the watch of time

A survey of millennials released this week has revealed that more than one-half of them would prefer the earth to be hit by a meteor than have the Republican candidate become U.S. President, and about one-third of them feel the same regarding the Democratic candidate.

There is a surrealistically dire implication in these choices – with the human side of the equation, our world deeply impacted, whether the choice is metaphorical or not.

The extreme nature of the options clearly makes the seriousness of the posits questionable, which may have influenced how much millennials considered their responses. That said, this is clearly a message about choosing between perceived disasters.

There are other, not necessarily as dramatic, results emerging from surveys of various generational groups:

• Almost three-fourths of children under six would like to like to understand the relevance of fractions
• Fully one-half of pre-teens believe that ‘turn of the century’ refers to the name of a short-lived rock band
• 28% of teenagers are researching environmentally sensitive methods of growing money on trees
• Nearly 40% of Centennials believe manual dexterity in using cell phones should be sufficient to replace the driver’s license road test
• More than one-third of Millennials agree that grandparents should be required to maintain diaper changing and putting-to-bed skills
• Just over 50% of Gen Xers believe that keeping a car more than four years is a sign of anthropomorphizing
• At least 58% of Baby Boomers secretly hope there is leftover Halloween candy
• More than two in five Traditionals wish they had grown up next to Pleasantville
• 12% of teenagers + 23% of Centennials + 26% of Millennials + 32% of Baby Boomers + 17% of Traditionals agree that the half-lives of other generations are second fiddle