For these reasons, and the fact they can take a good selfie without looking like they've been startled out of REM sleep at 2:41am by a paparazzi, I both admire them and want to strangle them.
They may be right-on and completely attuned to an increasingly automated lifestyle, but they need to be shaken out of this sense of security. Not everything is going to be alright. Especially for them. Life is, as Hobbes said, going to be nasty and brutish and - if demographic trends continue - longer than they expect.
Young people are coming out of university saddled with £40,000 to £50,000 worth of debt. They are competing for jobs in an increasingly global world, but without the sort of wage inflation I enjoyed in my callow youth.
They are coming to maturity and adulthood at a time when the hallmarks of being independent: having a job, buying a house, renting a great flat in an urban location - are far above the financial capabilities of many millennials. House prices are at a national average of £225,956, according to the Land Registry.
But the median gross annual earnings in the UK stands at £22,044. Millennials on low starting salaries will have to save at least six times their annual salary if they are to get a decent mortgage - no mean feat, considering some rents in the City of London are £30,000 a year. It's hard enough for the average individual to save £10,000 a year.
By this measure, it is no surprise that fewer and fewer homeowners are millennials or the younger end of Generation X. Figures from the Financial Conduct Authority's Understanding the Financial Lives of UK Adults survey paint a stark picture of the financial resilience of young people.
According to the 12,865 UK adults on which the survey was based, 27 per cent of adults are 'surviving' and 8 per cent are in difficulty. But extrapolate this across the age groups, and those who are 18 to 24 years old are the least financially resilient.
Millennials are not scroungers or shirkers, lazy or feckless. They're not spendthrifts or irresponsible. True, they've never seen an episode of Ulysses 31 but they really do want to make a difference. They have tiny savings - an average of £8,000 in cash. Those aged 25 to 34 have an average of just £11,000 cash savings. Not enough for a deposit on a home. It is no surprise then that only 3 per cent of the youngest age band own a property outright, and only 13 per cent have a mortgage. In fact, 49 per cent of 18-24 year-olds are renting.
Some 33 per cent have made an unauthorised overdraft in the past 12 months, and the youngest age bands are most likely to have fallen prey to loan sharks or high-interest payday loans. But only 9 per cent of millennials have personal protection products such as income protection or life cover.
By contrast, those aged 65 and above, many of whom have paid off their mortgages, own their own homes outright, have an average of £49,000 in cash savings and have benefited from high annuity rates and good defined benefit pensions, claim they are mostly financially resilient. None were deemed to be in financial difficulty.
Even when millennials turn 35, the situation isn't going to be much better. As Ishaan Malhi, chief executive and founder of online mortgage broker Trussle, comments: "The Bank of England is widely expected to raise interest rates for the first time in almost a decade next month, so it’s troubling to learn that one in eight borrowers aged between 35 and 45 would struggle to cope if their mortgage payments rose by more than £100.
"A 0.25 per cent rate rise won’t stretch most borrowers to this limit, but potentially being the first of many small rises, anyone nearing the end of their initial term should be jumping on the first possible opportunity to lock in a fixed rate mortgage deal, before the whole market reacts to a base rate rise."
These figures ought to make everyone in the financial services industry sit up and take notice. The children and grandchildren of your clients are likely to find themselves in serious financial need.
They may have missed out on financial education at school, meaning they lack even the basics in terms of budgeting, saving, understanding how Isas work. They are certainly going to miss out on home ownership or living their 20s being debt-free. They will be punished and pinched at every turn no matter how frugally and carefully they live.
And yes, the ones I've met and mentored do try to live within their means. They're not blowing their earnings on fast cars and fine dining. They're working out whether they can afford to go to the cinema with their friends or pay their electricity bill. They're struggling to find a cheap place to rent that doesn't have rats in the kitchen or a landlord who insists on only being given money in cash because he's rented out six rooms instead of the five he's told the council. (True stories).
Millennials are not scroungers or shirkers, lazy or feckless. They're not spendthrifts or irresponsible. True, they've never seen an episode of Ulysses 31 or know the entire discography of Mott the Hoople, but they really do want to make a difference in this world. I've been a youth leader for 20 years in my spare time. I see their energy and their enthusiasm. I know they are capable of doing great things to make this world a little better.
But as the FCA's figures show, unless we help them with better education, simpler products and jargon-free marketing - and maybe even free financial workshops - then all that enthusiasm and energy will go to waste.
So come on, industry. Do more. Be better. Some advisers and providers already do a lot to help, for which we are grateful. But let's all see if we can't give a little more thought to how we can turn around some of these stark statistics in time for the FCA's next Financial Lives study.
Simoney Kyriakou is content plus editor for FTAdviser
