No one has anything positive to say about millennials. Generation Y is lazy. We are entitled. We are easily offended. We are greedy and spoiled. We don’t know the value of hard work. Not only do we receive this hate from previous generations but also from the people of our generation. It can be found on all social media platforms and is reflected in everything that we do. People say we take things too seriously and no one knows how to take a joke. This is why all of those stereotypes are completely false.
We are not entitled, we just deserve the things we have worked so hard for. Every generation before us has had the luxury of being able to graduate high school and enter into a job that pays a living wage. They also had the opportunity to go to college (if they so wished) and not go into thousands of dollars of debt. According to Think Progress, the average cost of a college education has tripled since 1980. It was possible then to work a minimum wage job and pay for school at the same time, graduating from a four year university debt free. Today, with youth unemployment at an all-time high, it is nearly impossible for a student to work full-time and go to school without taking out loans.
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Even after graduating with thousands of dollars in debt, only 27 percent of college graduates have a career in their field, according to the Washington Post. So, after millennials go through years of schooling in order to have a good career, they are still forced into working at a job outside of their major field of study. Yet we are expected to not be bothered by any of these facts. To voice these concerns means that we believe we are entitled and expect for things to fall right into our laps. Meanwhile, we are working harder than any generation before us just to make a living wage.
Another stereotype that has been perpetuated about millennials is that we take things too seriously and have lost the previous generation’s ability to take a joke. However, this generation is much more sensitive to the social issues that others have made jokes out of. There is nothing funny about racism or sexism. The inability to take a joke is actually the inability to find offensive things funny.
Millennials have a real opportunity to effect changes economically, politically, and socially. By letting other generations belittle and tear down our efforts at making a real change, we are doing a disservice to both ourselves and everyone who is affected by the change.
When parents, grandparents, and others look at millennials, shake their heads, and make comments about technology dependence, sensitivity, and laziness, remind them that we are overcoming the obstacles they left for us. It is our job to undo their environmental damage, their perpetuation of racial and gender stereotypes, and the state of our economy.
Gloria Steinem says, “The future depends entirely on what each of us does every day, a movement is only people moving.” Millennials are not just moving, we are changing the future to be better for ourselves and the generations that come after us.
