I actually wanted to talk about Millennials. Because I feel like Millennials get a lot of shit, especially from older people who get upset that we know how to work our smartphones and they don’t.
“Back in my day, we actually had to talk to each other face to face.”
You also started a bunch of useless wars; destroyed the economy; had higher murder and poverty rates; and discriminated hugely against women, people of color, and queer people.
“Eh, but selfies!”
Look, our world isn’t perfect, but it has been getting gradually better – and us Millennials are leading that. Now, there are no exact dates for when the generations start and end because none of this is official. We’ve all just kind of been making it up and going along with it. But the Baby Boomers are generally the post World War II babies who were born in between ’45 and ’64. And Generation X is usually between 1965 to 1980. Generation Y, or the Millennials, starts somewhere in the early ’80s and ends somewhere in the early 2000s.
Some people are going to argue that those dates are totally wrong, but there’s no definitive guide for this, so just bear with me for a minute. I was born in ’93, so I’m right in the middle/at the end of the Millennial Generation, depending on how you count it. My young, young childhood was in the ‘90s, but most of my childhood, I grew up in the early 2000s. I got a smartphone when they started becoming popular when I was in middle school. I basically had access to computers and Internet my whole life. I was a child raised on technology.
I often prefer typing on a screen than talking to someone on the phone. I’m pretty much everything the Baby Boomers hate about the Millennial Generation. That’s why I’m here: to defend us. Baby Boomers, listen up. This is for you.
First of all, one of the biggest criticisms of us is that we’re entitled. We just want everything handed to us. We want high wages for little to no work and we want it now. But in fact, Baby Boomers can’t seem to account for how drastically things have changed in the last twenty to thirty years. College is now exponentially more expensive. In fact, it’s increased over 1000% since the late ‘70s. The minimum wage, adjusted for inflation, has actually gone down since the early ‘80s.
The reason that you were able to work a minimum wage job and pay your way through college is because that used to be possible. But it no longer is. We’re not demanding anything new when we ask for higher wages and lower tuition fees. We’re only asking for the same opportunities that used to be afforded to people.
Then there’s the argument that we’re anti-face-to-face communication. This one really pisses me off. We only stare at our phones. We sit in groups and we just stare at our phones and never look at or interact with other humans. That is a load of horseshit! As a person who loves my phone and is constantly on it, I can tell you that I really enjoy face-to-face communication and I hang out with my friends all the time. The thing is, social interaction is different for us.
You think it’s impolite if I send a text during a lull in the conversation. But my friends don’t. We can talk and send a message and look back up and continue the conversation just fine. If anything, we’re more connected because we can have face-to-face conversations and we can have conversations with anyone anywhere in the world over the Internet.
But also, a lot of the time someone is on the phone, they’re not just sending mindless messages. Lots of times when I go out to a restaurant or get a coffee with friends or whatever, we sit around talking and eventually we have a question about something. And if we followed that stupid ass Baby Boomer rule about not being able to look at your phone while you’re at the table, we would never know the fucking answer.
So I do check my phone. I pick up my phone and I Google the answer and then I tell everyone at the table the answer. And then we know more. We know more than we did before. We learned something. Sometimes that inspires more questions and we Google more things. We show each other pictures and we show each other videos. We read up on news articles and we tell people about stuff that’s going on in our phone.
It’s an incredibly social experience.
You can look up anything. You can look up the size of France compared to Texas. You can look up what an Okapi is. You can look up how hot is in Los Angeles. It’s so useful. We have political and social debates focused on things that people shared on Facebook or Twitter. The news articles that we read get us talking about current events.
I just hate when people act like our phones aren’t involved in the conversation or in a social experience. We can use them and they can supplement our real world interactions. It’s not like you have to choose living in the real world or living in your phone. They’re in the same place!
And then the Baby Boomers say that we’re vain, conceited, and selfish. We just take selfies and make duck faces and only care about ourselves. Oh my god! Fuck this argument! We live in a world that’s constantly telling us that we’re not good enough.
Companies run ads telling us that we’re ugly and need surgeries and creams and shampoos to make us more attractive. We’re constantly judged for our appearances and not fitting into the status quo. We have major self-esteem issues because of all the shit that we have to go through on a regular basis.
So fuck yeah, I’m going to take a selfie and feel good about it. I’m going to feel good about me. I’m going to love myself and I’m going to post about it on social media. My friends are going to like it because we love and support each other. There’s nothing vain about having a little confidence and loving yourself. In fact, it’s incredibly fucking healthy!
Let me remind you that we are the most open-minded generation to date. Marriage equality came into federal law this year. More and more states have been adding legal protections for LGBTQIA+ people. And we’re finally seeing women, people of color, and queer people gaining somewhat substantial representation in our media.
I’m fucking excited for our generation and the love and acceptance that we have for everyone. We’re going to make a great world because we care about people and we care about making this a better place for everyone.
I just want to end this video by saying that this is a never-ending argument. Every generation thinks that the generation after it is ridiculous. We all get old and think that the youth are crazy.
Baby Boomers, your parents thought that your generation was shit, too. They thought you were untraditional rebels that would end the world. And the generation before your parents’ generation probably hated your parents’ generation. When Millennials get old, a bunch of us are going to start hating on the next generation.
I’ve already seen it with my friends and peers who make fun of middle or high schoolers for the stuff that they enjoy and the words that they use. So my real point is this: The world is not deteriorating. Every generation changes and that’s just how it works. New slang words popping up are completely natural and are not going to end the world. People are going to think and act differently and you just have to learn to accept that and love them anyway, because we’re all in this together.
[singing] And we’re all in this together!
I love High School Musical.
So what are your thoughts on all of this? Let me know down in the comments what you think about all these feuds between the generations and what you love or hate about the Baby Boomers or the Millennials. I definitely read all of the comments, and I really try to reply to all of them. So if you leave a comment, I’ll probably reply.
Ah, and one more thing. Someone did this awesome drawing of me right here. Look at it. It looks like me! That’s me! So I’m going to link to their Twitter and Tumblr down below so you can go check out more of their art. I think their name is Peaches. And if you have any art or designs or anything based on my videos or whatever, let me know and maybe I can feature it at the end of the video.
Also, I do have three books. One’s about a dragon, one’s about a phoenix, and one’s about… I can’t tell you because it would spoil it. But there’s lots of cool stuff to draw in there; I promise! Little self-promo: I will link to my books down below in the description as well. The first one’s free!
And just thank you so much, Peaches, for this fan art. It’s super cool. It made me so happy. This is the first time someone’s drawn me, and I’m amazed. So thank you so much.
Now for real, that’s everything I’ve got for you. I hope you have a wonderful day. I love you all, and I’ll see you next week. Okay? Bye!
