How many times have you seen something negative about Millennials?

Social media is a hot spot for roasting Millennials. Heck, McDonald's latest commercial has a Grandmom dissing Millenials. It has basically become the norm to view Millennials in a negative way.

Millennials, the nickname for the generation born between the late 1980's to the early 2000's, have been getting the short end of the stick when it comes to the way society views us. They call us lazy, technology-addicts, and self-centered. But are these labels even true? Are all Millennials guilty of these? I say no.

The idea that Millennials are lazy is preposterous. Yes, sometimes we do not want to clean our room or have days when we just sit on the couch and watch Netflix all day. It happens. But why exactly do we do this? Well, don't all human-beings have lazy days? Don't we all have something we should be doing right now rather than being on social media where you're probably reading this.

My point is, to confuse a break day and laziness is wrong.

Now, I know what older generations will say to this. "Back in my day, we didn't have time to watch TV or lay in bed. I worked from sun-up to sun-down 365 days a year." While I hardly doubt these types of statements to be true, I won't take that away from anyone. I have great respect for those who've sacrificed so much so they could one day live better lives.

Heck, I idolize the "Greatest Generation." But it is unfair to assume young adults today don't work hard too. Many of us are working several jobs a day because the family needs it and still achieve an education.

Times are still tough for many in this country. We are also being held to higher standards than ever before in school. We all know that standardized tests rule the schools now. In my schooling alone I witnessed tests go from a day or two to three weeks long. Yes, three weeks long. The stresses that are put on our youth today are unbelievable. We test them to death to the point of school no longer being fun and then tell them if they don't do well they will never get a good job. You tell me, would you not have an overload? I certainly do.

Also, we are called technology addicts. I don't think I need to argue too much here. Yes, we can be. We do crave the newest iPhone and PlayStation. We stare at screens a lot. But there also has been a movement within this generation to push away from that. In my one class, we took a show-of-hands to see what percentage of the class preferred paper to a screen. All but one student raised their hand.

For a while it looked like books would become a thing of the past. Kindles would take over and all assignments would be done electronically. Next thing you know, Barnes & Noble loyals and many Millennials fought for books to stay. Now you rarely see anyone reading on a Kindle.

My point is, technology may be taking off everywhere, but there is a large part of the world that is returning to traditional methods. And let me be real for second-everyone has become a technology addict, not just the youth. Our parents and grandparents are on Facebook, sometimes more than us. Once again, to say this is strictly a Millennial problem is wrong.

And of course, there is the argument that we are self-centered. We only care about ourselves and things that directly relate to us. We don't know about the issues going on in our community; we just care about how many likes our picture on Instagram got.

Again, this is dead wrong. True, I know plenty of people like this, but you best believe half of them are from previous generations. But since I've overused that argument, I will use other examples. When I was student-teaching last year, I did not witness the kids worrying about who had the cooler Jordan's, I actually heard them talking about the election. They were talking about real issues, more than the mainstream media would dare mention. Many were genuinely concerned about both candidates becoming elected. I don't think I've ever been more proud of our youth.

Last year as well I saw more college kids become involved with the election than I can remember from previous elections. Whether wearing "Make America Great Again" hats or yelling "FEEL THE BERN", it was evident politics were alive on these campuses.

Also, many Millennials have become apart of something bigger than themselves. At Penn State, thousands of students raise millions each year for pediatric cancer through THON. Many run in breast cancer awareness marathons. Countless volunteer at homeless shelters. I'm not saying these are unique to this generation, but we certainly have kept the train chugging along.

I guess my point here is, don't judge my generation by the few individuals that give us a bad rap. Yes, there are some seriously spoiled brats that have never worked a day in their life. Yes, we as a generation could improve. I am not saying we are perfect. It would be nice if we could be a little less offended here and there. I think many of these problems we have are not simply a generational thing, but a human thing. There are examples of this in every generation, from every walk of life.

There's a lot of good in Millennials. We are going to change the world, and I would say it will be for the better.