We are known as the “Lost Generation.” We are unambitious, lazy and immature. We are “lost in our technology,” never in the moment. Millennials have been called a lot of labels but never anything to attribute to their positive accomplishments. To stereotype a generation of two and a half million people into one negative attribute is like defining all American citizens as lazy, like most other countries do. I am not going to sit here and say that no one falls under the stereotypes millennials have been put under. Like any stereotype, there is some semblance of truth behind them. But, rarely is the good ever spotlighted above the bad.
We are obsessed with social media.
Kylie Jenner is a widely known public figure of this generation. On any given day, you will see her posting a minimum of four Instagram pictures and have about a 200 second Snap story. She is constantly getting attacked by social media and society in general for the provocative pictures she posts. Personally, they’re not my taste but no one deserves to be attacked by the whole world for their decisions. Especially, not an 18-year-old girl.
Malala Yousafzai is the youngest person to ever win a Nobel Peace Prize. In 2009, at the age of 12, Malala began to blog for the BBC to express the distress of the living conditions that she has experienced since the Taliban threatened to deny her an education. She had to use a pseudonym to hide her identity, but was still caught late in the same year. At the age of 15, a Taliban gunman shot Malala in the face on her way home from school. She was targeted because of the impact her activist work was making in society.
We are spoiled. We just move back home when we can’t find jobs after college.
“[The millennial generation] makes up about 40 percent of the unemployed in the U.S.” according to NewsWeek.com. I’m sorry, while emphasizing how little of us are employed after college did you remember to include some other helpful details? Perhaps the difference in college graduates between this generation and the last, or maybe even the difference in the amount of people in the United States alone. Millennials are considered to be anyone between the ages of 18 and 32. In 1980, the population of the U.S. was roughly 230 million people. Today it is 325 million.
Our moral standards are lower than they once were.
“What we see running through the answers is that where principles of fairness come up, millennials want to see equal access to health services, abortion and contraception. They think people should have individual freedom to make decisions.” This is generalizing everyone’s beliefs. Everything we do is publicized on a wider scale than ever. You can now see our every action at the tip of your fingers. Whether or not you agree with the actions we take, millennials are passionate about our beliefs.
The negative stereotypes that are thrown our way may be true for some people classified as millennials. But we are also caring like Malala, determined like the employed millennials we never hear about, and passionate like all those fighting for their beliefs. Once in awhile it's nice to hear about the good things millennials bring to the world. But who are we kidding, people would much rather hear about Kylie Jenner's lips size than triumphs of the so-called lost generation.
