"Millennials are so lazy!" complains a 60-plus-year-old man named Terry on Facebook, typing furiously away on his iPhone 7 plus "Back in my day, I went out and got my first job and my own place! why can't these kids do the same!"
Later that day, Terry called his adult son (who is, by the way, working 40 hours a week at a low-paying job) in the next room to bring him the remote that was sitting right in front of him on the coffee table.
OK, so that situation is extremely exaggerated but I am trying to make a point about the way Baby Boomers and the media talk about us Millennials. You see, Baby Boomers are ultimately the product of a time warp: they are, sadly, forever stuck in a world that still believes in the "American Dream." They came from a world where getting a college degree could lead to things like finding stable employment, buying a house, a new Chevrolet, marriage and eventually children. This was, of course, the product of a booming post-war economy which was given to them by their parents before them.
So, of course, they're going to be upset when they see young people not performing the same way that they did so many years ago.
Baby Boomers love to hurl around the word "Millennial" like some sort of offensive epithet for people of a certain age (funny, considering we're always told to respect our elders, even though they're insulting us). They constantly berate us for our obsession with technology and social media, yet call us to help because "the Netflix" isn't turning on. They call us lazy, yet they're the ones who call for us when they need the remote that's sitting right in front of them. What irritates me the most, is it seems like they think we aren't trying enough when we are actually doing our best to survive in a world driven by greed and capitalism.
In 1958, you could probably march yourself into your local grocer and demand a job from the manager but in 2018 it's a little different. Millennials are scouring the internet, searching for entry-level jobs, only to find that they require 7+ years of experience and a masters degree. It also doesn't help that wages in 2018 sucks, making it difficult for them to go out on their own and buy a house or rent an apartment (rent in 2018 is about $1,500 by the way). They could always have roommates, but it's still hard to pay rent and take care of yourself with a scarce paycheck.
So, why do Baby Boomers rag on Millennials so much? is it because they know that they're the ones who ruined the economy and want someone else to blame? maybe. Or, maybe it's because they're simply afraid of a changing world and want to revert back to a time that was simpler for them, a culture that made sense to them.
The Millennials I know, and myself, are trying their hardest to get a job and save some money that will hopefully get them where they need to go later in life. But for right now, get off our backs and let us do our thing, which is eating avocado toast and taking selfies with Snapchat filters.
