Millennials adapted faster to résumé-driven personhood than older generations.

Evidence

Scientific studies have debunked the idea that millennials are more narcissistic than Gen Xers or boomers, but the frequency of the accusation revealed how deeply this narrative was etched into millennial lore. This was an unfair aspersion: In an age where personhood was reduced to résumés or bank balances, millennials simply adapted to the demands of the era faster than their elders. — W. David Marx, Blank Space, 335

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the omnivore monoculture thesis — millennials’ supposed narcissism is really just adaptation to a status economy where credentials signal worth. — connects to: Generational effects alter society even when individuals stay the same — Robert D. Putnam, Bowling Alone The Collapse and Revival…, 858; Age strongly determines how displaced people cope with forced relocation — Andrew Demshuk, The Lost German East: Forced Migration…, 919
• SEED: Angle: ‘the adaptation accusation’ — how every generational moral panic is really a charge of adapting too fast to the current regime.