Stop judging my age and my time!
The word “Millennials” is hurled like a curse word in high school. Constantly we hear things like “these Millennials are screwing this up” or “constantly changing that” and “it’s because of those dang Millennials!” Hold on, pause, what even are Millennials? By definition, a person reaching young adulthood in the early 21st century. Although in the eyes of everyone over 30, it sounds more like the death of society.
I’ve never been thrilled with generalization. I absolutely hate being categorized like I mean nothing individually. Sure I’m a kid, I’m 15! As a grown adult, shouldn’t you know right from wrong, like calling names. Last time I checked the entire world wasn’t still in kindergarten.
For example, on Valentine’s Day I went to Qdoba with my boyfriend. They had a promotion saying if you kiss at the register you could get a free entree. It sounded like a total steal since I absolutely love Qdoba. Ahead of us in line I saw an elderly couple kiss and just nudged my boyfriend like “how sweet”. When we got to checkout, the clerk was super weird about our quick smooch and almost looked disgusted. This wasn’t some random public display, it’s Valentine’s Day and it’s your promotion!
When I looked around, embarrassed from her initial reaction, I saw several couples and just regular people around looking at us like we were something on the bottom of their shoe. We sat down to eat and I couldn’t help thinking I don’t need this. Why does a matter of 10-15 years make one age group better than the next? Why do people hate us, when we are just like them to an extent!?
One reason would be the fact that we are glued to our phones 24/7. According to smallbiztrends.com, messaging dates back to 1988 when internet relay chats, or IRC, were on home computers. The first social media website was called Six Degrees, created in 1997. Six Degrees was a website where you could upload a profile and make friends with other users. In 1999, the first blogging sites became popular, and that sparked today’s social media outrage.
After the invention of blogging, social media began to explode in popularity. Sites like MySpace and LinkedIn gained prominence in the early 2000s, and sites like Photobucket and Flickr facilitated online photo sharing. YouTube came out in 2005, creating an entirely new way for people to communicate and share with each other across great distances.
2006 was when Facebook and Twitter both became available to users throughout the world. Sites like Tumblr, Spotify, Foursquare and Pinterest began popping up to be more specific in offering what people wanted. Today, there are over 200 social networking sites, and many of them can be linked to allow cross-posting.
Social media isn’t the only reason we Millennials are disliked. We grew up in the age of new technologies coming out every day. Since we’re used to adapting to the newest iPhones and tablets, change is easier for us than it is for others. For example, a common myth is that we have it so easy and that we’re lazy. Let’s look at this with help from venngage.com.
The internet grew at super speed, and this access to information puts a spotlight on Millennials. Just because the Kardashians try to use it to get money and cause drama doesn’t mean everyone else that partakes in instantaneous sharing is bad. Thousands of Millennials are positively impacting the world.
Millennials actually don’t have it easy. Unemployment has been decreasing for the general population, but for millenials its 18%, 40% less than the Gen X generation. Although, if you are between 18-29 and looking for a job, unemployment is double the rate of people at age 30.
As far as our laziness – are you kidding me? We start more businesses than the Baby Boomers, doubling the amount of people who would create a business. To top it even more, we’re doing it at almost half the age. Sure you could argue that we’re doing it with technology so it’s easier, but is it? Older generations know the difficulty in trying to figure out what button does what, let alone change every day. Regarding using our phones, that’s how even those far beyond 30 respond to calls, emails, and other things work-related. There’s a line between addicted and using.
Just like most conflicts today, it’s just so easy to blame a scapegoat. In this case, not a minority but a generation, the Millennials. All it takes is one split second, a bite into a taco or a kiss, to really see and think about something. You can’t just hate someone because they’re a little different than you. Maybe the older generations could recognize they’re frustrated at trying to keep up with us and stop looking at us with disgust or blame. Sometimes you just have to walk in our Converses to see what it’s really like as a Millennial.
