Millennials are also, as I first learned though media reports, “digital natives,” or as Pew explains the “only generation for which new technologies aren’t something they’ve had to adapt to.” Which is really silly. Weren’t the Gen-Xers the only generation that didn’t need to adapt to microwave ovens and televisions? And weren’t the Baby Boomers the only generation that didn’t need to adapt to cars and telephones? Guess what? We’re all natives of technology.

And, like all other generations, Millennials believe they’ve got it pretty rough. They have higher levels of student loan debt, poverty, and unemployment, and lower levels of wealth and personal income than Gen Xers or Boomers at the same stage of their “life cycle.” They have a higher level of formal education — a third of older Millennials (26 to 33) have a four-year college degree. Most will get married later, yes, but their lifecycles (“lives”) will be longer. They’ll experience far healthier ones, live with less pain and fewer diseases. They’ll have more consumer choices, live in a more productive economy, travel more, see more, and know more. The dollars they do spend will bring back more in return. Just like every other generation before them. That might be why, despite their supposed skepticism, Millennials are slightly more upbeat about America’s future than GenXers, Boomers, or Silents.