One of my biggest pet peeves is hearing someone from another generation slamming "kids today." Being a kid today sucks, believe me. Yes, we have access to more: more technology, more ways to keep in touch, more ways to research, more opportunities to improve the world we live in. But does that really outweigh the shit we have to get through?
Most of my friends have two jobs. I go to school full-time, I work two jobs, and I'm just one of the many. You hear people complaining about how lazy our generation is, but fail to realize that most of us are working and putting ourselves through school because we can't get more than a minimum wage job without a degree. Also, the amount is costs to put yourself through school has sky-rocketed. The average amount of time needed at a minimum wage to pay for school used to 8.44 hours a day for a single credit hour. Today, that 8.44 has turned into 60.
You hear people talk about how technology is ruining society. It's not. People with social anxiety are now able to communicate through a safe, comfortable medium rather than becoming extremely introverted. Also, cell phones aren't ruining the way we communicate. If I can send a text to my friend making sure they got home safe, and I'm able to get instant confirmation, I can't imagine why anyone would be against that. And oh my God, if I get nasty looks for taking a selfie one more time, I might lose my mind. We have access to a way to remember days decades from now. If I look cute and it's important to me, I can easily take a photo of myself without losing any of my brain cells to show my posterity.
You hear people talk about how selfish millennials are. Let's consider for a moment the utter shit storm that was 2008. The previous generation's greed led to some of the worst economic conditions since the Great Depression. Let's talk about Baby Boomers running our system into the ground, and then blaming us for not being able to afford health care on our own until we're 26.
Millennials are just older generation's scapegoat. In reality, millennials are kind of awesome. In a study done by Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices, they found that millennials are the generation most freaked out over rising interest rates (could it have something to do with student loans?) and the rise of left-field politicians like Bernie Sanders in the Democratic presidential race show just how much power millennials wield.
No, no generation is perfect. But you can't make one generation a punching bag just because you aren't happy with the world that's been given to you.
