Hello iPhone loving, work-loathing, Insta-living, selfie-savoring, organic-seeking FOMO friend that sings to the symphony of Snapchat shooting and self-fueled spirituality.

Was that too far...or too accurate? If you have spent your life being more-or-less automatically aligned with these attributes by age alone, you're probably part of the millennial generation. "The term Millennials is usually considered to apply to individuals who reached adulthood around the turn of the 21st century," which is a standard and applicable definition supplied by WhatIs.com. However, as we all know, the title "millennial" digs into who we are and not just how old we are.

Some preliminary notes: First, there's no escaping your generation. If you're born into it, there's no disbanding from being a member, however, there is room to stand apart from millennial generalization. Second, the stigma that marks millennials is not cruel or harsh. Millennials do embody some of the criteria that definitively suggest our generation to be the fame-favoring, technology-phasing, raving-partiers we're assumed to be. Even if these attributes do not represent you, hearing what other generations say and believing it to be "harsh judgment" is taking great offense to a single idea, and if anything, makes one more subject to being viewed as a classic millennial. Here are some tips for avoiding the negative implications of the millennial generation.

It's a safety net. It's access to a personal network. We network constantly. We depend on our phones. Every millennial knows it and we all try to defend how we're not addicted. James A. Roberts, head of the Marketing Department at Baylor University, constructed a study alongside several other collegiates titled, "The invisible addiction: Cell-phone activities and addiction among male and female college students". The study focused on the development and reasoning behind heavy cell phone usage: Click here to check out the study! A valid point he makes during the explanatory portion of the testing is aligning cell-phone addiction to substance addiction. "Any entity (cell phone) that can produce a pleasurable sensation has the potential of becoming addictive," and "behavioral addiction is best understood as a habitual drive or compulsion to continue to repeat a behavior despite its negative impact on one’s well-being..." We're losing eye contact to emerging, habitual practices. We're losing social construct to Pinning clothes and Instagramming meals. Since a fair portion of us fall to the smartphone calling, maybe hanging up for a few seconds is what we need. Maybe taking a 10-minute walk outside without our phones will help put us back in the world.

The 11th Commandment: "Thou shalt not complain when it's free."
Anyone else's dad make this "joke?" Well, mine did. Was it annoying? Oh, yes. Was it needed? Even more so. If you would like to disassociate from the particularly negative aspects of our generation, focus on the good, not the annoying. Ann Hodgman wrote an article for WebMD that included a breakdown of self-analyzation with a game plan to stop complaining. She questioned "..how often did I say anything without a negative twist? I don't want my tombstone to read She was pretty nice, except for all the whining. So I'm taking action. I'm going to try to stop complaining for a month. Wait, make that a week. Seven days of 'If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all.' I can stay upbeat for that long...can't I?" Well, based on her article, she did. Fellow millennial, can you?

Open minded...with discernment. There is a massive calling in the community today to be open-minded. However, being "open-minded" has taken a turn for judgment recently, whereby those who resist being open to ideas based on their own reasons are seen as judgmental. Discernment is the component we Millennials need to understand. Merriam-Webster supplies a great definition for discernment: "The quality of being able to grasp and comprehend what is obscure." Which means there are obscure ideas being thrown our way, and without discernment, we behave in a passive manner towards important issues. Accepting of anything and everything, if you will. If you wish to separate from the ebb and flow of bland follow-along Millennial ideas, have an opinion and back it up. Do research on conflicting issues and make a stand for what you believe instead of offering the standard "it's whatever" mentality. Stand your ground in comparison to simply agreeing with the masses.

There will never be splitting or separating from a generation; If you're stuck with being a millennial - that much is true. However, the generalization that you're of the same mannerisms as your peers is up to you. Throughout this explanation on separating from stigma, rest assured there are incredibly positive things about Millennials, too. We seek transparency with agencies, we desire healthy methods for food produciton and honesty in business, we're tech-savvy multitaskers. Fellow millennials, let's be focused, diligent, empathetic and intelligent individuals who place emphasis on bettering the Millennial name in comparison to staring at the distance between us and other generations.