- Mark Dolliver

NEW YORK When the recession of the early 1990s dampened the mood of Gen Xers, a mythology soon flourished that said this cohort would go through life as alienated slackers. A few years later, of course, this generation provided the workaholics who created the Internet economy, and a majority of its members have been avidly getting and spending ever since.

So, will a similar mythology enshroud our view of the millennial generation as it comes of age amid the current recession? Not if these people remain as conspicuously upbeat as they are in a survey commissioned by Pepsi as part of the brand's Pepsi Optimism Project. Conducted last month by StrategyOne and Opinion Research Corp., the polling found confidence for the future is more the rule than the exception among adult millennials (age 18-28). Eighty-one percent of the survey's millennials said they're "hopeful" about the future and 65 percent "optimistic" about it. Indeed, 57 percent are downright "excited" about the future.

It's not that they're a bunch of Pollyannas, though. Fifty-six percent said they're "nervous" about the future; 42 percent said they're "stressed" about it. The point is that these apprehensions seem not to cast an all-enveloping pall over millennials' lives. Seventy-one percent said they "spend more time enjoying life than worrying about the future."

Another section of the survey asked respondents to say which (if any) of some aspects of life they're optimistic about. Atop the list (cited by 84 percent) was "your overall well-being," followed closely by "your relationship with family and friends" (81 percent), "your health" (78 percent) and "your career" (77 percent). Respondents were somewhat less sanguine about "your finances" (64 percent) or "your romantic relationships/finding the right partner" (61 percent).

Apart from answering opinion surveys, what sorts of activities bring out the optimism in millennials? The survey offered a list of possibilities and asked respondents to pick the ones that "tend to make you feel more optimistic." On this question, the most votes went to "taking care of your family" (picked by 83 percent), just ahead of "taking care of your health" (82 percent). Also cited by more than two-thirds of the millennials were "engaging in physical activity" (76 percent), "supporting causes you care about" (74 percent) and "being more sociable" (71 percent).