You didn't actually come here to read about the problem with millennials right? Because if so, don't click away, here me out. A few days ago I watched a video by Alexis Bloomer called "The Problem with Millennials Through the Eyes of a Millennial". Here Alexis Bloomer gives a well thought out opinion from her car on the issue of why our generation is Entitled, Lazy, and Worthless. Now I'm going to be honest. After I watched this video, I went on a quick 5 minute Twitter rant on how I absolutely despised everything she said. But here I am a few days later with a clearer mind to continue the discussion and write a response on the video and how this mindset on how today's generation includes a bunch of failures is a very ignorant mindset to be quite honest. If you haven't watched the video yet, look for it on FaceBook, or not, and then come back and read this article and hopefully you'll understand where I'm coming from.
Contribution to the World
"Well, as a millennial, I took it upon myself to try to evaluate what's so wrong with our generation and why [the older generation] is so mad at us. And I pretty much realized that we're JUST existing and we're not really contributing anything to society."
Man, are we just a waste of time and space. All 75.4 million of us. Now I know she didn't mean all of us literally and especially not the whole world but just think about it. The idea that we literally haven't contributed anything to society. Open your eyes world. We have artists, entrepreneurs, scholars, and just GOOD people who have contributed to society to make the world a safer, more caring place. If not the world then the US. Change has been made in the US. More so than ever thanks to President Obama, where people of minorities can have a safe place to live without feeling discriminated against. Sure this is a work in progress, especially ever since MLK, but change has been made more than ever, and without our influence; without our need to love and accept others, this country would be run by big businesses and the ideals of white supremacy. She goes on to speak about our lack of manners towards older people using words like "no ma'am or yes ma'am" which is honestly a lost cause because lets not pretend that it's the only way to show respect towards others while using outdated language. She also stated something about our lack of holding doors for women and elders which is just ridiculous. Sorry, as a millennial, holding doors is just too much work.
Culture
"We listen to really obscene music that degrades women and pretty much glorifies crime. We start to cuss now to prove a point, we use words like bae to describe someone we love, and we idolize people like Kim Kardashian and we shame people like Tim Tebow."
I'm going to be honest, this culture that we have now isn't the best. But to talk about obscene music that degrades women isn't a new thing. She is just using the idea of RnB and Hip-Hop music to classify us all under the same umbrella. Sure mainstream music isn't the cleanest but to tell me that this has only been around since our time is ridiculous. Honestly, take a History of Rock and Roll class and tell me that the majority of that is clean. We cuss, big deal, so does literally everyone else, not only millennials. Bae. I hate that word, but that honestly is similar to many other words people use to describe someone we love like baby, babe, honey. It's no different. And to end with the celebrity aspect, we as a culture absolutely love to worship celebrities. Again though, is that something that hasn't been a common theme? People do idolize Kim Kardashian, not for what she did to rise to fame but because of, well I'm not really sure. And people do shame Tim Tebow because he's Christian and does sports. No one ever said the world would love us.
Entitlement
"We're lazy, we're really entitled, and we want to make a lot of money and have free education but we're not really willing to put in the work."
This last paragraph will be an opinion on the last half of the video. We sure are a bunch of lazy, entitled looking people wanting free education. Has anyone really looked into why we may want free education? Because as opposed to the last generation, school didn't cost tens of thousands of dollars. It's not that we don't want to work hard for school, we choose to go to school. It's the fact that it's physically impossible to work to pay off all of your debts and loans for school on your own. And once we finish school, we are still paying. For YEARS. So it's not surprising that we may want free school. She went on to bash on our need for standing up for something by using FaceBook to air out our opinions. Umm, I may be wrong but that's literally what she did. But honestly, what is so wrong about that. Social media has given us a platform to tell TRUTH. Truth of so many different topics that expose the bad things that truly go on in this world. What's funny then is that she criticizes us on going out and actually protesting. She directs this with our disrespect towards our country by stepping on our flag. Now I don't at all agree with people stepping on our flag, but if people are mad and want to protest, they can do that. It's our right.
She ultimately closes with how this country is so divided due to us. False. We have actually brought the country closer together, or at least thats my opinion. LGBTQ, women, and minorities have started to feel way more secure about being in this country and participating in society because we have allowed them to feel that way. So don't be surprised when we have just elected a President that could possibly get rid of all of our progress. We don't value tradition because that tradition excluded different types of people. We want a country where everyone can be celebrated. I for one know that what has been happening in this country has not been a mistake, and whether you agree with what's been going on or not, I know that progress has been made, and that cannot be excused.
