35 Things Millennials Wish The Older Generation Would Realize
1. That jobs aren’t as stable as they used to be. We’re making WAY less money than before, it’s exponentially harder to find a job, and the expectations for the average applicant keeps rising.
We’re now asked to constantly be on call to come back into work. Remember that day off you looked forward to all week? Nope, boss called you in. You don’t show up to said call-in because you aren’t going to work unless it’s overtime pay? You’re fired. Need to find another shitty job for shitty pay. Set schedules are never a thing anymore (at least in my experience. Even at my research internship I would constantly get called in on weekends when it was stated before that I wouldn’t work weekends).
We’re expected to be the most efficient, mindless, obedient generation of citizens and workers. It sometimes seems like we’re never doing anything because we’re just so goddamn exhausted that even doing daily tasks is a struggle. We’re asked to constantly be working efficiently even away from work.
Rest isn’t a thing anymore. Our generation is getting burnt out and sick of the issues that order generations dumped on us, yet we’re blamed as the ones who caused the problems.
2. Millennials are not one homogenous group.
Some are successful, some are struggling.
Some are urban, some are rural.
Some have college education, some do not.
Some live with their parents, some live alone.
Some have marriage and kids, some are single.
Generalizing an entire generation makes it an “us vs them” argument, that you assume everyone is on one side or the other. Don’t fall for this bullshit.
If someone is an entitled little shit, it’s not because they’re a millennial, it’s because they’re an entitled little shit. I’ve met 20 year olds that are ELSes, and I’ve met 60 year olds that are ELSes. It’s not a generational thing.
Stop projecting societal frustrations on people who happened to be born in a different year than you, and realize that if you accept and address the real issues of societal change, we’re all better off.
3. Every time you bash millennials for taking participation ribbons remember who came up with that stupid fucking idea. Here is a clue: it wasn’t us.
4. We don’t get online just to chat or play mindless games. We like to read and learn. We just know how to make it fun.
5. I think we are the only gen to have grown up in both the pre-internet and internet era.
I remember growing up with VCRs and Walkman’s. I remember dial-up internet when the internet was still a gimmick and not all that interesting. I remember growing up in a state of constant change. Both socially, politically and technologically.
I think this state of constant change and constant adaptation is why we do so well with technology, when our parents, just one gen earlier, grew up with a mostly analogue world, and that’s why it’s so hard for them to change with the world.
For better or worse, we have been given a unique way of growing up, and we are the only generation to have grown up in both ‘eras’ of history.
6. Every time I read a thread about being a millennial, it just ends in depression.
That’s the legacy our parents’ generations have left us — depression and anxiety.
7. That nearly every place you apply wants you to do it online. No, going in will not help you get your foot in the door. More often than not it’s just going to annoy them. Also – super annoying when people don’t believe you about this so they go in and ask for an application and are told to apply online. Like… I legit could have told you this would happen.
8. The whole “I had my house paid by the time I was 25” from old people.
Houses cost a whole lot less then, Barbara.
9. We may very well be the first “over-educated” generation in the history of this country. MOST of us have college degrees, and very sizable portion of us have graduate degrees too. We have these because we basically have to in order to even have the chance of making enough money for a comfortable life as adults. We are a little pissed off because we all grew up being told that if you do ok in high school and go to college, you’ll be able to get a job that’ll pay you well-enough to live the life you want to live. Then, we did those things and when we got to the other end of it, it was all basically jerked away.
10. That it’s hard, even in my early thirties with a good full time job, to afford rent and food and everything else. I wish I had been born in a time where working a job like I have now would pay for a three bedroom house and two cars. No, I’m not lazy. I just don’t think I should have to work two full time jobs just to survive.
11. The average millennial is 30 years old, not a teenybopper or college kid.
12. That most of us have actually done customer service jobs our whole life…and when people talk about how millennials and the younger generations are all about instant gratification. Each and every one of us has vivid memories of old fucking dirt bags throwing goddamn tantrums because they didn’t get their way right that very moment.
Old people have absolutely no patience for anything. Younger people typically have more manners.
13. “Back in my day we used too… ” Sadly we are not back in your day we are in the future, stuff changes. Please realize that.
14. I can’t afford to live on my own. I have a degree, goddammit. I don’t have kids, I don’t have unnecessary extra expenses to cut out of my life. I just can’t afford to live on my own. That’s just how our economy is right now.
Please, stop shaming millennials for needing help to afford HOUSING and FOOD. Two incomes are borderline necessary in this economy, so don’t try and make me become a housewife. I can’t AFFORD to be a housewife. I can’t AFFORD children. I can’t AFFORD a HOME.
We’re not destroying industries like diamonds, magazines, designer handbags, and starter homes. Those industries aren’t accessible to a lot of us!!!
15. Things are different, and that’s okay. We talk, socialize, and work very differently then people did even 10 years ago. It’s not bad; it’s just different.
16. Please stop trying to get us to go to Chilis/Applebee’s/Olive Garden. If you make us explain, we’ll sound snobby, just… please. Stop.
17. That most of us don’t want kids not out of selfishness but because we can’t afford them.
18. Ageism is real form of discrimination.
19. STEM degrees are not a ticket to success. There are like, six STEM degrees that equal a well paying job after college.
20. The reason older people can get away with “not being a computer/ technology person” is NOT because they are unnecessary. It’s because you have your kids and grandkids to do that shit for you. Stop shitting on technology and maybe just say thank you to them.
21. Labor jobs are not shameful and you can actually earn good money doing it. Trades are dying because we were told to go to college and then get a desk job because it’s better than what mom or dad does now.
22. The whole “Just go get a better job/put out for a promotion” line of thought. A lot of the time we just cant do that, and one particularly annoying part of it is because you’re still sitting at the top. In my profession there is very little to no upward movement, the median age for a full time teacher where I’ve worked is in the late 50’s-early 60’s.
Nothing against them, as sometimes they can have brilliant ideas/techniques. But it’s frustrating to look at the job ladder and see no-one going up because people wont/can’t get off, and you can’t get on.
23. That if I fail to get a job from multiple different places it doesn’t mean I’m not trying it means the place that I tried are just picky with who they hire.
24. When people who grew into adulthood in the 2000s and 2010s ignore your economic/career advice, it’s not because we’re snotty or ungrateful or don’t value your opinion. It’s because the economy is so different that advice which may have been good in the 50s-80s is not likely to still be good.
25. That you can take on over 100k in debt (because your parents’ income decided you got basically nothing for student expense assistance, even though there’s no guarantee your parents will pay for anything), and go on to get a PhD… And still only make national median income. Yep, doctor median, that’s surely what I signed up for.
(Drowning in debt, please send help.)
Whoever the old fucks are who decided to get rich off of the education of future generations can burn in hell for eternity.
26. The economy is growing but our paychecks are not.
Economists will tell you that wages generally increase with productivity – that you’re paid in line with the value of what you do.
27. We’re not depressed because we’re weak, we’re depressed because the world is literally shit.
28. When you see me sitting on the bus staring at my phone, rather than reading the paper or talking to my friend, don’t be disappointed, because I’m very likely doing that exact thing, but through the magic of technology.
29. Fax machines are fucking stupid and inefficient.
30. College is a fucking scam 85% of the time. Education is great but debt slavery is ruining our lives.
31. We are “ruining” industries because we are poor and can’t afford extraneous purchases.
32. You can’t pause an online game.
33. Most things millennials gripe about aren’t just whiny child bs, they’re legitimate issues.
Unaffordable housing.
Lower wages.
Employers requiring more experience for “entry level” positions.
Unreal student loan debt.
These are real issues. Since the average retirement age keeps increasing, these issues will only get worse.
34. When we don’t really sell ourselves on Microsoft programs in job interviews, it’s because that’s like asking if we know how to write. We grew up with the shit. It’s not hard.
35. Stop building luxury apartments and condos. Please build starter homes.