Stereotypes About Millennials That We’re Sick of Hearing

Why do so many people love to hate millennials? Our society is usually willing to admit that stereotyping an entire group of people is harmful and even dangerous, but for some reason people seem to make a big fat exception when those stereotypes are about millennials. These are the ones we’re sick of hearing:

  1. Millennials think that the world owes them something. Actually, we realize that the world doesn’t owe us anything and that we can’t depend on it. From political upheaval to stock market crashes, we’ve learned the hard way: we can only depend on ourselves.
  2. Millennials only want to hook up, not get married. Marriage is great as an ideal to aspire to and millennials still want love, but that type of commitment requires a level of security that millennials can’t always depend on like generations past.  Before we can even think about marriage, we need to get out of our parents’ basements, pay off our soaring college loan debts, and establish ourselves as young professionals. And all of that is easier said than done.
  3. Millennials are materialistic. Actually not. More than any generation, millennials are shying away from what used to be prized physical possessions: houses, cars, and the like. Instead, we love to spend money on experiences: seeing the world, going out with our friends, taking classes at the gym. We don’t need to be bogged down with stuff; we just want the memories.
  4. Millennials want to rise straight to the top at work – they’re not willing to put their time in. Um, hello? Has anyone heard of a little thing called unpaid internships? They’re almost expected these days. If that’s not “putting our time in,” I don’t know what is.
  5. Millennials don’t want jobs where they have to report to a boss. Our beef isn’t with having a boss. Our beef is with companies who expect us to be on our blackberries all the damn time or who don’t seem to allow for any flexibility when we could just as easily, say, work from home one day a week.
  6. Millennials like to work in groups. True, to an extent. We’re social and we like being surrounded by and challenged by our peers. But man, what I wouldn’t give for an office with a door. Somebody please, please, please do away with awful cubicle farms.
  7. Millennials don’t know how to save money. Remember those college loans we talked about earlier? Yeah. Those. Give us a little break, will you? We realize that we need to take responsibility, and we’re trying to. I promise.
  8. Millennials are selfish. Actually, we’re volunteering more than any other generation and some studies say that we actually give more charitable gifts than other generations.
  9. So the next time someone calls you a typical millennial, smile and say thank you.
Jessica Levy is a freelance blogger and content writer. She’s also a politics junkie, a fledgling foodie, and a frequent traveler. She has lived in Morocco, Israel, India, and Barbados, and never wants to be cold again. Follow her on Twitter!
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