To some, millennials (those born in between 1981 and 1997) are actually labeled as the worst generation in history. They call us lazy, entitled, pampered and useless to society. Why, you might ask? Well, we were born in the middle of a technological boom, which enabled us to never have to do anything for ourselves -- and ah, yes, the era of Twitter and Instagram (those we will touch on a bit later). If you think about it, generations before ours -- including Neil Armstrong who walked on the moon and those who traveled to a distant country and truly created the “American Dream” for themselves -- would be disappointed with how we act in society today. Yeah, we have done noteworthy things, too, like recognizing the pressing need for sustainable resources in order to save our planet. We have come an extremely long way progressively speaking, but is it enough?
My purpose here is not to bash my own generation, but to encourage people to get out into the world and stop staring at your computer screen trying to finish the last three episodes of that “really interesting and cool” Netflix series that’s consumed your life for the past three weeks. Yeah, believe me. I feel you. You know you are a millennial because dating is a nightmare, the casual slang we use nowadays is just horrendous, explaining it to your parents is even worse, and social media is an all-consuming act of checking your phone 30 times a day. For these very reasons, and many more, being a Millennial actually kinda sucks.
Dating.
OK, what even is dating? Is it hanging out with someone until one of you asks to be exclusive, or is it hanging out with multiple different people casually? This is the crippling problem this generation has; if we don’t even know what it means, how are we supposed to do it? Back in the old days, men would “court” their significant others; dating was extremely formal and you usually dated for the sole reason of finding your husband or wife. But now, it's more like “Hey, wanna [insert extremely vague activity so you don’t seem too clingy right off the bat]?”
Not to mention, we are also the era of “ghosting” (as they call it). This is when you are talking to a certain prospect, either male or female, and everything seems to be going great for a couple days or a week, then all of a sudden they stop talking to you for no reason. Dating makes no sense nowadays, and is even more confusing for the two involved. So -- and this is just an idea -- maybe we should say how we feel when we feel it instead of hiding behind those incredibly vague text messages that we are constantly trying to decode and purposely not responding for x amount of times to make ourselves seem cool. But yeah, that’s just a thought.
Our slang.
Can’t understand what a millennial is saying to you? That’s okay, because neither does the millennial saying it.
Shorthand, abbreviations, conjoined words, made up words and phrases about a certain meme can almost be considered a millennials alphabet. We guard these words with our lives.
A few examples:
“The Struggle is real.”
When millennials use this phrase, it usually means they are annoyed and or frustrated. They might tell you this phrase to get some sort of sympathy or to justify that their problem is “real” and an “actual hardship.”
“V”
Now, this one might confuse more of you. Millennials use this letter as a word, although, yes, we do realize it is only a singular letter. We might say this because it adds some context and emphasis to what we were already saying. For example, “I’m v excited about this weekend,” this is just shorthand for saying you are "very" excited without typing as many letters.
“Daddy”
This one is my personal favorite. Millennials have managed to change a perfectly normal and endearing term for a father into a sexualized concept. What a time to be alive, am I right? Let me be more clear here: millennials now use the term “daddy” to refer to one's boyfriend in a sexual way. Why? I have no idea, but it is truly amazing that we have managed to change the meaning of a perfectly sensible term into yes, you guessed it, something sexual. For example, a millennial might accidentally call their friend “daddy” and continue to hate themselves for hours after because of the sexual connotations that now go along with it.
“It me”
Once again, this is another abbreviation. This one is short for “it’s me” and is often used as a term of agreement and self-identification. So, point to a plastic bag floating through the wind a piece of trash on the floor, or a nice looking flower -- it's all the same if you say “it me.”
Social Media.
We live in a world where the only things that matter are getting likes on your Instagram pictures, favorites on your tweets, and followers on every other social media account. And while social media can be a really great marketing and networking tool, millennials have just taken it too far. From getting that perfect Instagram picture of the food you ate earlier that day to your friend's super trendy picture of the beach you guys went to afterward, there is just no meaning behind it other than to get the most amount of likes. Our lives are consumed with them: favorites, re-tweets, page views, to the point that people are even paying actual money for followers. Lets get it together people! There is more to life than portraying yourself a certain way online.
Whether it’s the dating scene that makes you want to punch yourself in the throat, or the sexualized shorthand we use, just know that us millennials don’t necessarily like it either. It's hard being a millennial with all the self-comparisons we make online, and figuring out what apple product we want to buy next. Remarkably, we will be known as the generation of “technological consumption with a side of Starbucks.”
But, you know what? I’m okay with it, because we all know that the generation(s) after ours will probably be much, much worse.
