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Overgeneralization continues to be a common problem millennials deal with everyday.
Lazy, entitled and narcissistic are just a few words that have been given to describe millennials.
We believe millennials are unjustly stereotyped with an image of slackers with their selfie-taking smartphone glued to their hands. A majority of them do not fit this narrow depiction.
Millennials, who are individuals born between 1980 and the mid-2000s, are the largest generation according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
In 2013, they made up one-third of the U.S. population surpassing the generations that have come before them.
“A Millennial Manifesto: Why Gen Y Will Change The World,” an article written by Ashley Stahl for Forbes, observes that society is the one that has stereotyped millennials along with the generations before ours and they will continue to do so for generations to come.
People should not fall into line with this view simply because it is so widely held by those who think they know how millennials behave.
Such a decision should be based on our accomplishments and character instead of their expectations.
Not every individual acts in the way society believes that they do. Many people generalize an individual before having any knowledge of them which can lead to inaccuracy in judgements.
Society has used words like delusional, spoiled and unreliable to describe individuals and put them into a category based on their ethnicity, gender, background and generation.
Millennials work hard for what they want out of life. The era in which we live in now is an era that is completely opposite of those that came before us: baby boomers and (other group names.)
Baby boomers, individuals who were born between 1946 and 1964, are complete opposite from millennials. Boomers mostly focused on working and not going into a debt that they did not need to be in.
Most millennials have to continue their education after high school in order for them to obtain a good paying job that requires a degree, while those that came before millennials had more job security.
For example, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that union members made up 1983 20.1 percent of the U.S. population versus 11.1 percent in 2015.
This shows a significant change in the labor force and ever evolving job market that millennials have to face.
Millennials are allowed to both work and attend school, which is something that the many in the generations that came before us were not able to do.
Baby boomers helped the economy boost after World War II. A majority of boomers are known to have gone to on to have careers when they finished their K-12 education.
Many of them were allowed both work and school, but were very cautious when it came to going into debt. A lot of millennials are not afforded this luxury.
A Decennial Census and American Community survey showed that 61 percent of adult millennials have attended college at least once in their lives, whereas only 46 percent of baby boomers went to college.
Because the economy has grown from the boomer era to now, millennials are allowed to focus on their education which is something that over the years has become more valuable to people that want a better job.
Boomers did not have to worry about not having a degree to have a good job, whereas most millennials have to count on that degree that comes with a debt just because they want a good life.
Younger generations are more in tuned with everyday technology and online culture than any other generation. Millennials have a faster response to technology, they are able to accomplish tasks faster than the older generation. Millennials dominate the use of progressive technology and are in the position to advance its capacity at an exponential rate.
A Wired.com article states that Apple products have grown in demand because millennials use them more frequently and easier than other generations.
Technology has also helped the way in which millennials communicate with the world with just a touch of a screen.
They do not have to wait in lines to speak to someone or wait weeks to hear back from someone.
Emails, Twitter, text messages and countless mobile apps allow communication between millennials to be more consistent and fast. This makes millennials more efficient multitaskers in any field they tackle.
Millennials have a high expectancy for fluid user experiences when using everyday technology; which means the possibilities of creating the best online experiences are never-ending. This can also allow for dynamic business competition.
Recent studies conducted by Berglass and Associates and Women’s Wear Daily cited on Business Wire.com predicts that millennials are about to outspend the baby boomers by next year. That will help continue to strengthen the economy.
Millennials may be seen as lazy, entitled and narcissistic, yet society does not notice that they are more family oriented than the generations that have come before them.
They are more likely to spend more time with their families than baby boomers according to a series by the University of Michigan titled Monitoring the Future from 1976-2011.
Millennials also have a closer relationship to their parents than the individuals that came before them.
They want not only a close relationship with their parents but with their friends and community. Millennials are proud to help their community in whatever way possible and strive to continue to be the example that we wished had been set for us.
