Millennials are commonly defined as being the generation born between 1981 and 1997, so right now millennials are between the ages of 19 and 35. This puts the majority of current college students in the category of being a millennial, so this is for all of you out there. We often hear that our generation is so vastly different from prior generations. Here are some of the reasons it actually sucks to be a millennial:
1. Thanks to cell phones, we have extreme issues with being present in the moment. How often are you out to dinner with your friends and most of them spend more than half the time looking down at their phones? This happens all the time. We are the first generation to grow up having cell phones existing for our whole life. We were basically trained from a young age to know exactly how a cell phone works and to always have it in our hand. We spend way too much of our time on our phones and not enjoying the actual present moment.
2. We have experienced a lot of terrorism and war in our lifetime. We have grown up in a time where terrorism has been occurring more frequently. 9/11 became the largest terrorist attack on American soil and millennials were all alive for it. Due to the impact of experiencing a hugely tragic event at such a young age, we have then grown up slightly differently than previous generations. We’re not saying there weren’t tragic events happening in prior generations, because there definitely were, but terrorism was not as common as it is now. The Wall Street Journal summed it up perfectly in saying, “they scarcely know a world where this worry doesn’t exist, and so it is internalized as part of their daily life experience.”
3. We don’t ever look up when walking and actually enjoy what’s around us. Our entire walk to class is spent looking down at our phones. If you actually look up for once you would notice that every person is walking with their head down staring at their iPhone. Try it next time you’re walking and see how many people are not looking up.
4. We spend more time on Snapchat than we do paying attention to what is actually happening. Do you go to parties on the weekend? If you do we all already knew this because of how many Snapchats you post on your story. We are all guilty of this so we can’t actually make fun of anyone for it. When we do something we think is exciting, we want people to see it, so therefore it gets posted on our Snapchat.
5. We are obsessed with how many likes, follows, retweets and views we get. Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, and Facebook. If you are a millennial then we know you have the majority, if not all, of these social media accounts. We admit it, we know we care more than we should about how many likes our latest Instagram gets, how many retweets and likes our tweets get, and how many people view our Snapchat story. When we post something we are constantly checking our phone to see how it is doing. We can probably guess, and be correct, that the first thing you do when you wake up is check your phone and the last thing you do before bed is the same.
6. The media looks down on us. Our generation is suffering with body image issues more than any generation ever has before. According to listverse.com, “male millennials are arguably the first group of men in history to experience deep-seated body image issues.” We are constantly seeing images in the media of celebrities with perfectly skinny and toned bodies who are viewed so highly. We then see images of celebrities with normal body weight that are being looked down on and described as “plus size.” The presence of the media is driving our generation to hate the way we look because we don’t look like the latest celebrity that everyone is obsessed with.
7. We have issues getting (and keeping) jobs. Unfortunately, the odds aren’t in millennials favor when it comes to employment. According to listverse.com, “youth unemployment remains stubbornly high,” which definitely sucks for us.
8. We are crippled with debt. Many millennials go to college and take out student loans to help pay for it. Listverse.com reported “two-thirds of millennials hold at least one long-term debt” and that number is actually even higher for college graduates.
9. We have the weirdest slang. Suh dude. Low key. High key. Savage. Lit. Extra. Finna. Using “v” as a word in place of very. Hundo p. Sorry not sorry. I can’t even. The struggle is real. On fleek. Using “af” as the only form of measurement when describing something. Saying you are “literally dead.” The list goes on. These things make no sense to our parents and people of older generations but to us it’s part of our daily vocab.
10. We are destroying our planet and don’t know the future of it. You may not believe in global warming per se but you can’t deny the facts that our planet is suffering, our glaciers are melting, sea levels are rising, the hole in the ozone is getting bigger, storms are getting stronger and weather patterns are changing. We are the ones contributing to the garbage patch in the ocean that is bigger than Texas. We are also the one’s who can make a difference. It is scary growing up being told we are destroying our planet and not knowing what the future holds for it.
11. We don’t even know what dating is anymore. How do you explain to your mom that you were “talking” to one kid two months ago but now you’re “exclusive” with someone else? Our parents don’t know what these things even mean. When they grew up they didn’t experience dating the way we do (if we can even call what millennials do “dating”). First you’re talking, then you’re hooking up, then you’re exclusive? Do you ever become boyfriend and girlfriend or are labels irrelevant? No one even says what they feel anymore and somehow expects that to work out.
12. We are actually guilty of “ghosting” people. If you don’t know what ghosting is, you’re lucky. Ghosting is when you have been talking to someone and then you basically disappear like a ghost would and stop talking to him or her entirely. It makes no sense why you would do this to someone instead of communicating why you want to cut things off, but it is happening.
13. The fact that FOMO is a legitimate excuse for doing something even when you really don’t want to. So you don’t want to go out because you’re tired and feeling lazy, but then you force yourself to get out of bed and get ready and go out for the sole reason of FOMO. FOMO is fear of missing out and is pretty self-explanatory. We literally will do anything not to feel like we are going to miss out on something.
14. We always get told our generation sucks. If we didn’t already think being a millennial sucked for these reasons, it is widely spoken that being a millennial sucks.