Yes, the alliteration is on purpose.
Most of the much-maligned Millennial generation are the spawn of the Baby Boomers – thus, Boomers and their babies.
The birth-year bashing is what I want to talk about, though.
I’m solidly Generation X. You remember us, don’t you? The apathetic slackers who embraced the counterculture our parents had created? The ones who grew up on Atari and the early video-game consoles? (Look, we’re not all serial killers from violent video games!) We watched our parents consume their way through the 80s, and stood in awe as the children of the 60s hypocritically put “PARENTAL ADVISORY: EXPLICIT LYRICS” on our albums. (Like we didn’t know. That sticker was a huge selling point.) Is it any wonder we were thought to be apathetic, cynical, and disengaged? Now that we’re all middle-aged, our apathy and individualism has worked pretty well for us – we don’t really care what you thought of us. And apparently, Millennials are jealous of our cool. Didn’t see that coming, did you?
A lot of the same crap that was tossed our way as we “came of age” seems to now be hitting the Millennial generation – they’re lazy, apathetic, privileged. They’re destroying all kinds of industries and traditions. They’re narcissists. They’re stupid and self-absorbed. Even they think they suck. I’ve read more about the basic lousiness of the Millennial generation than I care to shake a stick at, to the point of them being called “the most hated generation ever,” and something from which we need to be saved (supposedly by my generation).
I’m not sure why, in the days where it’s not okay to denigrate someone for their race, gender, sexual orientation, religious affiliation, or any other fact I might have missed, that it’s okay to hate on the Millennials… or any other generation, for that matter. I’m starting to wonder what my daughter, as Gen Z, is going to have defend herself from.
Here’s what I think: every generation looks down on the generations below, and how things change as they enter adulthood. It goes from “look at what those damned kids are doing” to “look at what we have wrought with the way we raised these kids to adulthood.” Tie that in with the ever-faster pace of technological and societal change, and the next generation has more and more for which to be blamed. And you know what? It sucks. It sucked for Gen X, and it sucks for the Millennials.
I lead a team of Millennials. Far from lazy, apathetic, and privileged, these are smart, hard-working people who can use technology to speed up almost any process. Yes, they’re young, and they lack experience, but many of them are far further along in their lives and careers than I ever dreamed of being at their age. Oh yeah, that’s because I was an apathetic rebel slacker.
As someone who lived through the Gen X bashing of the 90s, I'd like to offer a suggestion – leave the damned Millennials alone. Share on XAs someone who lived through the Gen X bashing of the 90s, I’d like to offer a suggestion – leave the damned Millennials alone.