I believe the term was originally used for marketing and political purposes but soon everyone was attempting to stereotype the group on every conceivable characteristic. Polls were taken and while the label was used to understand the demographic on a economic basis people started to make wild generalizations about the personalities and dysfunctions of the group in order to identify any "problems" that might arise as these people join the work force, become voters and start to spend money. Understanding the youth seems to be important to those attempting to predict and potentially manipulate the next big wave of adults but are such generalizations accurate?