What is really wrong with millennials?

First I'm a millennial myself, So I'm not here to bash the young.

I find myself A lot of times speaking to younger people. Mostly young men sometimes young women and even children.

So what is the problem with millennials? First, this is about informing not pointing the finger. I've learned this stuff there hardest way possible as an adult. It isn't their fault. But it is their burden. Pointing fingers does not create solutions.

So millennials seem to be quite disaffected with life. All aspects of it. Why is that? We don't have to work for approval. We have been told since we were little kids that we are special little snowflakes. We achieved uniqueness simply by being born. The flower children filled our heads with this nonsense.

The biggest problem we face, and I'm willing to bet every millennial that thinks about this knows, lack of disapline. Former generations this was instilled in childhood. Gen X the tail end anyway, and millennials were cheated out of this.

Now I'm not beating up baby boomers either. They were the product if their parents.

So now that we got all the finger pointing out of the way, the problem is ours. We have to solve it or live with it. What can we do? This was a lesson that cost me a lot of time.

We must deny ourselves instant gratification. I'm sure this is something everybody struggles with but it seems without a lot of consequences as children and young adults millennials have a harder time doing it.

This will help you grow as a person, professionally, socially and economically. It isn't easy and if you try you are going to slip up from time to time but this is a marathon not a Sprint.

I welcome people from all generations to weigh in. What do you think?

 

We suck. The Zoomers are the only ones who can save us.

*Dab*

 

In my observation the millennial generation is suffering the same affliction as the TrumpHumper contingent, in that both seem to place blame for their anger on "The Other" instead of seeking viable solutions. Millennials seem to want everything handed to them while surfing a smartphone and Trumpists want everything returned to a Beaver Cleaver reality that never even existed. A reality check is in order for both but neither will go there.

 

Millennials are coming into a world
where opportunities for a proper Middle Class life
steadily disappears.
So they adapt with low expectations.


Moi

​

 

I think most of this entire generational labelling is meaningless rubbish invented by the media so they can recycle the same stories every few years. "Millennials" aren’t facing difficulties because of their generation, they’re facing difficulties because they’re moving from their 20s to their 30s. Previous generations faced exactly the same difficulties at that age and future generations will do to. The wider social environment obviously influences our lives but the core underlying human factors remain exactly the same.

They've got the horrors of turning 40 to look forward to next.

 

So you came here to reeeee about Trump supporters? There's a thousand of the threads for that.

 

I have some serious doubts.

 

I have a millennial kid, and some millennial friends 4-5, and know their friends.

contrary to general opinion, literally all but one (out of maybe 15) are well adjusted, successful, hard working people that are doing shockingly well in the business world. The lone outlier is literally homeless living on a boat somewhere.

Perhaps they are a tad impatient, want it all now but except for that, zero complaints.

Now I know other friends in their 50's like me that have the opposite opinion, likely because the few millennial they know are idiots, which probably means their kid(s) and their kids friends are generally useless that's their fault.

 

Most boomers weren't hippies but that's how the generation is characterized. I was talking about the stereotype.

 

In my world the stereotype is wrong.

However, I've seen the clowns that earned the stereotype. For them, im sure its justified.

 

All stereotypes are wrong if they have exceptions. They are stereotypes none the less.

They will be the flag bearer of our generation.

 

Well first off, housing prices in the cities have never been so high during any previous generation, when they were growing up and trying to move out and establish themselves.

Also I've speculated that increasing levels of diversity may be leading to lower levels of satisfaction in the dating pool, with reduced levels of compatibility and people having to settle for less. It's statistically very common for people to meet their future spouse in the workplace, or by random chance.
Maybe not a big factor, but it might be one minor little factor here.

 

Good points

 

Millennial's have grown up for the most part in an artificial environment. They are in many cases detached and disconnected from the real world. Their sense of reality is much different than the generations which preceded them.
Growing up as a boomer, I was pretty much on my own all day long from the time I was about 5. I was outdoors most of the time learning life's lessons by trial and error, mostly error. We had very little in the way of adult supervision, and learned to survive on our own. If we wanted something we had to find ways to make money to buy it. If something we had was broken we had to fix it.
Today, most of a kids experiences come from a supervised activity or from some sort of electronic device.

 

My experience is the very same. We need to recognize that this is a very unique generation that has very different expectations of the world and themselves. They don't want to work for the same company all their lives - they aren't looking for a pension. They are travelling, they are 'experiencing' and they are putting off settling down. They are the opposite of the Boomers.

 

If the technology desisted when you were a kid it would have been the same for you.

I was raised by baby boomers and they didn't like me playing outside on my own. And it seems like this is a form of correcting the passed for them. They both were latch key kids.

Also baby boomers were the first generation to really practice divorce or the white scale, so often kids grew up with only one parent at home.

 

oh god yes all of that stuff, no interest in tying themselves down with a mortgage, marriage, kids are being postponed as well, but that's ok I can accept it, to each their own. My generation (80's teenager) was the opposite, we couldn't wait to get married have kids and buy a house with 2 cars and a dog. My parents and my wife's both have celebrated their 50th anniversary and had multiple kids, huge extended families and many lived in the same town all their lives.

This generation thinks all of that is a terrible idea, but then again half of them have divorced parents and witnessed the housing crisis first hand as older people they knew lost their homes, had 401K devastated, etc... One millennial I know loves his job just got a decent raise and a promotion but admitted to me that he's quietly done over 10 interviews with other employers in the past year and he's only been with the current company for 18 months, this is literally just a job to build the resume and get another job and the zip code doesn't seem to matter.

again, my anecdotal experience is so different from the views of millennials that others have, but I guess I'm just hanging out with higher quality youth.

For example I have a customer that is a dentist, paid 100% of college for his daughter to get a philosophy degree and she graduated to become a nanny for a wealthy family primarily because she can travel free. My opinion is the problem lies partly with the kid, and partly because he paid for everything, maybe 60K of debt might have lit a fire under her butt, or at the very least he wouldn't feel like he was taken advantage of.

 

I think they would like to work for the same company for 20 years. The problem I've noticed with that is the only way you get an increase in pay is go find someone that will pay you more because whoever you working for now absolutely won't. The longest I've ever worked for a company was 5 years and I received one 4% raise in the entire time I worked for them. I was one of the only people that received that so it wasn't because I didn't work hard the only reason I got it was because I did. it wasn't until I went looking for work in this similar field then I started getting better pay and from that point on I had to switch jobs every year if I wanted my pay to increase.

I don't know if this is just how it worked when boomers were my age and you were just content with the amount of money you made. But then again you guys had a little easier with regards to housing apartments are outrageous and after the sub prime lending window burst Banks are really reluctant to Give you a mortgage. Which in turn caused more demand for rental housing. Your first apartment you may have paid anywhere from 70 to 200 dollars a month. Now depending on where you live you're spending anywhere from 850 to 2500.

And then you have college. When you went to college, assuming you did, you were able to work a job and pay for college at your run off the mill state University.

You also could get into many professional fields with nothing more than a high school diploma such as being a mechanic, Carpenter it electrician. Now you have to go to school to get certifications to get into those fields.

It's a different place now, I don't place the blame on baby boomers because you wanted to make a better life for your kids. Let's just navigating as a young person now it's a lot different that was when you were young person.

As far as travel goes if you take a job that requires you to travel you tend to get paid a lot more. I don't think that is changed between millennials and boomers.

 

As parents, boomers have been way too protective of their children. And I am as guilty as any of the rest. I do not know if was propaganda that made us so paranoid, but I know something surely changed from the time I grew up. Perhaps it was the violence of the late 60's.

I do know though that there is real tangible value in learning from experience and learning to fail and try again. I know the more skills you develop the better you are equipped to survive. As a young adult I did almost everything on my own. I learned to repair houses, cars, and electronics. I learned to hunt, to cook, to grow vegetables, to butcher meat. I learned to operate heavy equipment. I always had the confidence I could do whatever needed to be done even if I had never done it before. I just do not see people doing that today.

 

I guess my question is - why is becoming a nanny such a horrible thing? She's travelling for free - and right now, that suits her. I agree - if she had to pay for the education herself, she might have taken more marketable courses - or maybe she would be working at a job that pays her well because she had debt. And this is a 'for now' thing. What she does with her future is what should really matter. But we need to look at these kids and realize they are following their bliss. So many more of us older folk might have lived more fulfilling lives if we'd taken some time to do just that...

 

I honestly think it was technology. Televised news and telecommunication. When y'all started becoming parents it was between the mood sixties to the early eighties. in that time we started seeing a lot more worldwide news. In the news in that time also figured out that sensational stories sell. So yeah it was propaganda but I don't think it was intentional. News companies were just wanting ratings.

I agree. that specifically teaches you very valuable skill that millennials are sharply lacking. How not to give up. I had to learn that as an adult. I don't think it was my parents fault. I think if anything it was the school's I was one of those kids that would do as little as possible and I got away with it all through grade school and even college I would say college is even worse than grade school.

These days no employer you work for I'll let you stand up on a step stool without a 6-hour training course.

And I don't think that's the baby boomers that did that I don't think it's the millennials that did that I think it's our litigious society.

I'm not exactly sure why that came in to being. But it's just one of those things we have to deal with now.

 

And "TrumpHaters" place the hate on Trump. No need to make this a sociological matter to be about politics.

The real issue here is a culture that has shifted from one with its foundation in family, community and hardwork to one based on "independence" and carelessness.

 

Another huge hindrance to the young people today is the massive amount of government regulation and interference. The government has basically outlawed almost every activity. ( Any activity requiring a permit or license is by definition an illegal activity)
You basically have to be willing to skirt the law in most cases to be efficient enough to make money in most endeavors. It is what we used to call "gorilla capitalism".
At least until you make enough money to become legitimate.

 

Not so sure about government regulation there seems to be a lot of intra-company policies and it's based on protection against lawsuits.

Gorilla capitalism as you so eloquently put it requires a sole proprietorship.

 

Something I'm wondering if you experienced in your early working career. Did you ever have a paycheck bounce if not you did you know anybody? I've met a lot of people my age and younger and it's pretty common that someone had a paycheck bounce.