Pew is right: Gen Y leans to the left

That's a bit of a loaded question.

Sure, many of the Pew Center's findings paint a very specific picture of Generation Y, but in totality, I think most findings from their report ring true.

Let's take, for example, one of the opening sections of the report:

Generations, like people, have personalities, and Millennials — the American teens and twenty-somethings who are making the passage into adulthood at the start of a new millennium — have begun to forge theirs: confident, self-expressive, liberal, upbeat and open to change. They are more ethnically and racially diverse than older adults. They’re less religious, less likely to have served in the military, and are on track to become the most educated generation in American history. Their entry into careers and first jobs has been badly set back by the Great Recession, but they are more upbeat than their elders about their own economic futures...

There shouldn't be any debate that millennials are confident and self-expressive. That's due, in large part, to the fact that Gen Y is the first to grow up with both computers and the Internet — which has enabled digital natives, from an extremely young age, to communicate (as well as to broadcast and share our opinions) with others from across the country or globe instantaneously.

Millennials are certainly more inclined to be moderate-to-liberal on the political sphere than the generation of their parents. Take, for example, two of the most hot-button social issues of our time: abortion and gay marriage.

In today's hyper-social world, many are sharing more about their personal lives than once was considered appropriate. Virtually every college student I know, regardless of his or her politics, knows someone who has had an abortion. Thirty years ago, that wouldn't have been the case because the social stigma associated with that type of procedure would have been enough to make sure that it was hush-hush (even to a person in her social circle).

Meanwhile, as gay marriage has become legal in more states (including Washington, earlier this week), and as gay Americans like Rachel Maddow take a more public role in the media, in popular culture or in public office, Americans are becoming much more accepting.

In many cases, even the most conservative members of a college campus have become comfortable around gay and lesbian students — and probably count a few of them within their group of friends, which forty or fifty years ago would not have been the case.

Notice I keep bringing up "college campuses," because these social-demographic shifts are connected to Pew's assertion that Gen Y will become the most educated of any generation.

With the mass exit of manufacturing jobs, a college degree is now a necessity in order to achieve success in this country. And, as other studies have found, incoming college freshmen are showing up on campus increasingly left-leaning, and moving even further to the left — in many cases — by the end of their college tenures.

Overall, I think the Pew report hits the nail on the head in describing the new generation of young people. What do you think, Alexander?