Why Parents Should Just Get Over Our Addiction To Selfie Sticks, Instagram and Phones
8 April 2015, 16:50 | Updated: 8 May 2017, 17:09
We're calling you out, B.
To every pseudo intellectual social commentator and morning chat show host who can't help but sneak a dig at "the selfie generation", it's time to back off and let us live.
Millennials are an easy target. We love the internet, have the market cornered on super niche jargon, and are apparently always glued to our devices. All these factors combined create no shortage of brave souls ready and willing to tell you exactly what is wrong with #thisgeneration. Yuck.
(Edinburgh based graphic artist Ajit Johnson created an online series called This_Generation where he offers up some pretty base observations about #Thisgeneration.
It doesn't take a cultural genius to guess that young people love their phones. My phone is expensive and I'm a responsible adult. So, yeah. I'm always on it. Because it's mine. And I bought it. Funny that.
Ajit's heart was probably in the right place but he barely skims the surface of the 2 billion complex and textured millennial lives worldwide. Yes we take selfies. Yes we like apps. Yes we're always asking for the wifi password. And, yes, we are very interested in your step brother's start up juice bar company.
But of course, these #fakedeep and super reaching conclusions about how young people interact with the world are only further perpetuated by outlets looking to really stick it to Millennials a la, articles your grandparents would share on Facebook.
Lest we forget, young people in every generation have faced their fair share of trash talk. See: Every episode of That 70s Show where Red Forman promised to beat up his son for being lazy and young. Or after The War, when parents would yell at their kids for eating all the rationed potato flakes.
Even Literal Socrates hated the youth of his day.
The children now love luxury. They have bad manners, contempt for authority, they show disrespect to their elders.... They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and are tyrants over their teachers.
Socrates, 5th century BC
Getting mad at young people for loving cell phones and wifi is like Socrates getting mad at the children of his day for loving luxury and crossing their legs (honestly, who doesn't love luxury). In the 5th century they were just sorting out irrigation and they despised youths for loving it.
Even Cronus ate all his kids because he was afraid they would grow up to be cooler than him. In the end, aren't all old people just Cronus waiting to eat the youth of today?
Instead of Millennial-bashing, why not get educated on what it really means to be a member of Gen Y.
- Millennials are better with their money than most of their grandparents are/were.
- Millennials are the most educated section of the population.
- They're also the most diverse section of the population.
- We're more accepting of other cultures, races, and lifestyles than our parents and grandparents.
- And more than half of us consider ourselves to be entrepreneurs in some way or another.
Basically, in the immortal words of Kim Kardashian:
