It is time to face the harsh truth: we millennials get blamed for a lot of things going on in the world.
According to Katie Taylor in Business Insider, our generation is blamed for a wide variety of issues. She lists some of our horrific transgressions, such as killing restaurants like Applebee’s and Hooters, the game of golf and even the napkin industry.
All jokes aside, Taylor’s points are backed up by consumer preference data and testimonials from people in those industries, so the claims about industries millennials are “killing” are not baseless.
According to Kari Paul for Marketwatch, millennials’ spending habits indicate we dislike buying diamonds, bars of soap and corked wine. Paul also notes millennials do not buy as many houses as previous generations and do not shop at as many department stores.
People can question whether these are unconventional preferences, but, ultimately, they are just the way our generation is choosing to spend money. Businesses will have to adjust accordingly.
The type of criticism our generation receives that irks me most is about millennials supposedly being lazy, entitled and unappreciative.
I am not saying we are not these things occasionally (I mean, come on, we are all college students). Nevertheless, I have often felt it is easier to criticize our generation for these shortcomings because of the rise of social media.
Unlike previous generations, examples of us acting like dumb kids are amplified a thousand-fold through the internet. While there are numerous benefits of being connected to the world, this type of condemning content will appear and show we are still young and often naïve.
Chris Dessi, in a piece for Inc., said, “Millennials came of age when technology documented their youth. So their youthful indiscretions live in perpetuity.”
These generational criticisms bother me because I am surprised Generation X or the Baby Boomers seem to have forgotten how they were viewed in their youth. Remember, these guys were also once slammed for their love of rock music and were also seen as slackers.
Essentially: young people being seen as lazy or entitled is nothing new.
Yet, those in older generations seem to have forgotten they were once accused of the same faults for which we now stand trial. Never fear though, because there is a way for millennials to learn from this situation.
For now, I say we embrace being the generation to blame. We have different spending habits and consumer preferences, and for now, we will continue to be called unappreciative and naïve.
However, eventually, like all generations, we will grow older, and we have a chance to be the generation to finally stop flinging accusations at those to follow. We can choose to understand young people will always be blamed excessively for their shortcomings.
Perhaps when we are sitting around in 20 years with our twist-off wine bottles, we can look at the younger generation with less disdain and a little more empathy.