Two weeks ago, a fellow Odyssey writer expressed his "hatred" for millennials, claiming that they are “lazy and entitled,” “worthless,” have “zero personality and zero common sense,” and that they “don’t want to shut up, even for a second.” I listened intently and reread his article and unlike most people I was not angered. I was actually fascinated by his opinion because he is a millennial and he was basically talking about a group of 80 million people. The first thing I assumed was, “this has to be clickbait, he cannot be serious.” The answer to whether he was serious or not is something I don’t care about, but I think millennials should be given less sh*t.
First and foremost, for those who don’t already know, millennials are people who were born at the turn of the century (early 1980s to 2000). According to many people, we are probably the worst generation. There are memes and GIFs made about how awful we truly are. We are narcissists, obsessed with our phones and ourselves, and feel like we are wiser than we actually are, but what if I told you that we have these kinds of people in every generation? People often look at millennials like we’re devils, but I can truthfully say that majority of us do not condone the look-at-me behavior and sharing of those memes that say, “I hate my generation.” For millennials who have lost hope, don’t be so judgmental, especially when most of us do not fall into the stereotypes. A lot of us do not agree with the “Look at me” and “15 seconds of fame” attitude that people associate with us. A good example would be the reactions to the “Don’t Judge Me” challenge.
Secondly, we are not all lazy and entitled. Guess who was among the protesters for Occupy Wall Street and LGBTQ rights? Millennials! In my opinion, we are probably the most accepting generation compared to the ones before us. A lot of us believe in equal rights for everyone regardless of religion, gender, race and sexual orientation. Sure, there are some of us who feel entitled and don’t do anything to benefit society, but there is a reason why I say some and not all.
Another reason why our generation is worth it is because we “don't want to shut up, even for a second.” A lot of us do listen to the stuff we hear which is why we talk so much! A lot of us see and listen to the corruption within society and we comment on it. There is nothing wrong with being talkative, just make sure that every word is worth saying. Another reason why we continue to talk is because we don’t feel changes being made. Sorry if we come off as wannabe “woke” people, but we may actually be woke as f*ck! There are many issues that need to be taken care of and we see that and we talk about it, from the candidates of this year’s presidential elections to transgender rights to use the bathroom they choose.
I also want to respond to all the people who feel like the generations before us were better. Since the baby boomers and the WWII workers and soldiers were mentioned in Sulner’s article, I will bring up why they also were as negative as the way our generation is portrayed. Did we forget that America placed Japanese citizens and their descendants into concentration camps or the fact thatblack people did not have the access to things their white counterparts had? In addition, do we know that generation was just as corrupt as ours, just in a different way? In the end, every generation has their shortcomings, but each one stood up for something while rejecting the other ideas. No generation was perfect, and in my opinion, the world is not getting worse. It has always been this way; it’s just that we see corruption on a larger scale simply because of technology and the media. Please stop giving us shit, we are not that bad and we are no different than the ones before us. You are even allowed to say we may be just as involved or more with the society we live in. Yes, some of us are conceited, know-it-alls-but-know-nothing-at-all, lazy, entitled, lacking personality (it depends on someone’s definition of what a personality is), and empty vessels, but please cut us some slack. That’s all I’m asking.
