence. Plus, I would guess that as we get older and relate less to recent college grads, we want to come up with an explanation for that distance that puts the responsibility on them, not us. (In other words, the subtext of such narratives is that if kids today strike you as weird, it's them, not you.)

  This isn't to say that times don't change; technology can shape social experience, and those growing up with new technologies naturally have a different relationship to it. But I guess I'm pretty skeptical that "the Millennials" are much different from "Generation X," or that "Generation X" was much different from whatever you want to call the generation before that. I tend to think that for the most part, people are just people.

  Thanks to JD2B.com for the link.

  UPDATE: I should point out, for the sake of full disclosure, that I am a member of "Generation X." So if you think I'm wrong in this post, please understand that this is the best effort of a slacker with a short attention span who doesn't care about anything and is in search of himself.