Each generation has been dubbed a name that groups a large number of people together. Traditionalists are anyone born before 1945, Baby Boomers are born anywhere between 1946 and 1964, Gen X are people born between 1965 and 1976, you also even have Gen Z, or Centennials who were born after 1996, and then there's us: Gen Y, or as many like to call us, the Millennial's. We are the group born anywhere between 1977 and 1995.
There are countless articles, studies and opinions out there about Millennials, and all are usually in the same thought process. Millennials are "lazy," "entitled," and "spoiled brats," – the list goes on and on. According to many, mainly those in the Baby Boomer generation, we are basically just a waste of space and expect everything to be handed to us. I am here to dispute that argument completely.
You say we're "entitled?" Why? Because we expect to have a job when we graduate after busting our asses for four (or more) years in college, drowning ourselves in debt in the process? It's also next to impossible to find a semi-well paying job in this economy nowadays because, guess what, the baby boomers destroyed it. Most people in generation Baby Boomer and Gen X had jobs straight after graduation. It's a lot harder to do that now, and they don't see it that way because they didn't have to experience being denied from an entry level job because they didn't have 3 plus years of experience.
You say we are "lazy" and "spoiled" because most of us move back in with our parents after we graduate from college. Please refer back to the last paragraph about that crippling amount of debt that we put ourselves in. And we did it because of what we were taught by all of you.
I'm not here to completely bash other generations, but rather to defend my own. We've been told our entire lives to go to college because it's the right thing to do. We were told that we have to go to college so that we can get a good job. No one told us that we would basically have to sell our soul in student loans and tuition to do it.
We are also known as the generation that doesn't know how to socialize unless it's through a phone, tablet, or social media site. I absolutely hate this about our generation because it's true. But again, it isn't only Millennials who have succumbed to this way of life. Every single generation is seen with their nose stuck in their phones or tablets. Many Traditionalists think that Social Media Management careers are ridiculous and don't exist. They refuse to believe that the world is changing and that more people get their news from Twitter than from a newspaper.
So, all I am saying is stop saying these negative things about us when you have no idea what it's like to be a twenty-something in this economy. It's because of the negative stigma put on us that I despise the word "Millennial." We're all doing the best we can with the deck that we've been handed, so give us a break. We all aren't those lazy, spoiled brats that you think we are. We're just trying to make it in this economy that was ruined by all the generations that came before us.
