Negatives In The Millennial Generation

The Saturday Night Live writers and actors, in the sketch, “Millennials,” explains that the older generation thinks millennials are immature and are too self-absorbed in themselves and their phones.

In the article “The Beat Up Generation,” Abby Ellin claims that the negative way other generations view the millennials may all be wrong; instead, the millennials are preparing for the world most generations are opposing. Ellin declares in her article that the millennials are shown to be the most disliked generation; their ideas collide with those in the Baby Boomers and the Gen-Xers causing confusion. Constantly, Articles are being thrown out about the millennials “incompetence” and their “self-absorbed” behavior which only causes more hatred according to Ellin. However, she continues to state that millennials are no more selfish than the previous generations; in fact, millennials are only trying to discover new ways for “communication and

In Eric Hoover’s article, The Millennial Muddle, he describes how stereotyping and trying to understand students has become a major industry, especially with Millennials, since there are different adaptations and interpretations of this generation. It contains the different opinions from people who have studied this generation. Researchers try to figure out who Millennials are, how they think, why they always do what they do, and in those propositions and findings find them to contradict one another. Hoover then states that “in other words, they’re all different. But just for fun, let’s stereotype them as smart, successful, and lull of shakeable opinions.” Hoover does not deny these findings to be contradictory of what Millennials truly are.

In “Generation Nice” published in the August 17, 2014, edition of the New York Times, Sam Tanenhaus debunks the older generations’ belief that millennials are self-absorbed. The author provides a different idea of millennials. Tanenhaus believes that the millennials generation will change the world. The author states that the millennials to center on the world. Pew research center found this generation is not narcissistic, but they’re complicated, thoughtful and understanding.

I choose this question because I’ve been seeing a lot of negative stereotypes about Millennials, my generation according to some researchers. This enrages me because I know a lot of people my age who are complex individuals that sometimes act out those negative stereotypes, instead of embodying those stereotypes every second of every day. Additionally, very few of the media outlets that those stereotypes are perpetrated by state why or how some Millennials acquired those stereotypes. To me, it seems like the older populations’ are trying to pass all blame onto my age group without any justifiable reason, because the main reason seems to be that they didn’t want to have to claim responsibility because to do that means they have to try and fix it, and that’s too much work. Search TedTalks for Millennial(s) and you’ll find a lot of videos for people, within and

Millennials are categorized in many differ ways. Some people believe Millennials are lazy and narcissistic while other people believe they are more open-minded confident, self-expressive, liberal, upbeat and receptive to new ideas and ways of living. This starts different disputes between individuals. For example, Hasan Piker argues Simon Sinek statements made in the video, “On Millennials in the Workplace.” Sinek uses his motivational speaking skills to persuade the audience that Millennials, people reaching young adulthood in the early 21st century, are catered to and entitled. He uses four examples that back up his reasoning: parenting, technology, impatience, and environment. In contrast, Piker responds differently, believing that Millennials work for their status. Piker argues Sinek’s views about Millennials in the video “Young Turks on Millennials.” Both Sinek and Piker use different rhetorical strategies to entertain and persuade their audience about Millennials.

Published in Time magazine on May 20, 2013, “The New Greatest Generation – Why Millennials Will Save Us All,” by Joel Stein, proposes that millennials are a generation of entitled, self-involved narcissists, but have the potential of bettering society. He begins the article by condemning them, then shifts his point and gives reasons why they are changing the way that the world is working. Although Joel Stein’s article includes factual information, it becomes ineffective due to its bias, generalizations, and euphemisms used to further his argument.

But then again, I am a millennial and perhaps I was raised to think this way. Rather than accept the cultural beliefs of our parents, we’ve rejected tradition and initiated times of cultural change in the U.S. and the world as a whole. Cleverly nicknamed Generation Me, we have “realized [our] individuality and are 'breaking free' from the norms of the past,” (University WireMar page 8). Our generation has taken a crucial step away from the belief in a higher power and have embraced the ideas of self-determination. Millennials are portraying attitudes that were thought to be taboo and inhuman during the lives of our predecessors.

Many studies have been done focusing on the millennial generation. Most of them prove that we are self-absorbed and entitled, but there are also many studies showing how positive and accepting we are. The term ’millennial’ is broadly defined as individuals born between 1980 and 2000, but it all depends on who you ask. Some people will tell you that millennials are self-centered narcissist. For many people, millennials are the future, and the future looks very bright.

Every generation is defined by something. Baby Boomers had a strong work ethic and were morally righteous. Generation X was defined by its skepticism, perhaps resulting from the failures of Enron and the televised challenger explosion. And then we have millennials, a group that is marked by its liberal views and desire for a sense of purpose in their lives. However, millennials are also considered to be infantilized and sensitive. Maybe it’s our concerning answer to whether all forms of speech should be legal. Perhaps it’s our calls for unquestionable inclusion and implicit bias seminars on college campuses that have left students and faculty feeling backed into a corner. At the end of the day, millennials, which include me, are being

In “Millennials Go To College” by Neil Howe and William Strauss, they discuss the demographic in detail and define seven core traits of millennials. They discuss this group as beginning to finish up college, a group mentality focus, and extremely diverse (Strauss & Howe, 2003). What this means is that this group is generally higher-educated, more focused on groups, communities, and teams rather than themselves, and in general the group is accepting of diversity and views all people as equal. These busy individuals are often over stimulated by the amount of work and extracurriculars that they take on. Howe and Strauss also observed seven core traits of this demographic group which has the potential to have an effect on the way this group views themselves and the way they are viewed by others. These traits are that they are “special, sheltered, confident, team-oriented, conventional, pressured, and achieving” (Strauss & Howe, 2003). Each of these characteristics affects the way that this group engages in the world around them. These traits follow them through education, work, and especially healthcare, with regard to current engagement and how they will engage in the future.

Millennials, a group of people who were born in the year 1984 and after. There are millions of them and they are our future. According to Simon Sinek, millennials “are accused of being entitled and narcissistic, self interested, unfocused and lazy.” Even though Millennials lack in some aspects, he believes that parenting, technology, impatience and environment is to blame. As a millennial, I totally agree with Sinek’s point because I am affected by all the variables that he listed ever since birth. Millennials did not do anything wrong but, the way they were raised affected their attitudes.

In Simon Sinek speech “Millennials in the workplace interview” Simon humorously explains using past and personal experiences that millennials are a great and fantastic generation. They have become an addictive generation because of bad parenting, technology, impatience, and the environment and the only way to change this generation is if they are given help to balance physical and social lives. I would agree with this because I too suffer from an unbalanced physical and social life. At the start of his speech, Simon states that the generation of the millennials is everyone born from approximately 1984 and after. Then he describes the millennials as being entitled, narcissistic, self-interested, unfocused and lazy. Then he explains that

This results in a continuous spiral of denial once millennials grow up, and face the real world. Millennials will eventually realize that their parents are no longer there to make them feel cozy, and accepted any longer. In other words, all though the parents of millennials intentions were in the right place, which included making their children feel loved and accepted, millennials parents have completely failed to prepare their children for the fast-paced world. And unfortunately, the real world doesn’t doesn 't care about millennials feelings.

Across the nation, people are talking about the Millennial generation and how different they are compared to others, but are they really that different? Millennials are lazy, entitled, and selfish, or as you may have heard may be essential to the modern workplace, either way, they are being talked about whether it is good or bad. To put it in other words, past generations are concerned for what the future will look like with this technology-dependent generation, but is that a bad thing if the technology is only going to advance from here on out? The older generation is being too harsh or are they just genuinely concerned about the future? Joel Stein (2013) has written an article about the Millennials, it is titled Millennials: The Me Me Me Generation he argues for them being a selfish generation but by saying that it is not a bad thing. The second article is by Liz Zarka (2017) Generation Me: The Millennial Generation’s obsession with being unique, she argues that they are the generation that needs to be concerned for. After reading both of these articles I agree with some of the points that both of these authors make, however, there are also some sections that I disagree with. My perception of the situation is that millennials may have all these negative characteristics but use them to an advantage that no other generation can has; along with the advancement of technology and the use of social media may have increased the narcissistic trait in them, but they use these traits to get what they want, however, being narcissistic isn’t always good there can certainly be some disadvantages.