Millennials, from the perspective of a millennial…..
“Oh dear here we go again…..” many of you are thinking. But bear with me.
First of all, I detest labels and millenials are such a diverse group that labelling them for the sake of making fun of them or saying how “scary” or “useless” they are is just plain idiotic. But let’s bear with it for the sake of this article.
And note of interest here, I am a millennial. I am writing this from the perspective of one.
So let’s talk about some truths about this generation and dispel some myths, shall we?
1.We are not all equal in our aspirations and behaviour — Millenials are a hugely diverse group of many many people with many many stories to tell. Listen before attributing labels to people. Telling to a young man or woman who has worked to pay for college that millenials are “entitled” is a huge slap in the face of said person.;
2. We are not all self centered just because we use social media a lot — Social media is our means of communication and not a mirror. We’ve just expanded our social networks with the new means that were given to us. Would you ‘ve said that the generation that saw landlines being massified was “self centered” and “egocentric” because they didn’t write enough letters? So why are you saying this to millenials? More often social media is used by people to connect to others and collaboration happens often, even with perfect strangers. Just see what Project for Awesome does on a yearly basis http://www.projectforawesome.com/ and dare to call this egocentrism. Social Media is not the boogeyman , it’s just new technology. Douglas Adams said it best:
“I’ve come up with a set of rules that describe our reactions to technologies:
1. Anything that is in the world when you’re born is normal and ordinary and is just a natural part of the way the world works;
2. Anything that’s invented between when you’re fifteen and thirty-five is new and exciting and revolutionary and you can probably get a career in it.;
3. Anything invented after you’re thirty-five is against the natural order of things.” — Douglas Adams, The Salmon of Doubt
3. We research, a lot. And Many of Our Decisions are Data Driven — The internet is a bloody marvelous invention and we, as resourceful human beings, tend to try to put it to good use….to gather information. We research companies where we aspire to work, companies where we buy our stuff, people that we meet….we just want to gather knowledge. Companies complaining about difficulties hiring milennials more often than not have some skeletons in the closet to deal with. And millenials are finding those skeletons. Still wondering why it is difficult to hire them?
4. Stop Patronizing Us, Most of Us Know Our Limitations — We know that we lack experience, not giving us the opportunity to acquire it is the problem. Millenials need opportunities, not hearing every other day that we “had it easy”. Classifying every suggestion given by a millenial as “immature” doesn’t allow the generation to just try and prove it’s worth. We are the generation that has the highest education levels, however we are not being allowed to show it.;
5. We know that the current world economy is screwing us up big time — “Millenials don’t want to leave their parents homes” coupled with “You should feel blessed that you have a minimum wage job” is such a huge slap in a millenial’s face. We are not idiots. No one can live alone when rent in a lot of places is equal to the minimum wage. We don’t even need to discuss student debts, food, transportation, etc etc when minimum wages barely allow a person to have a roof over their heads. We “don’t contribute to the economy” because, after the essentials, with the wages being offered to millenials, we are left with barely any money. No money, no economic boom. Is it that difficult to understand? Isn’t it about time to fight for living wages, where wages are directly indexed to the cost of living in a place?
6. A lot of us are highly motivated by ethics and values — This one directly derives from number 3. When we research, we strive to make an impact in our work. We are seeing our climate being destroyed, political systems being rigged and down right injustice happening right close to home and you expect us to just shut up? We are actively trying to better our lives and our world and we want to have a voice in society. Join us instead of calling us “narcissistic”.
To sum up, stop using the word millenial as a stereotype. And if you really need to rant about it, use the old expression “kids these days”. It doesn’t put everyone in the same bucket.
Adam Conover said it wisely “Generations don’t exist, We made them up.”
