She Said, He Said: Millennials

The following is the sixth entry in “She Said, He Said,” a new series of articles seeking to compare and contrast the various views, political, social or otherwise, of Millennials in today’s world. Elizabeth Lane is a 2016 Carson-Newman University graduate with a BA in Creative Writing, and has worked at the Jefferson County Post as a journalist and feature writer since shortly before her graduation. Jake Depew is a 2014 Carson-Newman University graduate with a BS in Philosophy. He is the assistant editor and a columnist for the Jefferson County Post, and is the Editor for the Gatlinburg Daily Post.

This article’s question: “Opinions on the Millennial generation vary widely. How do you feel about your generation?“

Elizabeth Lane

She said…

Young people are meant to be the movers and shakers of modern society: The ones that are open to new technology, ideals, and concept that will forever change our way of life. What do you do if your generation, the generation of theoretical movers and shakers, are sometimes regarded as the one of the worst generations to ever spring up? I am, of course, talking about my own generation, known affectionately as millennials.

Millennials were born at a strange time in the overall perspective of the world. The end of the twentieth century was just around the corner, with its own emotional and physical baggage to last plenty of lifetimes, and the prospect of a new century, one full of technology and wonders that we could not even begin to fathom, was fast approaching. This already would make for a strange childhood that was spent with the customs of the past with rapid technological advancement coming in the latter half of childhood.

Somehow we made it through all of that and then spent the greater part of our adolescence with the internet and smart phones, something that other generations wouldn’t have dreamed of growing up with. I will say that not all the ideas and social concepts that have been created by millennials are great. If fact, usually I disagree with most of them and think they are so upside down and backwards that I’m shocked so many people go along with them.

Millennials are a generation who are looking for shock value and exprience, trying to do things different than the generations before us, and making our own strides and marks on the world. We are a mix of the customs of the past and the availability of the future. This is why our concept of the world and other people is so drastically different than anything people have seen before. We spent our adolescence globally connected.

I don’t think we are completely misunderstood. I think that, like most generations, our path is being created and shaped by people who might not be the best choice. That being said, millennials are looking for better ways to help the world, and are generally more open minded than generations before them in regards to various reformations. Here I think that they get a bad rep; sometimes it is okay to be a bit idealistic and think outside the box when it is in the name of making a better future for the people of tomorrow.

However, some of the rep that we get is deserved. Fifty years from now there might be some people in our generation who wished that they hadn’t gone and done some of their crazy stunts, posted so many pictures on Instagram, or used the word BAE in a serious context. They may wish they took life a little more seriously. These incidents will make for great stories, but are not something that you want to tell future employers or the grandkids about.

Millennials are a mixed bag. Some of us are working towards careers and education, while others are working on families and home life. Neither choice is wrong: they are my generation’s attempt to find its place in the world.

Jake Depew

He said…

It’s popular to bash millennials nowadays. Even though we are the heirs to the planet, my generation is defined as lazy, entitled, and a burden on the work force of practically every developed country.

I agree with all of these points.

I see tons of theories being thrown around about why. The economic reasons for my generation’s stagnation are clear. Why pay an exorbitant price for meager housing when you can live with mom and dad? College degrees have been so thrust upon my generation and the one before that they are worthless. We have mandated that you have to have a college degree to be successful, which increases demand, all while keeping our educational standards low in order to rake in enrollment and placate the scientifically illiterate legislators. What results is a generation of immobile shut-ins with colossal debt and undervalued degrees.

Socially speaking, my generation loves being special. We are absolutely sure that we are the saviors of the world, despite the fact that blogging activism, surprisingly enough, does little to further any real change. We’ll cover the “snowflake” mentality in another article, maybe. The point is that my generation currently does nothing, but is convinced that they are strong, empowered individuals. Once again, theories are abound about the cause of this delusion, but I’ve got a more historically-backed one for us all to think about.

I would argue that a generation’s worth is defined by its response to true adversity. And I’m not talking about, “you used the wrong pronoun,” or, “Starbucks spelled my name wrong,” adversity. Let’s look at the other two most popular generations: the Greatest Generation and the baby boomers. The Greatest Generation took an active, fighting role in the largest armed conflict in human history. The fate of entire continents rested on the outcome of that war. Needless to say, they had to step up and shoulder responsibility. When you are told to go overseas and die to stop a genocidal regime, it tends to make you cherish the life and work you have at home.

The baby boomers had their own suffering: Vietnam. Entire communities were stripped of young men, many of which never returned home. This was the war that broke America’s idealism. The fighting generation rebelled and led a host of social reforms that basically ensured a draft would never happen in America again. Now, before everyone goes praising the boomers, the younger members destroyed the housing market, impacted our environment for centuries despite evidence of danger, started the ball rolling on the worst drug epidemic in history, while the older ones overcrowded our prison system with backwards legislation. So let’s keep things in a realistic perspective.

My generation has no great conflict. We had the War on Terror, but anyone who can seriously compare it to the two defining conflicts listed above should get their head checked. We fought a technologically weak enemy in a war that never came close to our shores (which is another reason the Vietnam war is so controversial). I remember 9/11, but my generation was young enough to grow up with that memory, rather than having it impact their adult lives. We didn’t fear for our jobs or children. It shaped our view of the world, but it didn’t redefine something that had been ingrained for decades. Even though many families were impacted horribly by the conflict, it didn’t require a generational push to survive.

This is what scares me most about my generation. We do nothing because we haven’t had to earn our survival like every other generation. We haven’t come out of the crucible stronger. This is why every tiny social issue is news-worthy now. We have had no real injustice to fight against, so everything is an injustice. I’m just waiting anxiously for the other shoe to drop.