How different are the current generations of youth in China and the United States? (China's "Me Generation" "Millennials" in the USA)

What the “Me Generation” and the “Millennials” add up to is a generation born between 1980 to 2000 that lives in a globalised world overflowing with materialism. This generation’s americans and chinese share common traits that are influenced by globalisation, but are differentiated by how their respective society shaped them.    They share one important trait: the awareness to technology. Growing up in the age whereby technology advanced as fast as they did, this generation are the first generation of digital natives. They are tech-savvy, even tech-hungry, and their affinity to technology changes their way of work, communicating, shopping and relaxing. And with technology comes the influx of information and materialistic goods, generation Y is bombarded by content and thus is time poor. This accounts for their relative short attention span. They have too much details to see, too little time to think and do. And within the influx of information hides false content, and the lack of time to think made this generation more sceptic. The rise in education degree made this generation a better independent thinker and more sceptical about politics.  While both americans and chinese of this generation are sceptical, even cynical about politics, they differ in the degree they are involved with politics. Americans are naturally more inclined towards participating in politics simply because they have the vote in their hands. And with America’s constant wars that snowballed the national debt and the great recession, the millennials are not having a good time. Thus, they are more likely to use the vote in their hands to try and intervene with politics for their interest. The chinese, however, are enjoying the economy bloom, thus they are less likely to try and interfere with the communist party gathering all the power themselves. Furthermore, they think that there is nothing they can do anyways as they have no say in politics in China. Unlike the millennials, the me generation does not have the concept of interfering with the government in how the country works. In America, everyone can be involved in politics; in China, those who are interested in doing so as joined the government.  The millennials and the me generation also differs in their economic potential. Both these generations are in their prime years and are in-charged of carrying their country’s economic pillar. However, the millennials went through the financial crisis and are burdened by the enormous national debt. While still maintaining their position as the home of where global economy is with the wall street and the dollar connecting to the price of gold, it has allowed the me generation to close in the economic gap. The me generation are less affected the the financial crisis and under Deng Xiao Ping’s economic policies of enriching a small population, this generation are opened with opportunities. As China opens itself to the world, it is a huge reservoir of opportunities waiting for someone to dig up the riches it holds. The me generation has the entire cake of China to themselves, and they made a lot out of it. As a result, China is the largest economy by purchasing power parity and second largest by nominal GDP.  The difference in economic potential has also resulted a difference in how americans and chinese spend. The millennials puts less value on the brands but instead values more on authenticity and innovation of the products they buy. The me generation, on the other hand, puts more importance on brands and are more affected by materialistic desires. As China is a rising economy, the me generation are more influenced by materialism, which is not a good thing. However, there are signs of change that the chinese are putting less importance on the price and brand and more on what is behind it.  In conclusion, the millennials and the me generation are a generation that separates the world without globalisation from the world after globalisation. They are a mix of both worlds, and are neither understood by their parents nor by their children. No matter if we understand them or not, we should still respect them. They are the generation that created a path through globalisation while being blind themselves. They created the world influenced by globalisation, and as the next generation, we will be the ones further changing the world. 7/2/2016