HOUGHTON – The generation dubbed “millennials” – roughly those born from the early 1980s to the early 2000s – is the largest in American history. It’s also the most educated, most diverse and the most socially accepting.

The effects of that generation and its expectations are going to have large effects over the next 20 years, said Derek Thompson, senior editor for the Atlantic, during a Wednesday talk at Michigan Technological University.

Millennials have absorbed the notion that a college degree is the entry to a middle-class life. However, Thompson said, they’ve moved from a college experience they’ve been able to customize to their liking into a workforce that isn’t meeting their expectations.

The share of recent college graduates who are underemployed – working in jobs that typically don’t require a college degree – is higher than it was in 2000. Those jobs are also moving from higher-paying skill jobs – such as electricians – to lower-paying service-sector jobs – such as waiters.

These conditions might explain the greater levels of support among young voters for figures such as Bernie Sanders, Thompson said, citing the theory of “the revolution of rising expectations.”

Historical revolutions have been started not by the poorest, but the middle class hurt when a prolonged period of economic and social development meets a sharp reversal.

“They are revolting against authority figures, not because they are so hopeless and poor, but because they were born in the 1990s,” he said. “They elected Barack Obama. They’re aware of the possibility of a better economy, and they remember the promises of change, and then they look at the economy and the country today, and they simply expect more.”

The millennial generation is also the most literal in decades, Thompson said. Millennials are young and relatively poor, which correlates to more liberal fiscal policy. They’re more ethnically diverse, but even the white portion of the demographic is more liberal than older white people, particularly on social issues.

That doesn’t follow on every issue, he said. While millennials are more liberal than the country overall on issues such as gay marriage, their views on gun control and abortion are in line with the national average.

The generation is the most technologically connected in history but also the least trusting. But it’s less paradoxical than it appears, Thompson said. Millennials are putting less trust in institutions, such as the government, media and police. But with startups such as Uber or Airbnb, they place more trust in peers.

“It’s as if we’re moving trust from authority figures to the peers themselves,” he said.

That decline in trust can in part be traced to the proliferation of data. But when specs and user reviews are available instantly, consumers are less likely to be swayed by corporate iconography.

“When you feel enough of an expert, you don’t need authority to tell you what to do,” he said.

The decline in authority may also explain the popularity of figures as disparate as Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump. It would not make sense in the era of traditional gatekeepers, whether the media or the party. But when people are leaning more on their peers, appeals from traditional sources are more likely to fall on deaf ears.

Millennials also shape the world through other preferences. They’re less likely to buy big-ticket items houses and cars, instead spending more money on things such as smartphones, clothes or dinner with friends. The move away from cars is also related to the clustering into cities.

“As more people move nearer to cities, public transportation will continue to replace the function of a car, and smartphones can replace the spirit of a car,” he said.

It remains to be seen how many of these characteristics millennials will retain as they age. On the issue of cars and mortgages, there is some clarity, Thompson said. They will buy cars, but not at the same rate. They will buy homes, but in “urban-lite” areas closer to cities.

However, he said, even richer 20- and 30-somethings are now much more likely to live in dense urban centers than 20 years ago.

“They’re not driving as much as their parents,” he said. “They’re considerably more liberal on fiscal and social issues, and they’re considerably more likely to to begin making their shopping decisions online.”