Many elders of society often cast the burdens of America's domestic issues on Millennials, also referred to Generation Y. Why is this generation such an easy target for criticism? To start, Millennials have blame for political, social, and economic issues displaced on their shoulders daily. We're young, therefore, we don't have a darn clue what we're talking about, right? While inexperience does cause problems to arise in many situations, Millennials are not casing the majority of the United States' issues. Due to generations having irreconcilable differences on most hot topics, I felt the need to write a piece that explains the actions and mindsets of most millennials while dispelling most myths older generations has about Generation Y.
"Millennials don't look for facts, they only care about what is 'cool' or 'trendy.'"
As true as some older people may think this is, the total opposite is true for most Millennials. Speaking for most of my peers in college, we're kind of obsessed with fact checking. In school, we can't afford to use a faulty source on an essay that could cause us to fail the course, and as for life? We can't afford to look like idiots in front of our friends or adults. While there are plenty of Millennials who are obsessed with pop culture icons to a point where they have no interest in politics, social issues, or global happenings, plenty of members of our generation are vested in finding the cold, hard truth about what and who we support in every aspect of life. With Google and Snopes literally at our fingertips, why wouldn't we try to make sure our words are true?
"Kids these days don't know the value of hard work."
I never worked in high school because I was heavily involved in extracurricular activities, but now that I'm in college, I work on campus during the week and run a small business while pet-sitting on the weekends and on holidays just so I can pay for summer classes and my other expenses. While I agree that most teens and young adults are not working as much as other generations did in their youth, kids still know the value of hard work, just in a different way. Members of past generations had to do manual labor in the summer or work in the school year to pay for their wants or college tuition, but students of the modern generation work themselves into frenzies in honors, Advanced Placement and college courses in order to get into the schools of their dreams or to get hefty scholarships so they can focus on their studies while in college instead of stressing out over a job and their schoolwork. The cost of receiving a college education has skyrocketed in the last 40 years and the rigor of courses and requirements to attend have increased with the costs. Not all young adults know the value of hard, physical labor, but many of them are learning the value of mental toughness and gaining necessary skills for their collegiate careers. I stand by Ralph Waldo Emerson's belief of both manual labor and knowledge from schooling to be necessary "part[s] of the education of every young man," but education does not stop after attending college. We learn new information and skills every day, so the thought of young people being deemed lazy because they do not work in college because they are focusing on their studies is slightly absurd.
"Teenagers are too obsessed with technology!"
I will be the first to admit I love my iPod and my iPhone. Before my iPod, I had a portable CD player, GameBoy, and a PlayStation that I spent a good bit of time on as a kid. Even though I had access to those technologies as a child, I was still outside playing and having fun for the most part until I reached my middle school years. After I entered the sixth grade, Webkinz and GuitarHero were all the rage, so I spent a good bit of time playing those instead of spending a lot of time outside. The fact of the matter is that I played outside and had an imaginary kingdom my sister and I played in for hours and another friend and I would pretend we were solving mysteries and playing with Native Americans. Believe it or not, Millennials had imaginations and spent tons of time outside growing up, but there is a generation that will have less experience with playing outside than our generation. Generation Z will be far more attached to technology than Millennials. According to Chris Hudson's article titled "How Generation Z are Being Shaped by Technology,"
"a child acquires an online presence is 6 months (thanks to their parents). 81% of children have a ‘digital footprint’ by the time they are 2."
Not only that, but most children of Generation Z become addicted to technology far quicker than Millennials ever did. I've seen children who can barely stand possess tablets and other handheld devices nicer than my own! Many of the games children play on their devices are educational, but their social lives are suffering from playing on their devices so much. I have met children who can barely communicate with me or use their imaginations to act out playscenes with me when their technology is not around. Tablets may be allowing them to become "smarter" with the educational games they provide, but children must be able to communicate and play well together too. Next time you're out in public, look around, and see how many children under the age of 6 are playing with smartphones and tablets. Trust me, paying attention to this detail will astound you! Millennials may be partial to Twitter and Snapchat, but at least we were not entirely technology dependent until our preteen years.
"Young people are too accepting of change!"
Previous generations constantly accuse Millennials of being too accepting of change. Considering our youth and lack of experience, Millennials are criticized of accepting things without looking into them or simply following the status quo. I do not doubt that some Millennials fail to research the positions they take before they commit themselves, but making the generalization that we are too quick to accept change without looking into what the repercussions could be is incorrect. Making that generalization is basically the same as saying Baby Boomers are all racists because we had to pass the Civil Rights Act in order for minorities to be treated equally. You and I both know not all Baby Boomers were against fair and equal treatment, and we also know that many Millennials do their research before supporting changes. Our generation has also been accused of being "dumb" because we are referred to as the "me" generation for some of our narcissistic tendencies, but we are smarter than Baby Boomers and other older generations may thing. According to a Pew Poll titled "Millennials: Confident. Connected. Open to Change.,"
"Millennials are on course to become the most educated generation in American history, a trend driven largely by the demands of a modern knowledge-based economy, but most likely accelerated in recent years by the millions of 20-somethings enrolling in graduate schools, colleges or community colleges in part because they can’t find a job."
Most jobs require at least a two-year degree in order to get a job, and because of this trend, many people are enrolled in college. In college, students learn skills that will be applicable to the position they wish to fulfill causing them to gain a vast amount of knowledge in at least one field. Considering the massive amounts of information Millennials obtain, they are able to make informed decisions. As far as tolerance is concerned, Millennials are generally more open to accepting differences than other generations. We realize there are people in the world who do not have the same opinions as we do, but instead of being hateful to them, we agree to disagree and move on. Its much easier to accept that people will not always think the same and move along than it is to be perpetually angry because someone believes something he thinks is invalid.
All in all, Millennials get a ton of heat for being themselves. We were raised to think and feel the way we do because our parents believed in the same things or because they opposed whatever beliefs we follow. People can go on all day long about how self-absorbed and obscenely tolerant we are, but we will remain unaffected. Millennials are ready and willing to accomplish whatever the world throws at us, and our abilities to be flexible in most situations will help guide us through even the toughest of situations.
