I don't think any generation has nailed the whole "respect" thing, but the worst thing about lacking respect, is being oblivious to it.

I work in a movie theater, therefore, in working box office and concessions, I deal with so many different types of people. In doing so, I've caught on to so many different mannerisms and general attitudes based on age.

I think we've all heard so many comments about how we millennials are self-absorbed, impatient, rude, and entitled. Yeah, we like to take selfies -- so what? Yes, we live in a time period where we can click some buttons on our smart phones and a pizza shows up at our doors -- so what? Wouldn't baby boomers have done the same thing if they had the same technology as us? I bet they would have. While they blame us millennials for not having social skills because of the advanced technology we have, I truly beg to differ. Here's why.

I mentioned that I work in a movie theater. While I have a specific example in mind, let me just go ahead and tell you a story. Today, we had a gigantic fiasco at work. Our soda dispensers weren't working properly. The ice was clumping together and jamming the machines. We eventually had to take all of the ice out of the machines, but we could not refill them because our ice was too brittle -- which is what caused that problem in the first place.

As customers approached the concessions stand, we had to forewarn each one of them that we were out of ice. This old lady was standing at the counter, attentively listening, as my coworkers and I openly explained to another customer that we were out of ice. The old lady continued with her purchase. After the purchase was complete, she yelled at me for there not being any ice, saying, "What am I supposed to do? Drink hot pop?" I explained to her that the drinks would still come out cold, but just that there would be no ice. Mind you, she knew we were out, yet still made the purchase. Also, why was it my fault that our machines got jammed and what exactly could I have done about that? But millennials are the ones with no respect -- OK.

That was just one example, but let me tell you this. Typically it's the old people (with the exception of children) who slam their money down onto the counter instead of politely handing it to me. Typically, it's the old people who approach the counter and demand, "Two tickets," without telling me which feature they want to see, and then they still act just as impolite when I politely ask, "For which show?"

One time, an old woman handed me a bundled up wad of, about, 11 one dollar bills. When I took her money, I casually, lightly, and rhetorically asked, "Alright, how much is here?" as I started to separate them from each other, the old woman had the nerve to snap at me, "Well count it!" as if I were some dumb teen who doesn't know how to count because I grew up on calculators. Like, okay, handing someone a bundled up wad of cash is rude enough as it is. Let's not yell at the cashier on top of it.

I once answered the phone to a grumpy old person, who asked if our theater would be receiving the film Hillary's America, which wasn't a very popular film, and our theater is small, so we only get the major stuff. When I informed the old person that we would not be receiving that feature, he responded, "What? Are you a democrat?" While it was kind of funny, I wouldn't necessarily consider that person as being very polite.

I can tell you, from my experience, that it's almost always the old people who just have zero patience, act entitled to everything, whine/blame the employees when something isn't how they think it should be, and just flat out have no social skills.

So yeah, maybe we take a lot of selfies. Maybe we choose to interact with one another differently. Maybe we love online delivery service, but as far as I'm concerned, we aren't the ones yelling at employees when their technology isn't working right. We aren't the ones who slam our debit cards down onto counters and hand people wads of dollar bills, demanding, "Count it!" We aren't the ones calling places and negatively accusing them of being affiliated with certain political stances that we don't partake in. Just because our generation is different, doesn't mean that we're terrible and don't have social skills. After all, rudest customers I've ever had were old people.