I read another article this weekend (The Kids Are Actually Sort of Alright) that got me thinking. I considered not posting anything about it and boycotting reading controversial topics – but who I am kidding? I love this kinda stuff.
Here’s MY recap of the article: Young 20-something millennials are struggling fitting into the real world after college and dealing with debt and unemployment. And they think the world owes them because their teachers and parents told them they were all special. And they’re not. Boo-hoo.
My first thought: Ummm…so what? This just isn’t a generational problem! It’s called life. Welcome to it!
Then I continued to think about this (while running – which is always scary) and it irked me even more. I don’t know when I became such a lame, rational, adult who said things like “When I was growing up things were different”, but I have arrived. It’s cold and dark and scary here. HELP!
I get that it’s scary to graduate and not know where you life is going — but to say finding a job after you graduate from school is any different than it was 10-20-30 years ago is ridiculous. The difference is there are too many things young graduates feel they deserve, too many expectations they have about how the world is supposed to treat them.
I feel like there is such an amazing difference between a 23-year old today compared to my 23-year old self 10 years ago, but I can’t exactly put my finger on it. Or maybe the version of my 23 year-old self is skewed. I feel like I had drive. I wanted to live independently. I worked 3 jobs to get through grad school (as well as taking out a butt ton of student loans). My friends did the same. Today? I meet young adults who at age 22 are working their first job, are living at home, and have every single new electronic gadget under the sun. Who don’t have any idea what they want to be and are OK living like that. It just baffles me. What is this??
There are ALWAYS exceptions to this, of course, and I’m not aiming to offend anyone whois categorized (stereotyped?) in the Gen Y/Millenial generation. It’s just something you start noticing when you get old(er) and grow up.
THEN I read this article and laughed. And admittedly felt a little better. But then, just felt sad.
Generation X Is Sick of Your Bullshit
I realized that this stuff never goes away. That each generation thinks THEY are something special and that these things ONLY happen to them. And that I should stop ranting and whining, and go watch Reality Bites again (how weird is it that Ben Stiller directed this movie?).
I should also figure out which generation I am actually part of. Officially, it’s X (born in 1978 – right on the cusp!), but there are some things I can’t relate to — and you’re saying I was born in a completely different generation than my brothers??? That’s…odd.
What generation are you part of? Which side of the story do you relate to? What baffles you about your generation? Or mine?
I think being born in ’83 puts me in generation Y. I know the people that the first article talks about, however since I only went to community college and have no debt I can’t really relate. Since my husband and I have accepted jobs in the retail world, we have been able to bring enough money (mainly him. My job is just a meager supplement) without feeling the sting of recession. I have friends who will just stay unemployed until that perfect 9-5er comes along.
I think it’s all about your upbringing and nowadays it’s just way easier to spoil and spoon feed your kids. As a Millenial who graduated college in 2008 as everything was going to crap, I never expected that finding a job after college would be easy. But I can’t say the same about some of my fellow graduates. I hate when people tell me I’m lucky to have had great jobs with great companies because I don’t think it’s luck at all. I worked hard to get where I am and never felt like I was deserving of things just because I did what I was supposed to. I earned it. So I can definitely see how people get frustrated with my generation. I do too. But we’re not all like that!
No, you’re definitely not all are like that! My brothers are technical Gen Y/Millenial and I can’t say they’ve ever been in that boat.
If it really does have something to do with how people are raising their kids – it needs to stop! We need to teach responsibility and harsh realities. That life isn’t about “winning” but about finding your own happiness. And that there are at least a million people exactly like you – and that’s OK!
I’m Gen X! The coolest of the generations, of course. What happens after Gen Z? There’s nowhere to go. Those kids will be screwed. 😉
I don’t think it’s a Gen Y thing that thinks they’re owed more than anyone else. I still know some adults in Gen X that act that way. I think you’re right when you say we notice more when we grow up. It’s life, it’s not Gen Y. We were the same way growing up when the generation before us had it so bad because they “walked 2 miles in the snow to get to school.”
Also, I believe every establishment owes me a Snickers. 🙂
I think we start over — like Generation AA. I’m sure by that time it will be fitting 🙂 Ha.
And somehow I am not surprised that you can quote Reality Bites. Hee.
I’m an Xer too. I remember SO relating to Reality Bites, rereading Douglas Coupland’s Generation X book which started the notion, and thinking life was just so darn hard. And you know what…it still is. But I did work my way through college. I did find a job (not what I WANTED to do, but a job to pay the bills)when I graduated, got my own apartment, bought my own car. Granted, I couldn’t find a job now, but…
I worry about some of these kids today, their hovering helicopter parents constantly telling them they are special, fighting teachers because their babies should have gotten all A’s, putting them on a pedestal–the “real” world is not going to hand them anything. Bosses can be mean. Life can be hard. They need to be taught how to deal with it.
Sorry–I’m ranting. Great post. Cheers.
I never really related to Reality Bites – but I was still in high school when it came out. I atually watched it thinking “I don’t want to be these people!”
The helicopter parenting or whatever it is needs to END! I don’t WANT my kid to learn that losing is hard and that life isn’t fair, because it SUCKS watching them go through it, but I think it’s so vital for succeeding in life.
I would be in that category of 20-somethings, however I have had a steady job since the day I graduated. I think it’s legit to say it’s harder to find a job RIGHT NOW, just as it was in 2008 when the stock market blew — than it would have been to find the same job 10 or 20 years ago. It would be equally hard to have found a job in 1982 when we had our previous recession, which my dad experienced first-hand. I think the current market really needs to be taken into perspective, reagardless of what generation is currently job-seeking.
Secondly from all accounts graduates are more debt-laden with student loans today than they were decades ago because tuition for the exact same education is skyrocketing. When I was in school alone tuition was going up 8% every year for in-state. Looking at the cost of tuition today is astounding to me.
Are these excuses to be lazy, unemployed and live with your parents? No. I would just say don’t anyone judge my generation as a whole. Each person is different and has their own story.
I think every generation has their struggles with the economy – and when you’re going through it, it sucks, but once you look back you realize that’s life and it’s not going to get any easier!
I graduated 3 months after 9/11. There were no jobs. Everyone was on a hiring freeze. I took what I could get and it wasn’t pretty. I think a HUGE difference between now and 10 years ago is that instead of taking what they can get, recent grads are holding out for bigger and better things. Of course, I don’t mean everyone – and it’s maybe I feel this way because I work/live near a large university – but it’s definitely the majority in this area. I feel like a lot of young people are just hanging out and waiting for life to happen. But again, I’m sure people felt like that 10-20-30 years ago too!!
No, you’re totally right. Coming from a teaching position, the kids I taught were very entitled and the new mentality is that we have to celebrate mediocrity every step of the way. The problem with that: it’s not what the real world is like. And when those kids figure that out, they struggle. Big surprise. There’s no accountability, no responsibility, no independence. I think this has a lot to do with parenting. My parents didn’t raise me that way, and I’ve certainly never felt entitled. My little sister is only 20, but she doesn’t act like that, either. It just goes back to how you’re raised. I don’t know why our culture has gone the way of coddling kids, but I think a dose of reality is good every now and then. It helps you to become a good adult.
Preach on sister. I have a brother that is 10 years younger than me, and although I love him dearly, the differences between us are worlds apart. I had a job from the age of 15 (and have never not had at least one — and many times two — since). I’m not going to use this to say what he hasn’t done, but let’s just say that although my parents helped me with college (with me picking up the majority of the tab, though. And those monthly payments are still kicking my ass, 12 years since I graduated college), I was on my own for my car, my insurance, my rent, my living expenses, my first apartment, etc.
Since graduating, I’ve had probably 20 interns work for me. And it’s very rare to find a hard, conscientious worker. I would never have dreamed to ask for day after day off from my internships, yet they never batted an eye when explaining to me that they needed the day off to go to a Dave Matthews concert with their friends. But, just like their parents, I usually let them off the hook since I didn’t want to break it to them yet how much of a shock the real world really was going to be. Poor little pets.
P.S. I’m pretty sure I had those same exact black, platform sandals that Janeane Garofalo is wearing in the Reality Bites pic above. And don’t even ask me how many floral, long dresses with buttons down the front I rocked. I blame Kelly Taylor and Brenda Walsh.
Dude. Me too. The floral dress thing is SCARY.
I see this every.single.day. I graduated from college in Dec 2000 & got my first “real” job in Aug 2001. My starting salary was $12,000 a year and I was THRILLED because that was enough to buy my first car & actually get some nice clothes! (Still not enough to rent my own apartment though, that came 2 years later after a promotion.) Jump to today and recent college graduates are expecting (and sometimes demanding) that their starting salary is THREE TIMES what mine was – and they’re PISSED if they don’t get it!
Maybe I’m biased – My company recently hired 2 “fresh outs” (one of which is the owner’s son) and there is such a sense of entitlement it’s unbelievable. Morale has gone down for the rest of us – because we see the lack of work ethic & dedication from these FOs yet they are getting raises and promotions that we never got. Nevermind the fact that the rest of us sat through three year pay freezes and pay cuts (rather than layoffs) for them to walk in at inflated starting salaries and job titles that it took us years to reach. It’s so frustrating.
I think a lot of it has to do with parents – yes, your kid is special, but no more special than anyone else. And the whole “everyone gets a trophy” thing that seems to have started back with these recent graduates were in grade school. Some of them just don’t know what it means to earn praise/money/respect – instead they expect it.
end rant.
I’ve had this conversation with a couple of girlfriends recently. I feel the generation coming up is a new group that no one is prepared for. I know there are exceptions and there are driven kids in the mix too, but for the most part, they seem extremely entitled feel they don’t think they should have to earn anything. They want to start out their careers as executives instead of working their way up like I expected to do. I would have been mortified to not have found some way to make my own money. I started working at 15 and haven’t stopped. There’s a huge difference in just the 22 year olds I’ve been around recently compared to when I was 22 5 years ago. They’re babying the kids now, between some of the parents and the expectations that are put on teachers to do so, I don’t feel these kids will be prepared for the real world. No one is going to hand them anything, they’re going to be knocked down.
Hmm, think I’m in Gen Y? I was born in ’84, so I don’t really know where I fall, and, like you said, I feel like some of the characteristics commonly applied to my generation don’t always fit me.
But I love that you bring up this topic because I’m a high school teacher, and I have to say that this group is a particularly whiny one at times. They seem to have a hard time being creative or coming up with ideas on their own, almost as if we all owe them something just because they inhibit the planet Earth. Very few of them work or have responsibilities at home – shocking to me!
But then again, I wonder – was I like that in high school? I want to say no. I had jobs, sports, clubs, etc… plus chores at home. But was I whiny? Perhaps. Maybe that’s a part of every generation that never dies out?
First of all, I love that you posted that Reality Bites picture. I was OBSESSED with that movie.
I commented about this on another blog today too. I seem to see a lot of people who are at the graduation age and they feel like they have to have the perfect job. Sometimes you get a crappy data entry job after college. It happens. I worked in a restaurant for months after I had a degree. I do think that in this economy, it is harder to find a job than it was when we graduated (same year), but it’s not impossible. I just don’t think that having a certain major means that you are going to automatically find a great, high paying job in that field.
Also, a friend of mine just posted this on facebook:
http://www.slate.com/articles/life/culturebox/2011/10/generation_catalano_the_generation_stuck_between_gen_x_and_the_m.html
That article was awesome! I am following up my post with this – thanks!!
I just looked up the years of Gen X and Gen Y on Wikipedia and somehow I appear to have been born in a gap right between the two with no name. Which is funny because I feel like I am a hybrid of both anyhow. I think I have my priorities fairly balanced – I can’t imagine living off of my parents and I work hard to hold down a good job… but I’m happy where I’m at so I come home at 5 and relax, instead of plotting any schemes to climb the corporate ladder 🙂
I’m definitely of the Millenial generation and though I haven’t read the article I think the depressing economy is weighing on a lot of people my age. We were taught all along that if we worked hard, went to college, got the right internships that we’d land a great job after graduating and then the economy came tumbling down and jobs weren’t nearly as plentiful. So maybe we did have a sense of entitlement in the sense that we did what everyone told us to do, but some of us didn’t end up where we thought we would. I don’t know…maybe I”m just rambling haha.