Millennials - the situation with a generation

[Witchcraft and Sorcery]

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So a friend of mine posted this link that she found on Facebook and I was wondering what you all thought about this topic. As a millennial myself I find it very intriguing how others from other times and generations perceive us. I personally agree with this post, that while much of our generation is still growing up, we shouldn't constantly have this label of "lazy, entitled brats" attached to us. I would like to field opinions from such a knowledgeable group as this with such diverse ideologies though - what do you all think of the millennials as a generation?

[The Candy Lane]

The main point of the blog is

You’ve [boomers] ruined our economy, our housing market, our job market, our environment, and our climate.

1. I think we(our generation in general) have a high sense of entitlement, which we've been taught by the generation ahead of us. The work ethic of both generations is pretty bad, and both generations want someone else to pay for their goods and services (retirement or schooling). Don't think that because the last two generation were able to retire at 65 means we should have that same blessing. There have been thousands of generations that went without that luxury.

2. We're a generation without parents and without families. The divorce rate has sky rocketed. It's naive to think that this hasn't/doesn't/won't impact the younger generation. It's one way in which we're taught that if life gets hard, cut yourself loose. It's other people who are holding us back or the source of our problems.

Get a job, work hard, love your job. It doesn't matter if you're at Mc Donald's or Tesla.


Don't sweat the small stuff in life. We're not entitled to own the latest Xbox, android, or laptop. We don't deserve the dream retirement of living on the beach and collecting sea shells, or owning a house with a white picket fence. Consider your blessings, be thankful for everything, love unconditionally, forgive willingly.

[Indorphinea]

Speaking ill of entire generations and applying a broad brush approach to this matter, which really both generations seem to be doing, will not get us anywhere.

[Deleted]

You may all hate me for this, but too bad.

I am a boomer. When I was growing up in the 70s, inflation and unemployment were higher than they are now (check the numbers, friends.) I worked three jobs to put myself through school. I lived in one-room apartments after I turned 18 and left home, because you were supposed to stand on your own two feet. My school papers were lengthy, 10-20 page TYPEWRITTEN works with no cut and paste or wikipedia to vomit out 'papers.' I started a paper route when I was 11 (you had to be 12, but I lied so I could get a job.) I read newspapers and watched the news because knowing what was going on in the world was important - as was Shakespeare, algebra, musical theater, history, and several foreign languages.

I am a college teacher now. I have lost hope in the majority of those who call themselves 'millenials.' Critical thinking and integrating conflicting information is GONE: everything now is supposed to be as short as, and require no more effort than, a tweet. I ask for 10 page papers and parents call me to complain at the amount of work. I ask for three pages, and I get one. My students are functionally and culturally illiterate, and what's worse, they don't care that they are ignorant. They whine incessantly about how "my" generation screwed up the job market and the environment, entirely oblivious to the fact that our generation had a HARDER job market and a WORSE environment (please, I know all about global warming...but have any of you read Silent Spring? Do you know what Love Canal was, or Agent Orange? If not, don't tell me how MY generation f**ked up the environment...we actually rolled up our sleeves and tried to save it after the generation before US dropped nuclear bombs and decimated Europe (Yeah, you'll have to review your history to find out that boomers and the WWII generation are a whole generation apart.) Laziness and ignorance rule the day in this generation - if the answer can't be supplied at a push of a button, no one cares. People use a GPS but have no clue how to read a map.

Yeah, grumpy today....but thoroughly tired of the "oh-woe-is-me, we-have-it-so-rough" attitude of Millennials.

[Louisistan]

I can't speak for the U.S., but part of the problem indeed stems from another generation - at least here in Germany - classic education is being flushed down the toilet. Education is now purely dedicated to (more or less) job training. Anything which you can't use in a job is regarded as useless. The Bachelor and Masters system was introduced because of that (even though it makes NO sense in some fields), the Gymnasium (which is the "highest" school) was shortened from 9 to 8 years, so that young people enter the job market earlier. That is not our fault. That system was introduced by those in charge and at that time, that certainly was not the millenials.

On the other hand I'll admit that the aforementioned sense of entitlement is strong in parts of my generation. Though that may well be, because many of them never learned to stand on their own feet - which is only partly their fault. But it is still annoying.

The problem with this discussion is the level of abstraction. You simply cannot say that all millenials are entitled brats. It is not true. That generation is made up of millions of individuals. And they are - as you may have guessed - individual.

[Indorphinea]

Sept 30, 2014 15:25:40 GMT -5 @scowcreek said:

You may all hate me for this, but too bad.

I am a boomer. When I was growing up in the 70s, inflation and unemployment were higher than they are now (check the numbers, friends.) I worked three jobs to put myself through school. I lived in one-room apartments after I turned 18 and left home, because you were supposed to stand on your own two feet. My school papers were lengthy, 10-20 page TYPEWRITTEN works with no cut and paste or wikipedia to vomit out 'papers.' I started a paper route when I was 11 (you had to be 12, but I lied so I could get a job.) I read newspapers and watched the news because knowing what was going on in the world was important - as was Shakespeare, algebra, musical theater, history, and several foreign languages.

I am a college teacher now. I have lost hope in the majority of those who call themselves 'millenials.' Critical thinking and integrating conflicting information is GONE: everything now is supposed to be as short as, and require no more effort than, a tweet. I ask for 10 page papers and parents call me to complain at the amount of work. I ask for three pages, and I get one. My students are functionally and culturally illiterate, and what's worse, they don't care that they are ignorant. They whine incessantly about how "my" generation screwed up the job market and the environment, entirely oblivious to the fact that our generation had a HARDER job market and a WORSE environment (please, I know all about global warming...but have any of you read Silent Spring? Do you know what Love Canal was, or Agent Orange? If not, don't tell me how MY generation f**ked up the environment...we actually rolled up our sleeves and tried to save it after the generation before US dropped nuclear bombs and decimated Europe (Yeah, you'll have to review your history to find out that boomers and the WWII generation are a whole generation apart.) Laziness and ignorance rule the day in this generation - if the answer can't be supplied at a push of a button, no one cares. People use a GPS but have no clue how to read a map.

Yeah, grumpy today....but thoroughly tired of the "oh-woe-is-me, we-have-it-so-rough" attitude of Millennials.

This is oddly inspiring and makes me want to work harder.

While I do agree with you to an extent, I still feel that using terms like millennials and boomers in this discussion are way to broad of a categorization. Though, according to your personal experience, there might be fewer millennials who have and are willing to work hard to achieve what they want, it doesn't mean that they don't exist. 

[Deleted]

Oct 1, 2014 9:50:39 GMT -5 Indorphinea said:

While I do agree with you to an extent, I still feel that using terms like millennials and boomers in this discussion are way to broad of a categorization. Though, according to your personal experience, there might be fewer millennials who have and are willing to work hard to achieve what they want, it doesn't mean that they don't exist. 

That just made my day....Thank you!  (It's been a crappy day....lol)