Millennials are have entered, and are rapidly still entering the workforce, or not. Millennials love to define themselves, which is odd considering the term "millennial" wasn't even coined by millennials. It was coined by baby boomers, given to separate generations by years they were born, and as time goes on, characteristics they share.
Millennials have quickly become the most educated and diverse generation, yet people are so quick to say that all they want are participation trophies.
Trophies that we never asked for, and didn't want in the first place.
Having broad general statements about millennials especially ignores the fact that this generation has a vast array of communities and identities in it that other generations did not have.
Furthermore, though millennials have grown up with luxuries such as the internet and more easily attainable education, and better education, that doesn't change the fact that there are new and mounting pressures for the generation to face. Considering millennials the "laziest" generation blatantly ignores the fact that most jobs now require far less manual labor than they did in the times of the greatest or silent generation, and now are more doable out of the office. Email, phone calls, and other documents are able to be handled at home or at a coffee shop now.
Millennials are a generation driven by, well, drive. The "hussle" and the "grind" are typical terms heard among millennials now, who are enrolled in college, had taken multiple AP classes, were involved in sports, band, JROTC, did community service, took foreign languages, studied abroad, and are now either balancing jobs while paying student loans or doing what their own parents told them to do: not grow up too fast. There is nothing wrong with seeing the world you were given to see, or finding a way to lead a meaningful or impactful life. There's nothing wrong with being involved politics, which previous generations seem to love to criticize, since this involvement is in a way they did not expect it to be. There is nothing wrong with feeling like there is always something better you can do, there is always something to gain from seeking improvement.
To claim millennials seek instant gratification and confidence through likes via various social media outlets may be true, but forgets that these social media outlets also spread diversity, acceptance, and new ideas with various body positive movements.
But still, you have individuals who pride themselves on not being millennials, which oddly enough is the very thing that makes them a millennial. An identity that differs from the masses. This generation is incredibly diverse in worldviews, sexuality, genders, and ideas. From what I have observed in the short time I have been alive and the very small amount of people I have met, millennials are probably faced with some of the most daunting tasks yet: to fix an economy they had nothing to do with, to save the planet, to find the cure to diseases such as AIDs, to decide what is morally right or wrong in ways that didn't exist for previous generations (abortions, gay marriage, transgender rights etc.), to fight what they think is right that goes against decades of racism, sexism, and misogyny, and furthermore, to deal with the everalsting criticism of previous generations, and those who while being very millennial themselves, saying they are not a millennial, and do not believe special snowflakes, while in turn being one themselves.
Millennials are not currently romanticized in ways that prior generations are, such as the 80's with great music, movies, and abundant drug use, or the 40's and 50's with good old American values (excluding racism obviously). Millennials romanticize their own generation, with Saturday morning cartoons, Third Eye Blind, and Polaroid cameras, all while inventing a code that can do their 9-5 and stare at a computer screen all day style of job. There's nothing wrong with that, and there never will be anything wrong with that. Call it becoming "soft" or realizing there are problems that need to be fixed, and fixing them as opposed to saying "boys will be boys" or "that's the way it's always been"- because that's not the way it always has to, or needs to be.
