The Emergence of the Millennial: Intergenerational Differences in Contemporary Workplace Numeracy

Young people have grown up in very different times from other generations. Their worlds have been highly technologised with concomitant changes in how to process information. Literacy educators have recognized the impact of technology on both processing and construction of texts. Drawing on 19 case studies of workplaces, where workshadowing was undertaken using stimulated recall methods, this paper explores the ways in which young adults undertake numeracy practices in contemporary workplaces and notes that they possess novel ways of working, often seen as antithetical by senior members of the community. Rather than portray young people as innumerate, this paper suggests that they are differently numerate. Social commentators in Australia (Mackay, 1997) and the United States (Howe & Strauss, 2000) have commented on generational differences in post-world-war-two generations. Baby boomers and Generation X have received considerable attention but a new generation is now recognized as being different from that of Generation X. This new generation, known by names as such Generation Y, Generation Why or Millennials, are different from their predecessors due to their different socia