Millennials - "Ready to take on a world that isn't making room for them." A response t
- Samantha Stewart
- Nov 7, 2015
- 2 min read
As a millennial myself, I have grown accustomed to older generations pointing and laughing at us “Millies” for our ways. They think the fascination that we have with technology is silly and take our not-so-caring attitudes for ignorance.
The way I see it is that these individuals are afraid of changing the world, as they know it. They are set in their ways resulting in the Millies not even getting a fighting chance to show them what they have to offer.
“Millennials are a bunch of entitled divas permanently glued to their screens – and their parent’s basements. That’s the stereotype, anyway,” states James Wolcott, author of article “The #Me Generation” published in the October 2015 issue of Vanity Fair. Wolcott also poses the questions, “But what if they’re the generation that is finally getting real?”
Social change is inevitable. Instead of the earlier generations referring to us as “a spoiled entitled legion of precious snowflakes who expect prizes just for showing up,” they should consider the adversity that we have to face in order to be successful.
In this day and age, you will hardly be noticed without a college degree of 4+ years. This didn’t used to be the case. Our generation competes with hundreds of thousands of other college graduates each year for entry-level positions that used to be achieved without an education. We have to emphasize the traits that set us apart from our competitors and in doing so we are viewed as egotistical and self-centered.
According to Wolcott’s article, Millennials are summarized in this short list:
The most unpatriotic generation.
As racist in our attitudes as older generations.
The most clueless, “duh”, generation when it comes to news.
The leading vaccine skeptics.
Queasy about free speech.
As for #1 and #4, those might be true; but only because Millies are educated and aware. We don’t believe everything that we hear and decide to take it into our own hands to find out the truth.
I completely disagree with #2 and #3. As a whole, Millies are not racist. We have grown up in the most diverse generation with interracial relationships. And we are also far from clueless. We have news right at our fingertips, in those smartphones that older generations often make fun of us for. We can get news faster than you can turn on your television.
In regards to free speech, I feel as though our generation has capitalized on this right more than any other generation in the past. We always have an opinion about something and aren’t afraid to propose our ideas.
As I mentioned before, social change is inevitable. The millennial generation is still young and growing, but it will only be a matter of time before we prove older generations wrong about their stereotypes about us.
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