In October 2004, researchers Neil Howe and William Strauss defined millennials "as those born in 1982 and approximately the 20 years thereafter." In 2012, they affixed the end point as 2004 . You can read the relevant article here.

Today, in 2016, a mere 12 years after this current unlabeled generation began taking its literal baby steps into the limelight, a relatively new phenomenon in the social media world is 'the bite sized cooking video'. You know the kind; Tasty, Delish, Tasty on Buzzfeed, and what have you; the result of what seems to be someone strapping a video camera to their forehead, making simple, yet impressive breakfast, lunch or dinner dishes, a few generous taps of the fast-forward button and voila! A (more often than not), sub-60 second, point of view video, encapsulating everything that the television cooking shows of yesteryears may well have used an infamous 'to be continued...' to convey to audiences across the world at the time. All the while, these audiences hunger for yet another way in this over-stimulated world to excite their taste buds a delightfully ironic way, these short videos, just a fraction of the information (tidbit and full size) that we are bombarded with day in and day out all over the internet, and the screens of our televisions, laptops and smart phones.

Just like so many other intersecting personalities and groups of people, millennials are often faced with their own sets of stereotypes: entitlement, laziness, uncertainty, a sense of wandering, and what many call smartphone addiction, to name a few. However, a miniscule, ever so specific example of our impact on the history of human civilization, these aforementioned concise cooking videos, in their own way, shed great deal of light on the era of human (soon to be) history we are a part of and the perceptions and/or challenges faced by the generation (probably) you and I both inhabit: The Millennials.

So just why are these short videos revealing of the state of the Millennial generation in particular?

The first sign is the way they use time, just like we do, attempting to do as many things as we can in a day as efficiently as possible. Even if we have a day we consider ‘lazy’, the way we feel about it is understood in comparison to a busy day, especially between the pages of a time in college. When evaluating your feelings about things you did in a day you will probably think one of the following, at some point or the other:

“Wow! What a productive day I’ve had!”

or

“I’m so glad I did nothing today! It was really relaxing”

or

“Why did I do nothing? What a waste of a day and my time”

or

“Time you enjoy wasting, was not wasted”

Ok, you got me, that last one was a John Lennon quote. To me, though it seems like something important to remember when bombarded with all the information, expectation and contemplation we are handed, given, force fed or calmly accept in any given day. When a video teaching someone how to leisurely cook a dish must shave off seconds like it was an Olympic swimmer in training to find some way to stick its helpful little instruction giving head into our day to day lives, it seems like need to relax just a little bit.

I will admit I am guilty of overthinking various aspects of my day from time to time, and (it’s so nice I wrote it thrice) time is something that I overthink, like so many of us do: “How did I use my time?”, “Oh no, what if I wasted all this time?” and so on. Time only passes. That is all it does. We use it how we choose to use it in the present minute, second and nanosecond, consciously or unconsciously. It is what it is and overthinking about time passed or time to come is something prevalent in the Millennial generation, where we are placed in an almost universal mindset of relative achievement; what have I achieved today in comparison to what other people are doing? Maybe many of us think that? Isn’t it possible we work to get college degrees, jobs and the like, in some way, for fear of not having those things? We seem to strive for tangible, visible, displayable achievements; awards, degrees, acceptance from employers, family and friends or colleagues. It is often hard to pull back from that and I try to do that as much as I can as well.

While all those things we strive for do encourage hard work, and help us grow, and so on, it makes us forget in our rush, the individual, unique goals we accomplish. The things that make us smile, breaking out of the day to day days that we all experience one way or the other. The fear we overcame, the joke we shared with a friend. My favourite song that I listened to on my way to class today, or the smell of food that reminds me of home. The love I shared and received. The people you meet. The unstoppable progress you make every single day, whether it shows itself on paper, in your mind or in your heart. Finding yourself in one way or the other happens every day. That is why no time is wasted. Everything you do everyday makes you who you are and defines the plot of the feature film (or web series, whatever floats your boat) of your Life. This may seem like a huge conclusion to draw based on a BuzzFeed food video, but what could speak to our generation more than an emphasis on results, results, results.

Fortunately for us, even though we do not see the time consuming steps behind the video, fast forwarded or not, our destinations, (the direction of our Lives as mind boggling as they may always seem when we give them specific, uncertain, panicked mind), the final dishes, remain the same. They always show up, one way or the other, stunning as ever. Maybe if we all take a step back, and try and be mindful of our own pace and our own journey, we’ll see the beauty in it all. We will get our five minute chicken tenders, or whatever it is you’re trying to make.

As you sit and watch these fast-forwarded food instructionals, you notice their design resembles much of how we live/have been told at some point to live our lives. Like our lives nowadays, these food videos are all about immediate results. Watch it again. Notice how quickly it moves? How quickly we watch the progress?

Chicken.
BAM!
Salt and pepper.
BAM!
Fry.
BAM!
Flip.
BAM!
Remove from pan.
BAM!
THERE YOU HAVE IT: GENERIC CHICKEN FOR THE PURPOSE OF THIS ARTICLE.

You get the idea.

The information we consume doesn’t allow us to take in a full experience of any kind. It is designed for results and efficiency, rather than authenticity, imperfections or just the joy of an experience.

We’ve lost the ability to look at the miniscule things that make up our journey, or we’ve just been conditioned out of it. These tidbit videos may be far too specific an example for some, but they reflect our lives and the constructed society we live in as people and millennials. Millennials who work, love, laugh, get frightened and may have no idea about what is to come or who they are, people who are certain they know who they are, and, as is obvious from the subject matter being recipe videos, people who need to eat. So to all my millennials out there, have fun finding yourself; we’re all looking. Or at least I am

Much love.
-Rohaan