Millennials/Generation Y discussion

Millennials, Generation Y, Generation Rent, The Curling Generation (yes, really), this current generation goes by many names, many of which are unsympathetic, as Generation Y and the Baby Boomers often take the stance that things have never been easier, and that they are not working hard enough, not as motivated as they were, or just have things too easy, as the current generation has not achieved as much as they did in the same time span. This is often hit back with accusations that the previous generations rigged the system to only benefit them, not thinking about the long term socioeconomic consequences, such as University degrees counting for less and less when companies, run by said last generation, are asking for experience that they cannot get, the rise of house prices keeps them out of the housing market and the financial crash has just made everything harder. But what do you, wise patrons of TV Tropes think? discuss...

I think the back and forth blame game is an oversimplification of a more complex series of historical and societal issues. Also an underlying habit of blaming the younger generation for the ills and problems of society.

I think the larger problem lies how far into each generation you are. The Generations are not distinctively defined but sit in a roughly 20 year period. The problem is a decade can make a lot of differences in experiences and outlooks.

This article from The Wire has some relevant insight

The old folks home section of the forums also had a thread on this topic. Not a very large one but there are some good posts and links in it as well as some shared anecdotal perspectives.

I would describe the current problem as looking back at the last generation and saying "the system worked for you, so why the hell isn't it working for us?" as the system has failed, it was set up to fail and nobody cared as they were making money in the short term

The Baby Boomers can not take the stance that we have it easier then them nowadays. That is hypocritical beyond belief and kind of insulting really for the generation that came after the Great Generation (or whatever you call the generation that fought in the World Wars) in an economic boom.

I can guarantee that every bad behavior they criticize Millennials for they did tenfold. They have no leg to stand on if they bring up drugs...

edited 16th Mar '16 9:58:55 PM by Bleddyn

You think they care? They're older, so they're automatically in the right as far as they're concerned.

I was born in 1996, so am I in Generation Y?

Yes. Gen Y covers people born from the mid eighties to the early 2000s. You're on the tail end.

Then, what years are the 'Millennials' tag supposed to cover?

edited 17th Mar '16 9:00:05 AM by Quag15

It isn't exact. It can be anything between early 1980's to the early 2000's. Depends on who you ask.

edited 17th Mar '16 9:01:14 AM by TerminusEst

A generation ends when the oldest members of the one before start having kids, more or less.

And with babies born pretty often it gets kinda weird to keep track of when starts who or where not to even mention all of the differences between different countries and economical means.

They are very, very, very, very vague constructs.

Late teens to early 30s is the current age range, and that's about as precise as you'll get.

Why are we all so shiftless and thankless? That's what i want to know.

Living in a nation which sees as its main ideals, raising taxes and producing soldiers (for Sweden) it doesn't matter what the old people say. They're getting shafted as well.

All generations are thus to one another, really.

For one, I just read an article about why job prospects are so bad in my country that made me almost completely lose my hope of having a decent life to look forward to.

edited 17th Mar '16 9:24:20 AM by amitakartok

There's always an option.

You can only go up!

The article in question was written from the POV of a company owner/manager, not the job seeker, saying that it is completely pointless to employ anyone because if the employee in question isn't a woman (three years of paid pregnancy leave while her work still needs to be done and employing someone else to do it will result in having to fire the replacement when she returns) or over 50 (nearing an age where it becomes impossible to fire them even if they misbehave and/or do crap work), those in the age range of Generation Y can still do crap work and sue the company when he inevitably gets fired for it, to say nothing of the fact that the company has to pay practically double of every single employee's salary in tax, among with other slices of the pie being taken by the state to the point the company gets to keep maybe about 1% of their total income as profit... before the illegally operating rivals drive the company into bankruptcy by providing the same service cheaper, giving their own employees much higher salaries and slandering the legit company with malicious word-of-mouth accusations of greed, accusations the company cannot defend themselves against because their lost clients don't care who works legit, only who works cheaper.

This is an atmosphere I do not want to live in.

edited 17th Mar '16 10:02:23 AM by amitakartok

No I don't think the Baby Boomers care about us. They drugged themselves up to the eyeballs in there teenage and young adult days so I imagine they might have a hard time remembering how fucking crazy they were in those times. But oh legalized marijuana is somehow worse then meth or coke, or LSD, or whatever the hell they took back in the late 60s.....

But no Millennials are also worse because they take selfies or join social justice movements. The latter habit however misguided it might be in some cases (some people take that shit to far) is not necessarily a bad thing per say.

edited 17th Mar '16 2:50:35 PM by Bleddyn

I have noticed that the vast, vast majority of complaints about "PC" and "social justice" are those who come from the generations where casual racism, homophobia, sexism and stuff like that was normal, they act like it's a bad thing that newer generations are trying to find ways to not be a dick to ones fellow man

See I find that such complaints tend to come from within our generation, older folks don't know the term "social justice warrior", it's an Internet folks term.

Basically. Most of the people complaining are teenagers and younger adults who are reacting poorly to an era of growing sensibilities about various aspects of social, economic and racial dynamics, either due to malice, ignorance, and/or just general apathy.

edited 17th Mar '16 6:23:36 PM by wehrmacht

It's not that it's a bad thing, it's just that sometimes it gets carried way too far. The Bill of Rights does not include the right to never be offended by anyone over anything. You're going to encounter people who are dicks; it's a fact of life. You can try to minimize the damage, but you can't eliminate the "Us vs. Them" mindset which is a fundamental part of human nature.

I'm a Generation X'er, by the way. I celebrate Christmas, but I'm not religious. Even so, I wish people "Merry Christmas" rather than "Happy Non-Denominational Secular Holidays." If someone is offended by that (and I think they have a legitimate complaint), I'll apologize and make restitution if necessary. But I refuse to walk on eggshells because somebody, somewhere, might just possibly not like it.

edited 17th Mar '16 6:46:29 PM by pwiegle

I already brought that up that some people can take that too far. My point was more the fact that previous generations dismissing everyone whom speaks ill of the injustices they suffered under by proxy as a whiny privileged thin-skinned young person just serves to make the problem worse rather then better.

If anything all they're doing is creating more bitter, cynical, apathetic young people out of people that they should want to run the country.

the Bill of Right is over 200 years old and was written when it seemed like a good idea to own people, at the very least it needs some serious updating, you Yanks really need to get over that document