Louis Jenkins Memes

After covering facts about millennials and their imperfections, Stein turns his article around by recognizing their good qualities. The purpose of Stein’s article is revealed when he changes sides of opinion. He praises their admirable characteristics saying, “They are probusiness. They’re financially responsible; although student loans have hit record highs, they have less household and credit-card debt than any previous generation on record.” (Stein 33), proving that millennials are more capable and intelligent at managing money although in more debt than previous generations. Stein uses logos to further establish his credibility.

Millennials form the majority of the United States population, outnumbering Baby Boomers by eleven million. Higher education is now more crucial for securing a middle-class lifestyle than ever before, yet for the majority, the cost for a bachelor’s degree has become prohibitively expensive. In “The Land of Opportunity”, Loewen contends that high school education methodically avoids a critical dialogue of socioeconomic inequality in America. The social class to which a student belongs greatly influences their capacity for upward mobility. If higher education is a requirement for improved economic status, then students in the lower class are already disadvantaged. Loewen quotes Theodore Sizer, “If you are the child of low-income parents, the chances are good that you will receive limited and often careless attention from adults in your high school” (qtd. in Loewen, 203). High school students cannot look to the classroom to prepare them for real world power dynamics. If left to their own devices, adolescents may be influenced by skewed allegories in fictional entertainment media. Parents must use educational resources to prompt critical thinking about socioeconomic inequality in order to prepare America’s youth for securing their futures.

To start, this shift towards a shared economy is giving Millennials a bad reputation. Instead of focusing on their spending habits, Huffington Post blogger, Tim Urban, targets the work ethics of the younger generations in his article, “Why Generation Y Yuppies Are Unhappy.” In fact, Urban believes that younger generations were too spoiled in their childhood, so by the time adulthood hit they were destined to be failures. In addition to

Robert J. Samuelson, columnist for The Washington Post, in his article “Generational warfare, anyone?”(November 29th) rallies young americans to resent their current economic situation. Samuelson supports his claim by providing empirical evidence from recent Pew Research Center explicates the rising levels of people living with their parents, then by abstracting Scott Keeters notes juxtapositioning them with our modern day situation. His attempt to assemble the youth of the american workforce by informing them of their modern day struggles. Samuelson's uses erudite diction that appeals to the Washington Post’s audience of university graduates. The friction between the boomers and our current youth has thrown our economy back into the 1930’s.

Howe, Neil, and William Strauss. Millennials Rising: the Next Great Generation. New York: Vintage, 2000.

As an American we have taken pride in our steady advancement and progression yet this generation have allowed technology to take the place of our desired expectations in life. In this socialization people tend to slack off into a world of illusion. This era of time from 2001 to the present time we should be named Generation Anti- Social Slacker. This generation is notorious for having no sense of direction we are easily distracted by unnecessary events and issues. Generation Anti- social Slackers lives in a fictitious world where we are allowed to create goals. As a member of the Anti- Social Slacker Generation our goals of achieving the American dream of fame and fortune are to idealistic and since we value

The ethnography The Myth of the Age of Entitlement: Millennials, Austerity, and Hope by James Cairns, discuss the myth of entitlement about millennials (or Generation Y) in a political, economic and social perspective in the North American context. Cairns, debunks the idea that “young people expect everything to be handed to them without having to work for it” (Cairns, 133). There is a misconception that millennials do not work hard, are lazy, are addicted to praise, have a lack of respect to authority and are more entitled than any previous generation. When in reality they have to work harder due to the loss of entitlements compared to previous working generations. For instance, when Sedef got her dream internship at CMI she was grateful to

At every turn there are talks about millennials. Whether it be a meme on the internet mocking them or a serious article addressing possible issues that involve their futures. As David Brooks argues in his article, ‘It’s Not About You’, if millennials are going to be successful in life then they have to realize that not everything is about them. Brooks’ claim effectively appeals to the audience’s emotions, yet he fails to explain the logic in his argument and build his credibility. Pointing out the many problems that millennials may face as they start life on their own, Brooks elicits many emotions from his audience.

Memes, like everything else, begin with an idea. While every meme is an idea, not all ideas are memes. Memes are now not only created for entertainment but for both the creation and viral recognition of society’s opinions. Memes are made up of both collective and individual identities.

“Function, which I have made central to the evaluation of imagery from a rhetorical perspective, is not, then, the function its creator intended but rather the action the image communicates, as named by the critic.” (Foss, 1994; 216)

As GenX circles middle age, there seems to be a re-evaluation of who they are and what’s important to them. While Millennials are grabbing the world by the horns and adventuring forward, GenX is trying to get unstuck and live a more fulfilling and rewarding life. The relentless pace of an always-on technology-filled-sound-bite life coupled with the stress of their life stage – peak earning years, job stress and for many raising children - results in a life that feels overly routinized and superficial. Through the collages and journaling of the EthnoBlogs and echoed in the Roundtables, we see a target group who is feeling like life today has dumbed them down and they are not as thoughtful or empathetic as they used to be (pre-kids and/or before technology took over). Yet, lapsed and lighter patrons are motivated and interested in rekindling the part of themselves that doesn’t just react, but that notices more, thinks harder and feels more deeply about the world around them.

Kristen Hadeed, founder of Student maid, a company that employs only high school and college student, highlights the idea that Millennials are portrayed as lazy and not hardworking; However, she then discovered after running her company for many years that students were that way because their parents never gave them the chance to fail and develop that self confidence. One important factor of her company was transparency, where a log would be posted on how well a student did, whether it was good or bad, and that would determine pay. She noticed that this was the first time many of the students working for her have ever heard criticism, many threatened to quit, cried and of course even got their parents involved. She came to the conclusion that

Nearly 3.7 million American babies born in 1982 were the first members of the new Generation Y, or more affectionately known as millenials (Thompson, par. 1). Many things play into whether a generation is considered to be faring ‘better’ than another one; job opportunities, the state of the environment, whether the U.S. is at peace or at war, income vs. living expenses, the general happiness of the people, and the list goes on. Millenials are part of a special generation because

A vast majority of people believe that the Millennials are the generation of enlightenment - which is understandable considering all of the resources available in today’s world. However, this is not the case; Millennials are in no way as informed as any other generation. The paper references Whitney Young, a senior student at Avelardo Rivera, who comments on the topic, explaining how, ‘“We subconsciously

In Joey Koyle’s article, “Are Millennials the Screwed Generation?”, Koyle argues from a subjective and objective point of view that the current millennials are an inadvertently screwed generation. Koyles “shows” and “tells” his readers that as a result of the current economy, the rising increase of national debt, the lag into adulthood, the stress that comes with owning a home, and the right and left wing political parties make it almost impossible for young adults to become financial stable Americans. Koyle does not believe that young adults are not financial responsible. Rather, unable to succeed as a result of the policies that used to run this country.