If you have been on social media at all in the last couple of years, I am sure you have heard all about the stereotypes that are associated with the Millennial generation. Laziness. Selfishness. Entitlement. I’m sure if Why the Stereotypes of Millennials Needs to Stop
are part of the infamous Generation Y, you are sick of hearing these universal generalizations coming from your baby boomer family members. So to try to clarify some misperceptions, I did some research and compiled a list of millennial stigmas that seem to be most popular (and most annoying).1. Millennials are ruining the economy.
We are NOT the reason the economy is in disarray. How can a generation that is barely considered adults be responsible for ruining the economy? So what if we use paper towels instead of napkins with our food sometimes? This does not mean we are ruining the napkin industry. Many of us are broke college students who can barely afford to eat because we are forced to take unpaid internships just to get experience, so later we can find a job that actually pays. Don’t worry baby boomers, we will start buying napkins when we are older.
2. Millennials don’t want to get married.
The stigma that Millennials do not want to get married needs to stop. Yes, many from this generation are career focused and say now that they don’t want to get married, but who says they won’t change their minds? A large portion of this generation are barely into their early 20s so marriage is far away for most of us, and just because we don’t want to be married as soon we graduate from college doesn’t mean we never want to. So yes, there are plenty of Millennials who want to get married. Many of us want to have that once in a lifetime rom-com love and wake up next to our best friend for the rest of our lives. We are just waiting longer to do it. From the great words of Barney Stinson, “don’t even think about marriage until you are least 30."
3. Millennials don’t want kids and are selfish for it.
We are not selfish just because we don’t feel like we need to have children to have a meaningful existence. But just like marriage, we may say we don’t want kids now, but there is a good chance we will change our minds later. But if we don’t change our minds, so what? Not every person wants to have the so called “American dream’ where you end up in the suburban town surrounded by the white picket fence with your lawfully wedded spouse and 2 children.
Hey, at least our generation is trying to reduce the overcrowding.
4. Millennials are a bunch of crybaby liberals.
5. Millennials are Naive and Unpractical
We are growing up in a generation where we yearn for a meaningful life outside our home. Our lives are fuller because we are striving for our passion instead of the “practical” job. Many will call this dumb and naive, but we are going after our dreams. Isn’t this more rewarding than settling? No, we are not entitled just because we aren’t seeking a job just to pay the bills. We want to do something meaningful in life and what’s wrong with that?
6. Millennials are lazy.
Just because we try to find the easiest and quickest way to do something does not make us lazy. We increase productivity trying to do tasks in the least time-consuming way and to get the best results. But how dare we try to get tasks done more efficiently? Yes, we are privileged to live in a world where information about anything is literally at our fingertips. But just because technology makes finding information easier, doesn’t mean we have any less work ethic than the generation before.
All the stereotypes that I have come across are definitely aggravating to our generation, but it is a stigma that existed for young people in the generations before. There will always be a stereotype on young people that we lazy, naïve, entitled, and selfish. What we can do is just prove the generalizations wrong.
