A 41-year-old guy from Time Mag tries to pretend to be a "Millennial"

Video link here.

It is possibly the most insulting and poorly-done caricature of modern youth. The article that the video accompanies, entitled the "Me Me Me Generation - Millennials are lazy, entitled narcissists who still live with their parents. Why they’ll save us all," is behind a paywall (I ain't paying for my news, bitches), but the article itself is similarly insulting and poorly-made.

Of course, everyone remembers this article cover◊ which may, or may not, be a direct influence on the latest article cover here◊.

If by lazy, they mean "without a job", and by narcissistic meaning "doing nothing but playing with computers and phones because we have no job", and by still living with parents, they mean "still live with parents because we have no job", then the article title is spot-on.

Alas.

I remember reading a book that preached something to that effect when I entered into a certain college. Mostly because parents with birth control actually wanted us and coddled us through our life or something like that.

BS. I grew up on a farm where I got none of that. I was with a father who would only interact with me when punishing me. Or else, make snide remarks about me that as a girl who was kinda sensitive to this stuff, DID. NOT. LIKE. Mom, more understanding. May I note that there is a 10 year age gap between my parents and my Mom is in her 50's? And was very progressive at being a woman in a technological field? Dad? I realized we had problems when we disagreed on several subjects of political slants.

Basically, people are the same as they always are and the next generation is always gonna screw things up.

And besides, the only place I could interact with anyone who shared any common interests through childhood was the internet. It is where I get my "social fullfillment" as I'm just way too quiet in person. And reserved.

edited 10th May '13 11:17:05 PM by phoenixdaughterAM

To be fair, the whole coddling thing is pretty rampant amongst the current generation of teens and newly of age teens.

I mostly see this through the lens of obnoxious teenagers out on town, and the current crop of 18-20 year old troops I see in the military. Everything is always "Why do I have to do that?" "But <insert question here>" And don't get me started on the rampant self-esteem issues all my young troops seem to have. It's going to take a few years before I can get them to harden the fuck up and stop getting butthurt whenever they screwup.

But more than anything, it's the "yolo swag" types of youths that I can't stand. I'm not that old, I'm now in my slightly past mid-twenties, but even I can see some rather marked differences. There's just always a fucking excuse for why something isn't their fault or why they shouldn't have to do anything hard. It's infuriating.

That and there's always that usual obnoxious undercurrent of youth that we all go through, where everything is about fairness, and justice, and optimism. Most teens go through that period(many well into their twenties) where they have to go on a personal fucking crusade every half hour, but from the vantage point of age, this is really obnoxious to be around.

Shit ain't fair, no you don't need to know why, shut up and take out the damn trash already instead of working harder at giving me reasons why you shouldn't have to right now. No, I don't want to launch into an hour long discussion about your personal crusade for <insert controversial issue here>. I just want you to shut up and take out the trash, and stop giving me the evil eye whenever I tell you to go do something you don't want to do, or I'll put it out.

As for the folks living with their parents well into their mid-twenties? I can sympathise with the job thing, I really can, but jesus christ smoke less weed and party less, it makes it look like you aren't even fucking trying when you live at your parents house and the highlight of your week is smoking weed and complaining about the lack of jobs when you don't apply for half the ones you could because you "Don't think you would be good at them or that you aren't a right fit." No bitch, fast food isn't beneath you.

And for gods sake, when you get a job that gives you the capability of financial independence, move the fuck out and take it. Of course you have tons of money to party and smoke weed, you have a job where you could afford rent, but you still live with your parents.

From where I sit and the culture of the area where I live, I want to call the current teenage generation the "I drop to my knees and give up when anything is hard, and just flat out don't do anything I don't want to do, no matter how necessary." generation.

edited 10th May '13 11:27:03 PM by Barkey

^ As Barkey said. There's a lot of patheticness and weakness in the Millenial generation. Hell my brother just turned 24 and he was a hell of a lot more mature and adjusted 5 years ago than 19 year olds today.

I know he didn't get that from the Air Force.

Whatever problems are going on in the world, just sitting on your ass collecting welfare does no one any favors. I can't get work in my degree's field yet I got a job and I'm always trying to think of ways to better myself. My cousin is an engineer and in the same boat trying many of the same things as I am. A pity party on either of our parts does no one any favors, least of all us.

edited 11th May '13 12:11:00 AM by MajorTom

Weren't the Boomers who wrote this article(ok yeah it's a couple years late but still) and the target audience the people who rewrote history to pretend that their summers taking LSD and listening to music in the woods the most important thing in the decade that brought us an escalated Vietnam, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and the Space Race? And the people that are campaigning against cost-effective wind energy in the Northeast because "they look ugly"? Glass houses!

And yeah, this is the article equivalent of the mandatory reddit/4chan/facebook comment "ew yolo and swag! back in my day we made real music and did things!". Time's been irrelevant for years except for the times anyone can fuck around with them and this kind of proves it by resorting to cheap incendiary journalism that puts it on the level of a FOX contributor to get noticed.

edited 11th May '13 12:22:08 AM by iamathousandapples

"I could eat a knob at night" - Karl Pilkington

No job, still living with parents, jury's out on narcissistic. I bet this journalist would love me.

You need an adult.

I don't think the moving out issue is quite as simple as ' don't smoke weed as much and party less'.

While I do know people exactly like you describe, there's also the housing market volatility (I live in Melbourne Australia, so it's probably a bit of a specific thing to varying places) and the nature of some people's careers to take into account. For one, I can't see myself being able to move before I'm 25, if only because I'm planning on pulling a Masters out my arse after this Bachelor degree I'm doing. If I end up going the job route, which may actually happen considering I have people wanting me for work, then I could get out earlier.

Other than that, however, I'm inclined to agree with you. I'm 22 now and I have my first 'real' job last summer (so, November - February) and it was hard as hell, but I figured that's just part of life. It's all a learning experience and you need to remember that and just take the criticism you get. Not to mention I apparently did really well according to my manager and have a pretty damn good chance at getting hired again this year at the same time.

A lot of the whole 'it's hard! WAH' attitude, I think, comes from people expecting to be lambasted and crucified for not being hot-shit right away. Of course, this is bad in a number of ways. It's like saying that everyone around you is an asshole by default and it's incredibly self-defeatist. That doesn't excuse it, but I've always felt that was a progenitor to the attitude.

I'd like to think you have some pretty solid extenuating circumstances.

edited 11th May '13 12:28:31 AM by TopographicOcean

YUUGI WANTS YOU FOR DRINKING BUDDY

Aside from the multitude of other reasons working has been impractical for me and probably still is, one thing that causes me to baulk a little at the idea of entering the workforce is the necessity of making your mind up pretty quickly about what you want to do and how you're going to go about doing it. It's not like an RPG that lets you reallocate skill points whenever you feel like it (to use a terrible metaphor that probably only confirms this guy's preconceptions about my generation)—once you pick a career path and have studied for it, it's pretty hard to change it and you could wind up wasting a lot of time and money if you do. My wants and interests cycle in and out with some regularity; I want freedom, not something that requires a rigid commitment and may leave me feeling unhappy and unfulfilled when my interests inevitably shift. Following that rationale, I decided I wanted to be a filmmaker (not an actor, because I think I would die of embarrassment at seeing myself on screen) or just some kind of creator of entertainment media, which would allow me to portray any number of professions, but I figured that was too hopeful. There's a chance I'll eventually follow through on writing a book, but it doesn't absolve me of feeling like I should be doing "real work". (Not to imply that being a professional author is not real work, but I would not be a professional. I have exactly one story, one book, that I want to write. Just something that's itching to get out of my head.)

Aside from that, there was only one thing I really wanted to do and that was join the army. When I was told that I wasn't enough of a team player, didn't have enough life experience and should work for 5 or more years before reapplying, I was left at square one.

edited 11th May '13 12:48:05 AM by Alma

You need an adult.

Obviously my small anecdote doesn't prove this article wrong or anything, but I know waaaay more people providing for themselves, and some have kids already, than ~sittin' at home smokin weed all day err day~. shit, all of my friends have their own places and we can never choose where to have group dinners. I know 19, 20, and 21 year olds who support themselves without mommy and daddy.

But what really gets me is that Milennials were raised by Gen X, who were raised by Baby Boomers. Both Baby Boomers and Gen Xers complain about how big of pussies Milennnials are. Like, how can you complain about something you made? We're not born entitled, we're taught to act entitled, and that line of thinking comes from being coddled by our parents. My favorite part is that each parent likes to think it's every other adult's fault for "not raising their kid correctly."

bye

The Baby Boomers probably said more or less the same thing about the Gen Xers, as well. Ya know, crotchety old man grumbling about how they don't make 'em like they used to.

You need an adult.

Every generation will pick the shit out of the next and the last ones.

It's a means of validation and buck passing so, as a group, the current generation can not collapse like a guilty as fuck house of cards.

YUUGI WANTS YOU FOR DRINKING BUDDY

Laugh at the old generation for their "back in my day" attitude, but remember; in a a few decades, your generation will be doing exactly the same thing.

Yeah I guess the whole thing is that I know a lot of Millenial who are immensely talented at things that have no financial gain in store and that makes me very sad.

Maybe part of it is just jealousy, I've got a lot of pent up rage towards 20-something college students.

Both of my parents had a poor upbringing(most of my family has) and they pulled themselves up to good jobs eventually. I was lucky enough to grow up middle class as a result.

But my parents never left that train of thought of being poor. My mom moved from New York to California at 16, and immediately found a job while she was in high school still and got great grades. She met my dad, who got a union job as a teamster(great money with no education necessary) and they had me and moved about 10 hours away from where I was born. My dad got my mom to stop working and go to school for her nursing degree while he supported us, and my mom graduated and became a nurse. Then things were rolling good and the house had a good deal of income.

Then my dad passed away when I was 12, and we moved back down south. High school was just me and my mom, so cash was tight. I started working at 16, because my mom expected(and practically demanded) it of me. I didn't have a problem with this because what high school kid doesn't want money?

Then my step-dad came into the picture. He was from a poor family and went into the Army at 18. Got out at 22 and joined LAPD, another career that pays good money and requires no education. Problem is, my grades weren't good enough for bad ass scholarships, and my parents, while comfortable, didn't make enough to help me with college, but made too much for me to be eligible for any benefits for the poor to go to school. My choices I was given were "Keep working and pay rent, or enlist." so I enlisted. Now I'm cracking my way through college slowly while I work. I did fast food, joined the military, got off active duty, been a security guard, a network administrator, a procurement specialist for an engineering company, and right now I'm back to the military.

And then I see twenty-somethings who are a scant few years younger than me, who have never held a job in their lives, live with their parents, and are going to community college on their parents dime, smoking tons of weed, and either have a bullshit major that won't get them a job and is in no way practical, or they "Don't know what they want to major in yet" and it just drives me fucking ballistic. Then they bitch about how hard their lives are. If you're 24, and the only shit you're doing with your life is going to community college, smoking weed, and living at your parents house, you need to reprioritize and get a god damn plan.

I'm not sure if I'm looking down on those folks, or I'm jealous because I never had a chance at that life. I'm 27 with 3 tours in the middle east, metal rods in both of my legs, and premature arthritis. On the one hand I'm proud as hell that I earned everything I have without any handouts even when shit got hard, and on the other hand I wish the path of least resistance had been open to me like it has been to many others.

I just wish I didn't look at most 26 year olds I meet in college and still think of them as children. It's alienating as all hell. It feels like I prematurely aged to 40 or something. It just sends me into a rage when young folk stay without a job because all the ones that are available to them either "Aren't something they think they enjoy" or "Not something I'm good at". That's not the fucking point of having a job, the point is to make money, pay your taxes, and not have anyone else be responsible for you.

You're not a goddamn adult until nobody is paying your bills but YOU. Until that happens, you're still a child.

TLDR: Get off my lawn.

edited 11th May '13 1:33:59 AM by Barkey

Yes I know that I'm a dumbfuck with no future and I have no idea what to do about it.

I've improved a lot at, what, drawing since December? A totally worthless skill. And that's about it.

I know I'm going nowhere and there's nothing I can do.

I've certainly had an easier run than you have. No doubt about it. You've had it rough, man.

And I wouldn't be surprised if there's an element of jealousy to it. I, for one, am rather jealous of people such as you that have gone through hard times and come through a person with skills, experiences and a solid outlook on life.

In my case, I've been running on academic prowess that I outright knew would not reflect any where near as good in the real world and the workforce. I'm thankful that both I and my parents knew this and I hadn't deluded myself into thinking that I would instantly know my shit when I hit the real world.

A Bachelor degree in IT Security doesn't help all that much when you're working as IT Support for a Tennis Grand Slam.

YUUGI WANTS YOU FOR DRINKING BUDDY

-Shrugs- Eh. :V

ᐅᖃᐅᓯᖅ ᐊᑕᐅᓯᖅ ᓈᒻᒪᔪᐃᑦᑐᖅ

Yeah, I feel like I'm learning the hard way that I should have spent less time studying and drawing and more time working out and dating rich people.

edited 11th May '13 6:21:01 AM by ohsointocats

I'm leaving school next month. I'm already looking for jobs because I don't want to end up a YOLOSWAHG BLAZE IT LOL guy, or as I call them; "Arses." I want to look at my peers and say: "I've earned more money than you, not because I have a nice job, but because I've worked longer in the jobs you think are beneath you." I want to feel as if I'm somewhat making something of my life. Obviously, it's also about the money.

My main worry right now is where the fuck is my National Insurance number. It should've arrived a month ago.

I might call around, say I'm willing to take any job with reasonable weekday hours. Jobs are scarce around here, so I'm hoping to get one while everyone else is in college.

FIMFiction Account MLPMST Page

I wonder how much of this can be blamed upon media depictions of the military. These are people who have clearly never served before, and thus most of their experience with it is based upon films, video games, etc. on the subject. Those things, whether glorifying or demonizing war, almost never fail to be as dramatic as possible.

And in this situation, "as dramatic as possible" tends to mean "as soon as a character makes a visible mistake, he's going to wind up shot or blown up". When your perspective is still largely based on these things, it's hard not to view such mistakes as inexcusable.

(I fully admit that one of the main reasons I first came to this site was to strengthen my ability to identify the difference between reality and fiction.)

Also people are taught if they screw up even once, their life is completely ruined and they're going to die cold, hungry, and homeless.

I know this is most likely going to get me a load of flak, but here's my take:

I'm jobless (due to excessive studying, so I can relate to Ohsointocats here), still working to get that college degree, and have next to no social life to speak of (No offense to those who contact me via skype or here or Google+ hangouts), and for the time being, I'm fairly devoted to the belief that it's the aristocrats that get ahead, not the hard-working peons (No offense intended to those of you who have much livelier social lives and hard working folk, but summary's coming up).

To make a long story short: I'm fairly inclined to believe cats' opinion, that you have to be a bloody social moth in order to even get a job at the local burger place, or you'll die a nameless, unimportant White Shirt. (This coming from a 21-year old male college student.)

"If you have any beefs with Santa, do remember to SETTLE IT IN SMASH!" Quote by Edveed

I kind of feel like half of the stereotypes of Millenials are really stereotypes of upper middle class white people. For example, the helicopter parents that are frequently cited, is only true if your parents have time to over supervise you. I have a lot of friends who had both (or one if they're in a single parent household) their parents working and as a result probably were under-supervised. Or the entitlement thing, again, really only applies to rich people.

edited 11th May '13 8:37:09 AM by wuggles

I just remember working for months in terror of my boss for no good reason.

...what's a millennial?