Every day it seems like there’s another article complaining about Millennials. “Why aren’t Millennials buying diamonds?” they ask. “Why aren’t they buying houses?” “How come they don’t carry cash on them?” And so on, and so forth.
Well, I can answer those questions easily: 1. We’re broke. And 2. Because we learned from your mistakes.
But my desire to explain to them how things are different than when they were young is far less than my desire to ask: why do you care? Why does it matter we’re not buying non-essential things? Why do you care we’re not homeowners yet? Why do you give a shit that we have different priorities than you? Tell me exactly how it affects you.
According to this Tumblr user, they’re just bitter and angry. Millennials were raised on commercials. We were supposed to be the generation that out-consumed the Boomers. And then we didn’t. So all this time and money went into something that backfired on them completely. It’s an interesting theory, one that I’m sure plays a part in their borderline obsession with us.
In some ways a feel a little sympathy for them. That’s a big project we ruined ten minutes before class started. But I mostly just find it funny. These were our parents, our aunts and uncles. They taught us everything we know. They instilled values in us. Sometimes it was by passing on wisdom and others by watching what went wrong for them. Ultimately, they did this to themselves.
This is, of course, tied in with the fact that we can’t afford anything. They sent us to college so we could have better, and now we’re steeped in debt. We can’t get the jobs we went to school for because the Boomers still occupy them. We’re stuck making minimum wage in the retail and service industries and are supposed to smile and accept it because that’s what worked for them when they were our age. The fact that the economy is in a wholly different state is incalculable to them.
But I’m not going to do some kind of expose on how much less money proportionally Millennials have now than Boomers had then. It’s been done and they simply don’t listen. Instead, I only ask Boomers to really sit and ask themselves why they care so goddamn much. Why can’t you let us be? Why must I read an article every other day about how Millennials are “ruining” another industry? Why can’t you just chill for, like, one day?
I’m not going to ask you to stop writing these articles, mostly because I know you won’t. However, I will leave you with this notion: you say we’re the entitled ones, the ones “triggered” by everything. And yet, you can’t stop writing thinkpieces on why Millennials aren’t doing things your way. Ask yourself: are you really that concerned about the diamond industry or are you just looking for a reason to complain?
Strange Storyteller 