Juvenoia: The paranoia and moral panic that an older generation feels towards a younger generation, and a major epidemic that is widening the generation gap between gen Z/Millennials and gen X/Baby Boomers. While I believe people of all ages should be able to cooperate and get along for society to function properly, this seems to be impossible with the way things currently are today.

Younger generations can benefit a lot from the wisdom and experience of older generations, and older generations can benefit from the energy and new ideas of the younger generation, but every generation seems to keep to themselves in recent years. And one major reason for this is the juvenoia targeted at millennials especially, but also towards gen Z.

How many times have you seen articles claiming that millennials are “killing the X industry”? What words first come to your mind when you hear the term “millennial”? Many older people nowadays take it for granted that this generation is lazy, entitled, childish, socially isolated, and uncaring. While I have some issues with my generation in general, I think this stereotype of millennials is doing more harm than good for everyone.

Because of this negativity towards their generation, young people nowadays are less willing to volunteer at nursing homes or visit their grandparents. My grandmother came back from a trip that she took with a tour group of retirees. She said that she was the only one in the group who saw her grandchildren regularly, and her travel buddies admitted to being sad that they don’t see their grandchildren very often, despite their dislike of the generation as a whole. Meanwhile, people my age are blaming the Baby Boomers and generation X for ruining the economy and causing many of the social issues they are trying to fight.

I don’t think people from older generations hate millennials nearly as much as they say they do, but the world is changing fast and change is scary. We can never be sure whether we’re heading in the right direction or the wrong one, though we can make some educated guesses. And culture is changing fast as well, with the Internet changing how we interact with each other and even changing our speech and our sense of humor. It can be hard to keep up if you’re used to the way things were. The only reason millennials are so in tune with it is because this is the only world most of them have ever known (I’m a late adopter of technology so I’m in between).

This rapid change in society as a whole has created a generation gap that can seem insurmountable, but through talking to people on both sides it’s clear that many want to close that gap and don’t know how. I think the key is just to start communicating. Millennials, teach older people how to use the Internet. Teach them how memes work. Help them learn how to navigate this new technology. Keep an open mind and listen to what they have to say about their own experiences, because some things never change. Older generations, teach basic life skills to the younger generations. With all this advanced technology taking up our attention, we sometimes forget that there are gaps in our knowledge. Our parents are very busy and don’t always have time to walk us through every lesson. And keep an open mind about my generation’s experience too.

People of every age have something valuable to contribute and it’s time we started talking to each other instead of buying into the generational stereotypes.