I was apart of in an article when I was 24 for Toronto Life #TorontoLife, which I thought was a supportive article for those of us who were post-secondary graduates (degrees, diplomas), who still hadn't found a job in their field, and some of whom were still living at home. But instead, it was a complete spin on our laziness as a generation, feeling sorry for ourselves that people hadn't rolled over and made room for us. At the time, it made me feel betrayed. I felt tricked that I was used in that way for the article, which caused even more embarassment for me because now my face was on the cover of a magazine saying that we were "indignant, entitled youth". It was hyperbolic! (not to mention untrue). What do you feel about that trope, that Millenials are lazy, and entitled. Truth? Fiction? Where do you stand?
top of page
bottom of page
Such a great observation. I feel the same way. A lot of my mental health self-care came after I left home because as supportive and wonderful (and liberal) as my parents are they were also not able to express the right words to support their emotions. So a lot of the time I had way too much emotion than I was able to understand.
I also agree that a lot of Millenials have taken it up a notch in terms of hunkering down and making their work ethic even bigger. I think we have a lot of mountains to climb, and at the rate things are changing we have to learn it faster and prove our worth. I think that the hang up is that a lot of us become completely overwhelmed by how much there is to do, and it causes some to shut down. Which ties into depression and anxiety which all of us are feeling to some degree it seems.
That sounds like a brutal article. As a boomer who works with millennials I find myself in awe of how focused and productive they are, and I admire their ability to balance their lives better than my generation. This may be a generalization, but the millennials I'm connected to seem able to take care of their emotional wellbeing and mental health far better than me or most of my boomer peers. And they TALK about what they feel, whereas my generation tends to stuff reactions. (It took me two years of depression before I would talk to someone and get help after I failed repeatedly to "just solider on".) I also admire millennials for being more open about their sexuality, and being more willing to be honest about their sexual experimentation than perhaps my cohort is. (It's not that we didn't experiment, it's that we weren't comfortable talking about it, even to close friends, so we suffered in isolation more than necessary.)