Is Generation Y really the most apathetic, uncaring generation there is? You can't be on social media without seeing a post, article, or meme left or right about how lazy, ungrateful, and unmotivated we are. They're a lot of times written by millennials, nonconstructive, and don't expand on real issues of today's world. Their claims have no genuine harm on the world - like starvation, thirst, poverty, racism, and other real issues do - so they seem very vain and whiney to me. They're trivial things like not holding the door open and being on our phones too much and don't provide any solutions. They are made by teenage or 20-something (usually white) kids on social media platforms, and I can't help but to cringe.
But in all honesty, I can't ignore that there is a problem with our generation. We are lazy. Not only are we lazy, but we love it. We glorify it and propagate it's beauty constantly - through TV, twitter, and music to a point when it feels so comfortable that being active and productive is breaking the norm. We are not made to binge watch Netflix. Trust me, I get it as much as anyone. I have finished far too many series in far too little time (um, hello half a season of Grey's Anatomy in one sitting), I'm embarrassed that Apple makes an album for your front facing camera pictures called 'Selfies' (or more-so how many of my pictures are in that album), and FaceTime my mom when she's downstairs. We found comfort in laziness and stayed there. But why us, why our generation? Were we honestly the first ones to create a culture of laziness and non-productivity? This is not our problem, it does not belong to any of us individually. This is a collective problem, a social sin. Binge watching Netflix, normalizing extreme and repetitive procrastination, and permitting mediocre high school performance are only our variations of a social sin that has existed for ages: apathy. Our parents were condemned for being shallow and not caring, so were our grandparents, and we will do the same to our children. Why is there no change? Do we honestly think the average teen being on Twitter for hours a day is more of a tragedy than teens starving for days in one of the most industrialized countries in the world? We must not be overwhelmed and think we can't make a change. We can't fall into the cycle, not caring and yelling at others for not caring.
Part of the problem is political correctness. It seems trivial to the older generation so they label us as "complaining", because they, too, are lazy. They are lazy to new ideas
Generation Y is in part breaking the cycle. We are not resistant to new ideas, new doctrines, the way that our parents are. We have potential to change the world, but it is stifled when we let technology do it for us. We act like we are multicultural because we have so much more access to information about other people's experiences without genuine care for their struggles.
So yes we are lazy. Misunderstood to be more lazy than our elders, possibly. But still lazy. Until we realize how deafening our silence is on issues that matter, while shouting about those that don't, we will keep the cycle going.
Let's get out there and do stuff. Create art, write articles! We are educated, and we have potential. Find your rhythm and create a strong culture for the future generations to be proud of.
