Millennials. Everyone hates us.
Our propensity for arrogance and merciless decimation knows no bounds. Industries, products and practices we’ve “killed” — according to the internet — include: beer, Buffalo Wild Wings, Applebee’s, golf, cars, home ownership, Harley Davidson, the 9 to 5 workweek, focus groups, dinner dates, cruises, department stores, Home Depot, relationships, “the running trend,” wine, McDonalds, crowdfunding, credit, J. Crew, love, diamonds, bar soap, lunch, vacations, the Toyota Scion, fabric softener, Canadian tourism, light yogurt, hotels, marmalade, cereal, The American Dream, loyalty programs, loyalty, and napkins.
If you type “Why are millennials . . .” into Google search, here are the top 7 autofill (aka, most commonly searched) results:
- Why are millennials lazy
- Why are millennials so liberal
- Why are millennials hated
- Why are millennials so depressed
- Why are millennials so poor
- Why are millennials leaving the church
- Why are millennials so stressed
If you type “Why are millennials so…” into Google search, the autofill results are, well, even worse:
- Why are millennials so liberal
- Why are millennials so depressed
- Why are millennials so poor
- Why are millennials so stressed
- Why are millennials so broke
- Why are millennials so rude
- Why are millennials so sensitive
- Why are millennials so weird
- Why are millennials so anxious
- Why are millennials so stupid
If you’re a millennial and you’re reading this, you’ve probably heard at least one older person bash our generation. I’m particularly curious about the effect this has on a college campus. Our professors chose to work with young adults; they are surrounded by roughly 2,400 millennials daily. Over the next few weeks, I will interview professors in various departments about their impressions of millennials. Will they admit that they hate us? That they like us? Either way, why?
Which, I think, leads to an even more important question about millennial-bashing: is this sh*t okay? What are the consequences of generalizing, infantilizing and demonizing young people at every turn? What contrasts are other generations trying to create by framing their actions in opposition to ours?
I’ll hold off on telling you what I think. You’ll have to wait until I’m on the brink of graduation for that — plus, can’t you guess? Tune in next week for my first interview. I’ll try not to kill anything in the meantime.
Sara Hodgkins is an Opinion editor of this paper.
