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On Millennials: The Screwed Generation
We inherited a global climate crisis, weathered the Great Recession and then got college degrees. But we’re all still screwed.

By Casey Morgan

 
Millennials are destined for destitution — at least according to zillions of articles plastered online. Don’t believe me? Try it yourself: Enter the words “Millennials are” in your search engine and the options will read “the screwed generation,” “narcissistic” and “cursed.” Call me crazy, but I don’t fancy myself as either doomed or self-absorbed; and I definitely don’t believe in sorcery.

The Pew Research Center considers anyone born between 1981 and 2000 to be a Millennial. “The Peter Pan Generation,” a term coined in 1993, denotes a generation that tends to postpone common rites of passage until well into adulthood. Translation: We do things later in life than the Baby Boomers before us. We drive later, move out later, get married and have kids later (and less often). We even stay up later — maybe that’s just me, but my parents definitely weren’t staying up nights surfing the web on their HD phablets. I sure am.

We’re characterized as pleasure seeking, lazy and entitled. We’re called Generation Y, the Me Generation and the Boomerang Generation (based on our tendency to move back in with our parents after college).

We’re also the most educated generation in history. A generational triumph, sure, but we’re now saddled with more student loan debt than our predecessors — so much, in fact, that student loan debt now outweighs credit card debt in the U.S. The cost of success is higher than ever.

What we should be called is the DIY Generation. Unlike the Silent Generation that preceded the Baby Boomers, we get shit done — and we have a voice. We elected a black president. Twice. We withstood the Great Recession of 2008. We repealed “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell.” Eighteen states now have full marriage equality — and more are on the way. We occupied Wall Street. We reformed healthcare. Two states have legalized recreational marijuana. We’re more charitable than previous generations, too — with both our time and money. We’re more inclined to take jobs that make us happy, instead of those that make us more money. And we’re cool with that.

The freedom and connectivity afforded by the Internet and social media has characterized our generation in the digital age. (Which is why we’re online all the time.) Facebook boasts over one billion active users. We have more access to high-quality information than ever before, fewer barriers to entry and an uninhibited ability to create.

The nature of the Internet and social platforms has obliterated the broadcast mentality of mass communication, where a few gatekeepers dictated messages to a massive, captive audience. Social platforms have leveled the playing field and given consumers the ability to become creators, and be heard.

We did that. And that’s pretty cool.

So it may be that we’re a generation rife with utopian-minded hedonists facing a starkly dystopian future. Maybe. But at least we’ll know we made that future ourselves.

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“Should it matter who you choose to love?” photo courtesy of Wayne Ford
Occupy Wall Street photo courtesy of Paul Stein
Sign photo courtesy of Julianne Klampe

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