The Millennial Generation is the name of the generation that have been born roughly between 1970-2000. The dates are up to debate though, and are mostly a cultural thing, since I may not like 1997 onward, since I may not think they’re not a part of “us”, the Millennial Generation. I think our generation has a kind of cultural ground, and has it’s own characteristics. These characteristics are interpreted very differently by people who do not belong to our generation. I will explain these different opinions later on.
An unfortunate idol of our generation (Please don’t kill me Beliebers, all respect!)
After maybe losing a few of you, I’d like to say before going on, that this blog post will be mostly about youth (1990-2000). Since 1) I’m a youth and most of the people reading this are youth (Youth are awesome!), and 2) We are the upcoming generation. So, I believe finding out why people think we’re screwed, is important. If you are not a part of the Millennial Generation, I of course still welcome you to read further.
There are different opinions on the Millennial’s. On the Wikipedia page you can see many, like Jean Twenge, the author of the book Generation Me, who thinks that the Millennial Generation feels like they have a sense of entitlement, with a general narcissistic attitude. ‘Strauss and Howe’ feels the opposite, thinking that Millennial’s will be more civic-minded with a strong sense of community in both local and global identity.
While these opinions differ, they have a common assumption. That the Millennial Generation is feeling the heat. Not only economically, but also socially. In our generation, we probably have the highest rate of teen suicide, ever. We are also the generation that basically invented the term N.E.E.T. Not in Education Employment or Training, people who stay at home all day living off of someone else’s money, without attempting to go out, or do/find work (We have a lot of these people). Critiques also say that we are lazy and will not be able to set foot in the adult world due to our overuse of technology. We apparently have a terrible economic outlook; youth unemployment is very high, we have had a large recession, and we are still in a global debt.
With these gloomy outlooks, it would be safe to say that to be civic-minded, or to be narcissistic, would both be appropriate attitudes for oncoming adulthood. If I were narcissistic (or more individual minded) I would want to fend for myself, and find economic success through self-ambition instead of relying on others. If I was civic-minded, I would feel that we should all get through this together as a team and fight through this outlook as a community.
Our bleak economy
With these issues as the upcoming generation, do you feel gloomy and lost of hope in our future? Do you feel like the heat is coming and adulthood will be dreadful, and doomed to failure with unemployment? Well fear not! For I will lend you a different perspective.
“Unbeknownst to me, there was a generation clash. And as a Gen X’r, we were destined to have problems because we were part of an “entitled”, “lazy”, “goof off” generation.” – Scott Hess
Listed out rather well by Scott Hess, Generation X (1960-1980) also had criticisms in their time. Labeled as the generation “doomed to failure”, with economic outlooks looking bleak. Well doesn’t that sound familiar? And as quoted by him,
“I find that Millennial’s are sort of like the new target, you are “lazy”, “entitled”, and just not fit to live right? ”
And hilariously, I have come to realize that we should not feel bleak about the ‘predictions’ of our future, because the harsh judgement on our future,was also applied to previous generations. With all the assumptions out there, I have come to the conclusion; there cannot be a definite generalization of the Millennial Generation because we are so varied. Additionally, everyone has hardships, and we can choose to ignore the pity. We should not lose hope in our future, as the strenuous lifestyle that many present to you, is something that happens to everyone.
Work hard you “lazy” generation
And who knows, with the coming of “us”, also comes new potential technologies beyond Apple, Microsoft, or Android. Political structures will change with us in the seats, businesses will be crowded with our new ideas, and eventually the world will change like with the coming of other generations. Global culture will also change with the Millennial Generation.
Maybe we’ll be criticizing the following generation, Generation Z (2000 onward), for their overuse of technology and media. They’re just going to have a “bleak” future because they won’t be able to stand the outside world, right?
Thanks for reading!