A few days ago, I watched a video where a young lady explains why her generation, Millennials, are the worst generation. One of the major points of the video is that almost all of Generation Y are selfish and lazy, too absorbed with social media, selfies and celebrities like Kim Kardashian. We are rude, we listen to degrading music, we cuss, and we use slang terms like "bae." Now don't get me wrong, I am definitely guilty of doing many of these. I love social media, I love to snapchat my friends selfies, I say the current slang terms every so often, and the music I listen to isn't exactly made for Kidz Bop. However, let me explain why this does not make us the "worst generation ever."
I guess we can start with the most popular argument used against Millennials, which is that we are lazy, rude and entitled. I hate to be the one to break it to the Baby Boomers and Generation X, but your generations are often guilty of this as well. Every generation contains rude, entitled, lazy little snots. That's just the fact of the matter. The biggest reason that tI have been called entitled is that I want college tuition to be lowered. College tuition has nearly doubled since the 80's. I fail to see how wanting an affordable college education makes me entitled and lazy. Wanting the minimum wage to be raised a few dollars also does not make us entitled and lazy. The minimum wage has not been matching the inflation rates, so technically those that worked minimum wage jobs back in the 1900's simply earned more than we do now. This means we are paying more and earning less. Now do you get why we are so upset?
Our pop culture is apparently godawful to the older generations, but that is only because they grew up in a time when a married couple couldn't be shown on screen together sleeping in the same bed. The popular TV show "I Dream Of Jeannie" got a lot of backlash for what the title character wore on the show, for instance. We have stupid slang terms like "bae" and "slay, yet back in other generations, they had equally ridiculous slang terms such as "foxy" and "the cat's pajamas." Also, if taking selfies is so horrible and self-absorbed, how come people used to sit for hours on end getting a self portrait painted to hang up in their study? Don't you think that's a little more self centered and ridiculous than snapping a quick selfie?
Lastly, the argument that we "cuss" too much is just laughable to be completely honest. Every generation cusses. Cuss words are simply words that humans came up with and assigned meaning to. If you are that concerned about a few bad words leaving people's lips, I don't think modern-day society is the right place for you. But then again, the people who complain about cussing are probably the same sort of people who were furious at the infamous line, "Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn."
Now, this is just a short summary of how these stereotypes and that video are a complete and total load of BS (oh look, more slang.) You coming at the Millennial generation with these accusations is like me saying that all baby boomers are racists because of segregation or that all of Generation X are complete pothead hippies or rock star burnouts. Both those accusations are very far from the truth, and are a complete generalization of a select few from the population.
As a Millennial, I am tired of logging into Facebook and seeing everyone over the age of 40 calling Millennials lazy and entitled. I know I am not, and I know a good chunk of my generation isn't either. There is no evidence whatsoever to back your claims up, so enough is enough.
