Technically, I think people sometimes misunderstand what millennials actually are. So for those who don't know, millennials are people born between the mid 1980s and early 1990s. I'm 19 right now, which means that I (and a lot of other teens) are actually part of generation Z, or the generation born after millennials from the mid 1990s to the early 2000s. But sometimes I see "millennials" used as a sweeping statement to refer to all people under the age of 30.

Usually I can't go more than a day on te internet without coming across someone complaining in some way or another that millennials are lazy, entitled, rely on technology too much, or something of that nature.

A lot the time there are also younger kids who say they were "born in the wrong generation", and weirdly enough if I look up any music video or song from the 60s there will be at least one comment saying something like "I'm 14 and love Elvis, every other kid my age has trash taste in music etc"

This is nothing new. People will always complain about the generations that come after them. When people who are teens right now are older, I'm sure they'll be complaining about younger generations. People my age are already complaining about kids under 10 that have access to technology (tablets, smartphones) that they didn't when they were that age.

In the 60s, people complained about younger generations. In the middle ages, people complained about younger generations.

In the 1800s, there was a publication from a principal talking about how kids replied on paper too much and didn't know how to use a slate anymore.

The point is that no matter what time period you live in, there will always be someone grumbling about "kids these days"

Why?

I think there are a couple reasons for this.

The first is one from a discussion I had in English class last year. My English teacher suggested to us that one of the reasons older generations typically put down younger generations is from a fear that think they are becoming irrelevant or not needed anymore, and that eventually they will be passing our society off to the younger generations.

Of course it's not true that older people are irrelevant. People of all ages are needed and valued in this society, and the fact that older people have lived through and experienced more does help them understand things in ways that younger people can't always do.

But it is the fact that the world is changing rather rapidly that understandably scares or puts people off.

The second reason that I personally believe is that people tend to see their childhoods through rose-tinted glasses.

A lot of kids my age will look at the TV shows that very young children (ten and under) watch these days, or the toys they play with, scoff and roll their eyes, and claim that they had better TV shows/toys, etc.

Is this true? To be honest I couldn't really tell you. Sometimes even I will look at the shows for young kids that are popular now, and I think they look completely dumb, whereas the shows I grew up with I can still watch and enjoy now.

But I can't help feeling like part of the reason for this is that you tend to have a certain sense of nostalgia about the things you watched/experienced as a young kid, as compared to when you grow up and experience things differently.

When you grow up, you may remember your childhood and the time period that surrounds it in a more favorable light. For example, 9/11 happened when I was very young (around 3), and I basically grew up in the aftermath that surrounded it. But since I was so young, I remember almost none of the turmoil and controversy that surrounded the event.

My point here is that this may be the reason a lot of people tend to think there's so much wrong with the world now, as opposed to when they were children or younger. It's not necessarily that the world is so much worse now or that younger generations are making it terrible to live in, but that people grow up, grow older, and tend to see things for what they actually are.

Of course I'm not saying that the millennials and younger generations don't have their problems. We definitely do have our own issues that are unique to our generation, like the over-reliance on technology at times.

But we're not the only ones.

Although millennials are typically considered entitled and narcissistic, the Baby Boomers, born around the mid 1940s, were actually considered the first "me generation", meaning that the millennials are neither the first, and probably will not be the last to be thought of as self-involved and self entitled.

Millennials are also often thought of lazy, but another study has shown that more of them tend to value competition than their Baby Boomer counterparts.

The world has been changing for thousands of years, and will most likely continue to change for a long time coming. With it, people will also change. In the future we might see kids having access to technology we could never even dream of right now. Technology and values that we see as important right now might become obsolete.

It may be confusing, even scary. We might see generations after us with problems and experiences we can't even begin to understand right now, or solve.

But that doesn't mean we should dismiss or treat the younger generations with contempt.

Personally, I love being part of my generation. It's not perfect, no, and it doesn't come without its own issues. But it also comes with a lot of opportunity. Advancements not only in medicine, but in our society.

Sure, I love old music from the 60s, 70s, and 80s, but nothing is stopping me from listening to that music in 2018.

Yes, there are lazy, entitled, and horrible people in our generation. But statistically and objectively, this is true for every generation that has ever existed on the planet.

And in the future, when we're older, it is our role to guide and nurture the generations that come after us.