Our generation gets a lot of crap sometimes. We do not care enough and we are on our phones all the time. We are disengaged and not aware of the happenings of the world beyond our circle of friends. We are selfish, uncaring, disconnected, unaware and unwilling to take a step back and see what is wrong with what we are doing.
And honestly, that can be true.
But it is definitely not the case for the majority of the members of my generation that I have interacted with.
Sure, there are those of us who care more about finding a new cookie recipe or a new drink for the weekend than the Syrian refugee crisis. But even those few know what's happening. They just feel ill-equipped to help out.
The people I know in my generation -- my friends, co-workers, sorority sisters and classmates -- are passionate people. Immensely passionate. Have you ever seen a student break down crying in a classroom because the issues you are discussing impact them so strongly? I have. Have you ever sat in a senior seminar class titled "Problems in the Modern World"? I do, every Tuesday and Thursday at 11 a.m. Have you ever organized or participated in a peaceful protest? Friends of mine have -- more times than I can count.
If you look closely, you can even see a little bit of passion and awareness in the things that make you look down your nose at us. Sure, we go out on weekends, but we are in college -- you can't expect me to believe that you sat in your room and did homework every night when you were in higher education, much less high school. But even on our craziest nights, we make sure everyone gets home safe, clean up after ourselves, and recycle the bottles and cans we left strewn all over the counter.
Our generation has its flaws, just like the generations before us. We are all just trying to adapt to the world we were handed and make it a better place to pass down to the next generation. But we have a few tools the generations before us did not have.
Sure, we are on our phones a lot -- trust me, my mom has shown me my data usage before. It is a little embarrassing. But those things are not completely evil. In fact, they are a lot of how we participate in activism every day. Social media is how our fellow millennials in the Middle East are fighting oppression and demanding reform. Social media is how hundreds of women every year raise nearly half a million dollars to fight human trafficking and rescue victims of this crime. It is how we contribute to the world creatively, by posting photography or artwork or videos of music we wrote or a blog post we are really proud of.
We are activists and advocates in our own right. While it does not look exactly the same as it did in your generation or the generation before, we are using what is in front of us to make a difference across the globe. Why don't you come join us?
