What is a "Millennial": According to Time Magazine, a millennial is any person born between the years 1980-2000. Just a group of people whose birthdays just so happened to fall between a twenty year span of possible birth dates.
I've heard it so often. I'm sure we all have: millennials are lazy and entitled. So right off the bat, we have established that the term "millennial(s)" has a negative connotation. When Gen Xs or Baby Boomers or the Silent/Mature generations talk about us "millennials," it almost always has a negative connotation. Almost every time that I've heard somebody a generation or more older than me speak about my generation, I can almost guarantee that the next words out of their mouth are going to be something about how lazy we are or something about how great it is that the voter turnouts for the 2016 primaries have been extremely high among the millennials, but then follow it up with "probably because all you millennials are voting for Bernie Sanders because you want free college because you don't ever want to work for anything a day in your lives." That quote, said by one of my college professors, is verbatim. I'm tired of people addressing my ENTIRE generation the same way, because for every rule, there are always exceptions.
Don't get me wrong, I do see it. I see how the older generations are forming their opinions. I do see the lazy young adults who have never worked a day in their life. I do see the young adults who have parents that pay for everything. I do see young adults whose cell phones might as well be handcuffed to them at all times, because they can never them down. And yes, sadly, I do realize that there are a ton of young adults who did only vote for Bernie Sanders because of his College For All Plan. And I'm ashamed to be associated with these millennials. Though they don't make up the majority of the term, they have left the rest of the generations for a bad taste in their mouth for the millennials. And it sucks.
I'm tired of the generalizations from the older generations. I don't want to be associated with these people who poorly represent my generation, because I see potential for my generation to fix things in the world. More importantly, I see too many great people, considered millennials, who should not have to bear the weight of the negative stigma that surrounds the term "millennial." Here are six common millennial stereotypes that I hear on a daily basis, that I'm ready to end:
"Millennials are all lazy"
Lazy is not an option for some of us. Some of us are forced to go to school full time (whether that is high school, college, trade school, etc.) on top of working a job. Some of us have 8+ hour days of school. What seems to be endless hours of lectures truly get exhausting after a while. Now, we have to go to work after sitting in class all day. Usually our jobs involve working heavily with the public, either in retail or food service. These are jobs that do not necessarily require a lot of skills, but definitely involve a lot of patience. We have to deal with people all day/night, and that is not the easiest of tasks. After our 8 hour day of classes and our (at the very least) 4 hour work day, all we want to do is go to sleep. But we can't because school does not just stop in the classroom. For every hour that we sit in class, we are expected to do at least that outside of class. We have homework assignments to complete, papers to write, exams to study for, and research to conduct. Oh, and sometimes we even have to do *shudders* group projects. With all of that being said, we are expected to do so much in a day, that we will gladly cling to our free time. And we are experts are binge watching Netflix...because everybody deserves a break sometimes.
"Millennials sleep too much"
Refer to "millennials are all lazy." We have full days. We go to school all day, work all evening, then come home and begin the mountain of school work that we are expected to complete every day. We're also expected to participate in extracurricular activities, such as sports, clubs, and ensembles because colleges and employers want to see "well rounded candidates." We have to eat sometimes. We should probably work out sometimes too (or not, since we're all so lazy). But there's one small detail we haven't accounted for yet: a social life. I'm talking any kind of social contact with people that isn't due to work and school. Though it's not a necessity, it is an important aspect of a person's life that shouldn't be neglected. We have all of that to fit into one day, and unfortunately, there are only 24 short hours in each day. We get zero sleep during the week, so yes, we know how to sleep in on the weekends or whenever it is that we can. Our bodies are crying for help and we silence them because we have to. Because even though it's 2am and we have to wake up at 7am, not finishing that huge paper is simply not an option.
"Millennials wouldn't be able to survive without their phones"
What?? Ok but seriously, that's so ridiculous and I've heard it a million times. Millennials are the first generation to grow up with phones and many other technological advancements. Yes, we use our phones a lot. Yes, our lives can sometimes revolve around that $600 cracked iPhone, but we could definitely survive without them. Every generation before us did. We are capable of adapting. Though I use my phone quite often, I can honestly say I wish cell phones weren't as complicated as they are now. I hate smart phones. They are such a huge distraction that nobody needs. But it is what it is. Phones are smarter than most people nowadays, and society has acknowledged that. We take advantage of the inventions of brilliant minds (which is kinda the point of an invention) and use them to make our lives easier. And that's OK. There's nothing wrong with that; however, I think that it's safe to say that if somebody stole my phone, I would be fine. I would not die, and I don't know any other millennial who would.
"Millennials are all entitled"
This is the one that really gets under my skin. I have never in my life felt entitled to anything, because I was raised to understand that if you want something in life, you must work for it and earn it. I don't need for everything to be handed to me, and I don't even want everything to be handed to me. I like working for what I have. I like paying for things on my own, because it makes me appreciate all that I have. I work hard in school, because I am the one who will be paying off my loans some day. I am not entitled to anything beyond my basic civil rights.
"Millennials are all voting for Bernie Sanders because they want free stuff"
Ok I lied. THIS is the one that upsets me the most. This one goes hand in hand with the entitlement thing. Without getting into my political ideology to any degree, this statement just really fires me up. First of all, Bernie Sanders stands for way more than just his College For All Plan. I do believe that all students, regardless of their race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, socioeconomic background, or any other possibly discriminating factor should be given the opportunity to further their education if they so choose. It's not fair that the cost of college has increased by over 1000% (that's not a joke) since our parents went to college. In my opinion, there is nothing wrong with us millennials voting for a candidate who is an advocate for us to receive the same opportunities that our elders had. It's not us being entitled, it's us wanting equal opportunities. And believe me, we WILL be appreciative. There are too many bright people out there who couldn't go to college, because they were not able to afford it, and that's not right.
"Millennials have no manners"
First of all, this is not just millennials, because I have come in contact with just as many ill-mannered people from older generations as I have ill-mannered millennials. This is all about how one is raised. I am often complimented on how polite I am, and how impeccable my manners are. It's not at all a generational thing.
There we have it: six common millennial stereotypes that I'm tired of hearing. I know they don't apply to me, and I know that they don't apply to a ton of us, but yet I continue to hear twice as many negative comments about millennials than positive comments. It just makes me wonder why this is. Why are we lazy? Why are we entitled? Why do we have no manners? Why are we so obsessed with our technology? Ready? We're enabled by the generations above us. Just think about that. A person is lazy if their parents do everything for them. They become entitled after a while, because they expect that their parents will continue to do everything for them. Their manners are so poor because good manners were never encouraged at home. And the technology thing, well, their parents never set boundaries on when cell phone use was/was not acceptable. Sure, we can be accountable for ourselves and not let our parents affect us, but why would somebody who has it all handed to them want to do that? Please understand one thing: I am NOT blaming my generation's poor behaviors that led to the stereotypes on our parents/grandparents. I am just stating that it is something to consider.
Moral to the story: Millennials, stop living the stereotypes. Older generations, stop enabling the millennials.
