Congratulations to anyone 34 years old or younger; you too have earned a place in the generation of millennials, which includes anyone born from 1982 up until 2004 (according to researchers Neil Howe and William Strauss). However, this title often gives those who have it a bad rap. Millennials are often torn apart by the media, being lumped together (as TIME magazine implicated in their May 20, 2013, issue) as a bunch of entitled, narcissistic, unintelligent brats who live lazy lives in their parents’ basement. They also use their IPhones, of which they must always have the latest, to incessantly text (and drive) their friends about their pie-in-the-sky dreams of traveling the world while taking selfies and checking their social media accounts, which they use to voice their disrespect for the older generation. Some speculate that millennials may even be the worst generation yet; of course, since millennials don’t care about anything, they certainly don’t care about that opinion.

While those stereotypes may have been a compilation of the worst out there—and thank goodness that there are plenty of people who do not view millennials in that way—there may very well be some truth to a few of those stereotypes, particularly the idea that millennials don’t care. As a millennial myself, society has told us that we are all wonderful world changers while cramming us into a box labeled “mediocrity”, and society pacifies us with simple, shallow, shiny distractions, enabling us to live mediocre lives. I think that my generation, those twenty and under, has allowed that to happen. I think that my generation has chosen to accept the idea that we can only do so much, can only be so much, can only change so much; I think that my generation has let society pacify us into a state of uncaring unawareness with its glittery toys and shallow, surface-level, feel-good opportunities. Don’t get me wrong—I don’t blame society; it’s our choice to care or not. Society has simply made it easier for my generation to choose not to care and to settle for less than our full potential—to settle for a mediocre life.

It is time for my generation to break the bonds of mediocrity, and we must do that by shedding our apathy, that state of unconcerned indifference that far too many of us can fall into. Certainly, there are many young people already defying the stereotype of a mediocre millennial. However, it is time for us all to follow their lead. We truly are going to inherit the world someday and move up to take our rightful place in it; it is time we begin to make that world a better place, not only for our future selves but also for the next generation.

To improve the world and the lives of those living in it, we must first begin to know and understand the issues going on in this world. We can’t continue to be distracted and satisfied by things of simple insignificance, such as the latest celebrity gossip or the latest and greatest iPhone. We can’t be satisfied in making a Facebook post or sending a Tweet about the latest issue in society; we must know more and we must do more.

If we want to know more, we must look out into the world around us and see it through our own eyes, not the “eye” of a screen. We must become aware of the people around us and how they live on a daily basis. We must become aware of what goes on around the world, good and bad. And we must learn. We must learn where and what the problems are in the world in any way we can, be it experience or research. We must delve deeper into our own country and the issues it faces, social and political. We must become aware of how other countries live, how the world works, and the issues the world faces. We must become aware of the world beyond ourselves.

Yet shedding our apathy is more than just attaining knowledge and awareness. It is then acting upon what we know. Everyone can do something to make other people’s lives better; it doesn’t take geniuses to make a difference in the world. I think that perhaps it’s that mentality, the voice in our heads that tells us that maybe we’re not smart enough to find solutions or brave enough to speak up or good enough to make a change, that makes it easier to be apathetic when coupled with societal pressure.

Perhaps we won’t solve world hunger. Perhaps we won’t solve the water crisis that exists in so many countries around the world. Perhaps we won’t attain peace in our time. Perhaps we won’t fix all of our country’s problems. However, if we put our minds to it and work, refusing to be intimidated by the scale of the problems our country and the world faces, we may just be able to achieve those goals. Even if we do not reach those goals, even if all we do is change just one or two people’s lives for the better in the smallest of ways, we have done a great thing, and those changes will build upon themselves as the people we affect go out and affect other people. In shedding our apathy and caring about the world and its inhabitants, we have set ourselves up for a life of significance, a life that truly will change the world—even just one or two people in that world—and in turn, a life that has leaped above the mediocrity of an uncaring, ineffective, whatever-happens-happens existence.

Millennials do not have to settle for the mediocrity society has tried to sell us. We don’t have to settle for stereotypes placed upon us. We can make a difference, but that difference must start with ourselves. We must start caring.