You’ve heard the complaints. We’re lazy and entitled, and when we aren’t staring at a screen, we’re staring at ourselves. We’re millennials, and we’re pretty unpopular.
It’s not a new phenomenon for older generations to gripe about "those darn kids," but there seems to be a particularly acute level of disgust when it comes to millennials.
Take the commencement speech that The Wall Street Journal’s Bret Stephens wrote to the Class of 2012. Stephens said, "most of you have spent the last few years getting inflated grades in useless subjects in order to obtain a debased degree… .Please spare us the self-pity about how tough it is to look for a job while living with your parents."
Stephens is not alone in these sentiments. A Time magazine article called "Millennials: The Me Me Me Generation," published in 2013, agrees we are narcissistic and self-aggrandizing and even provides research to support these claims. To be fair, the Time piece at least goes on to address some of the reasons behind our narcissism, and it even says a few positive things.
So why does everyone think we’re so terrible? There are a number of reasons, not the least of which is the fact that older generations are now simply exposed to today’s youth more than in the past. Thanks to the rise of social media, Generation X and baby boomers now get to see our smiling, pouting, posing faces plastered on the Internet in what probably seems like an overwhelming collage of self-endorsement. Even worse, they get to read everything that crosses our minds, from stupid observations to vulgar tirades.
My point is not that some millennials aren’t indeed terrible, it’s that our terribleness is captured in its all terrible glory, like a fossilized turd. Think about it: If every annoying member of our parents’ generation had possessed the ability to broadcast their thoughts to the world when they were 15, wouldn’t they have been insufferable, too? At the end of the day, any huge number of people will have its own proportion of incredibly vocal dummies and jerks. It just so happens that millennial dummies and jerks have also been armed with megaphones for most of their lives, which makes our generation look worse as a whole.
Social media has given millennials a massive audience of peers and complete strangers to compare themselves to and attempt to impress. What might seem like our generation thinking its the greatest thing since sliced kale is actually our generation fretting about how to SEEM like the greatest thing since sliced kale. Between the perfectly crafted hashtags, picking the right filter and trying REALLY hard to make sure it looks like we aren’t trying too hard, it’s pretty stressful.
So, why bother? Why toil away at something so superficial? It’s because the reward is sublime. If you told any baby-boom teenager that 500 people thought they were attractive and worthy, they’d be thrilled. It’s not that millennials naturally crave more approval than anyone else, it’s that we grew up with access to an unlimited supply of cheap (albeit meaningless) approval. All the insecurities of our teenage years were temporarily alleviated with each new like, so we developed into selfie-taking, self-obsessed, self-aware and self-loathing adults.
Let me be clear: I don’t think millennials are passive victims of social media. We have a choice, and many of us have chosen to remain addicted to validation because it’s what we’re used to. It’s pitiful. However, we aren’t all like that. For every millennial I know who spends his or her days getting high on retweets, I know one who feels independently confident in what he or she does.
We millennials have flaws, but we also have a lot of good qualities. We’re open to new ideas, we value expression and we’re more socially accepting than previous generations. We even have several incredible role models; 18-year-old Malala Yousafzai’s unwavering courage in the fight for girls’ education rights and transgender teenager Jazz Jenning’s voice in the struggle for LGBTQ+ rights are both excellent examples of what some are capable of.
Perhaps most importantly, millennials are here to stay. Pew Research Center estimates millennials now comprise 34 percent of the U.S. labor force, and that number will only rise. Before long, we will be the generation guiding this nation. While this prospect might make older generations shudder in fear, I have high hopes. We won’t be perfect, and there’s no telling what the future holds, but I am confident in our ability to do great things.
Namwan Leavell is a UF economics senior. Her column appears on Fridays.
