This week, the hashtag #HowToConfuseAMillennial was trending on Twitter. For several years, we've seen videos like this popping up saying how the Millennials are being set up to fail and we still live with our parents and want everything done for us. While this is just one millennial's opinion, I'm likely not alone when I tell you that I hate these stereotypes and would love it if they disappeared and never came back. This is debunking several of the most common millennial myths and will hopefully give you a little more knowledge and insight into the confusing generation you're now looking at.
1. Millennials and Gen Y are not the same thing
Sorry to burst your bubble! Starting off with some basics here - yes, I'm a Millennial. I was born in the mid 1990's just like most of the other students in college were. However, some of you 80s kids that are sitting back insisting that you're Gen Y and you can't be called a millennial - here's your wake up call. According to Pew Research Center, the Millennials were born from 1981 to 1997! If you'll note at the bottom of that infographic, it will also show you that there's not really a solid end date for our generation, though commonly it's seen as the late 90s, early 2000s. Gen Z is the generation of kids (born early 2000s and forward) that we're currently interacting with, just in case you didn't know.
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2. Millennials are narcissistic
A Time Magazine article that came out in May 2013 said just that. We're clearly super narcissistic for having pictures of ourselves around the house and taking pictures of things that matter to us. If you've not read my article 7 Reasons to Take More Pictures, you need to because it explains exactly why taking pictures isn't a bad thing. Beyond just that, that article just up and decided to diagnose about 75 million people (as of 2015, in the United States alone) with a social disorder. I don't know about you, but I don't feel like that's their area of expertise.
3. Millennials are entitled
Oooh, the buzzword of every millennial article. Sometimes it's used in tandem with the narcissistic word. Either way, it's annoying to almost any millennial who keeps getting dragged by the media. There are several great TED talks on the millennials and why we aren't broken, but Kelly Williams Brown does a good job of explaining entitlement in her TEDxSalem video. She makes a great point when she focuses on how 18-21 year olds, still in college, don't have a solid view about what life in the workforce is going to be. Some millennials (primarily the younger ones that are still in college) have only worked part-time during the year or at least during summer while they've been in college. Many of us have no idea what the workforce is like until we get there, which means how hard we'll need to work to succeed is vague right now.
4. Millennials are lazy
That Time Magazine article said this about millennials too. But are we really lazy? Or are we misunderstood? Kristen Hadeed in her TEDxStLouisWomen talk suggested that we aren't lazy but instead we were subject to an interesting form of parenting: Helicopter parenting. Don't get me wrong, I'm not blaming any parents (especially not my own) but when our parents are inclined to step in and protect us from everything because they don't want to see us fail, when they can't do that in college or the workforce we as millennials are going to stumble and fall. Not only that, but many millennials are unlike the Baby Boomers and Gen X in that we don't want to work 9-5 for no reason. In the same TEDx talk, Hadeed says that 100% of the millennials she asked about staying with one company or bouncing around said they wanted to stay and work in one place. They would rather climb the ladder in a place they believe in as opposed to working for multiple companies. We just want to work somewhere we believe in.
5. Millennials can't communicate without their phones
I really dislike hearing this one. It's just downright false for the most part. The thing is, the way Boomers and Gen X communicates is becoming less and less prominent - they just don't want to acknowledge that. For example: one of the tweets under #HowToConfuseAMillennial was a picture of a rotary phone with the caption "ask them to make a phone call on this!" Rotary phones haven't been popular since the 70s, which is before any millennial was born. Funnier still, some of us do know how to use them and the others of us would be able to figure it out. How we communicate has changed even since I got through high school! Everyone is texting, email is slowly becoming less popular (though I use it a lot for work and school, less for personal), and Instant Messaging has all but disappeared. Phone calls are still here, face-to-face communication is still here, but we've been working on that since we were children. I can talk on the phone, but if I can email someone it tends to be a more efficient use of time and faster for both parties involved. Phone calls are for when something needs to be figured out that moment.
6. Millennials are unprepared for the working world
In some ways, sure. That's why ECU is offering an "adulting" class soon - because people are having trouble with basic skills we should have already learned. It's hard to learn them, though, when you're being pushed along a path in high school that highly recommends AP and Honors classes whenever possible. There's not room for life skill classes, especially if you're passionate about something else (aka: computer science, chorus, theater, athletic training, history, sociology, psychology, etc). The "adulting" class is useful, but please don't blame us for needing to learn those skills now.
This is just the beginning of the myths I could spend my time talking about and debunking. If you really want to know more, ask a Millennial. Think about a millennial you really like and just ask them a question. If you're still confused, it might help to watch some of the TEDx videos above or any of the suggested ones on the side that are talking about our generation. I'm definitely not the first, and I won't be the last to talk about all of this. We already make up 1/2 of your workforce, we're going to be the leaders next, and you know what? We're going to be great. We're learning from those who have come before us, made mistakes before us, and changing the way we see fit. Don't believe me? Just watch.
