Alexis Bloomer is a young journalist who decided to speak up and “apologize” for her generation. She investigated into why so many people hate on millennials, and came up with a few reasons. Most of these reasons aren’t reasons at all, but stereotypes.
Stereotypes are human-made generalizations based on a small percentage of a larger group of people that are created from exposure. Exposure to something that irks them. But the truth is stereotypes aren’t accurate. They’re opinions. Not all white girls like coffee. Not all college kids drink alcohol or experiment with drugs. Not all homeless people are going to steal your money. Not all girls are sluts. Not all boys are jerks. Stereotypes have ruined society by tearing us apart into groups.
Here are a few of the stereotypes that Alexis mentions in her two-minute rant.
“We’re just existing. We’re not really contributing anything to society.”
We’re doing our best. Half of the millennials are still in school, learning how to develop ourselves. We’re still finding who we are. We have to make something of ourselves before you notice us. The other half are in the beginning stages in their career. Not many can make a nationwide difference doing a coffee run.
“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.”
I’ll admit, I used to think the exact same way as Alexis. In high school, I would think I was one of the only people working hard. I would be doing my best work at home, honestly and on my own, and as soon as I got to class the next day, someone would snatch my paper to copy down the answers because they were too lazy to do it. I saw it every day. I would also hear the stories about how high someone got during lunch. Or how drunk someone was over the weekend. I would hear the same group talk non-stop about their follower count and what their next Instagram caption would be.
What I didn’t notice was half of the class handing in their completed work. I didn’t notice the person who had the locker down the hall sprinting in a uniform to get to their job after school. I didn’t notice the people who had lunch money only because they were babysitting all last weekend. I didn’t notice the people who sat in classrooms at lunch because they wanted some one-on-one time with the teacher in a class they needed to do better in. There’s a reason I didn’t notice any of these people. They blended in. They were exactly like the majority of the population there. They weren’t loud or obnoxious or complaining. They were working. They were there to do what they needed and move on.
My point is the only reason stereotypes exist is because the people we base them off of stand out. They go against the natural crowd. They’re different. The rest of the people around us aren’t lazy jerks who smoke weed at lunch. They’re hard-working, purposeful people trying to make something of themselves.
“We spend more time online making friends than we do actually building relationships. Our idea of standing up for something that we believe in means going on Facebook and posting a status with your opinion. And we believe that the number of followers we have reflects who we are as a person.”
First off, let’s start with how Alexis Bloomer posted this video. On Facebook. Because she has a large number of “friends” on there. Over 187K. Thing is — you can’t criticize people today for using social media to get a message out. Social media platforms are the most convenient, most controlled and most updated form of news. Almost everyone is on Twitter and Facebook today. There’s nothing wrong with that. Social media is at our fingertips; it’s a fantastic resource we have. Three of my college classes so far have required that I have a running social media account. People take advantage of having a large number of followers by posting what they need to say. It’s effective.
“We’re more divided as a country than ever before, and I think our generation actually has a lot to do with that.”
I would love to have this part explained. Generation Y is known for being tech-savvy. Tell me how going on my iPhone has crumbled the United States as a society.
“Nothing has value in our generation, because we take advantage of everything.”
Let’s look at a few things that can be considered valued in society.
Women.
Never valued for anything other than a housewife, until recent years when we started fighting against the wage gap, the stereotypes and the harassment. Topics most popular in today’s society.
Education.
I promise you. Check out a college campus during finals week. You won’t find students sleeping in the corners of the library because they “don’t value” their education.
Money.
We’re trying. Sure, some of us can be sloppy with money, but that’s because we’re learning.
“Now I see why they call us Generation Y. Like, Y are we so entitled because we don’t deserve to be, and we were raised better than this?”
There’s a common theme here. Generation Y did not create the world we live in, but rather we were born into it. There were people here before us. Generations before us. Those generations are the ones that made mistakes, and now we’re here to fix them. So before you hate on the millennials, give us a chance to fix the big boo-boos that weren’t given care, like the economy, the values and the division.
Give us a chance. There’s a lot to do, and maybe we can’t do it alone. We’ll need the help of our wise elders to get this society back in the running. The world is a crazy place, and it’s no one’s fault for that. But it takes everyone — absolutely everyone — to make the world a better place. So let’s stop hating on each other and work together, shall we?
There will always be people who will stand out for not doing the popular action. They are the ones we need to stop paying attention to. Let’s start paying attention to the real millennials, the majority.
