Generation Y is not the worst generation.

There, I said it, and I’m not taking it back because, really, the young people of Generation Y – perhaps better known as Millennials – often suffer from some serious criticism, so I wanted to start off by stating my position right away.

Older generations are often identified as people who think that Millennials are spoiled and intelligent little brats. But why is this the case? What has this generation done to so frustrate older generations?

Before I continue, let me define this group. A Millennial is  anyone born between the years 1982 to 2000. Yes, if you’re reading this, you’re probably a Millennial. Since that’s the case, let me be among the first to let you know that older people most likely think many negative things about you, such as you’re less educated than they are, which is pretty funny if you ask me.   

Why do previous generations feel this way about us? For starters, I’m sure everyone is aware of the whole, “You’re on your phone way too much!” statement. We’re in the 21st century now and, literally, everything is online. Of course, older generations seem to miss the irony that getting mad at us for using a resource that was given to us from the geniuses of another generation’s inventors is somewhat ludicrous. However, technology and screen time are not the only reasons we get treated poorly by other generations.

After a little research on why we’re the “worst” generation, I found a few interesting reasons. Remember how I said we are often viewed as  “less educated” earlier?  Let me let you into a little of my personal life. About 3 days before I turned 16, I had had a conversation with a so-called family friend. He tried to inform me about how to get rid of acne by saying all you need to do is not wash but to rinse your face with just cold water. I responded to his suggestion just by simply stating to him what I learned from health class and dermatologists. Of course, to a 65-old-year, I was 100% wrong because he’s lived longer, and not only that, but seen Marilyn Monroe do it in one of her movies. Also, we’re not very patriotic. According to The Washington Post, we’re the least-patriotic generation. “Less than a third of millennials say the United States is the greatest country in the world, according to the Pew Research Center. By contrast, 48 percent of Gen Xers, 50 percent of Boomers, and 64 percent of the Silent Generation said that America is Number 1.”  I admit that we probably are less patriotic than older generations, but that kind of makes sense as building patriotism takes time. Also, if you think about it,  why wouldn’t we be? With a “president” like Trump, what is there to be patriotic about? Also, many of us can’t do anything about it because a large number of  Generation Y cannot vote.

In the same issue, The Washington Post also states that we, Millennials are the least-informed generation. “Millennials performed the poorest in a recent Pew Research Center study of the public’s knowledge of current events. They averaged 7.8 questions right on a 12-question news quiz, less than every other age group.” This particular survey included a series of different questions such as being able to identify Elizabeth Warren, the keystone XL pipeline route, and a few others. In all honestly, I had no idea what these answers were until I looked them up. As far as us not being very well-informed about news, that’s not true for all of us. We’re just like any other generation; not everyone watches the news or listens to it, but many do. Most millennial citizens have many other ways to get information about national and world events besides the news. Nearly all devices and social media have a news link or people who repost news so, as far as anyone knows, we’re up-to-date with most extremely important news events. God forbid we actually pay attention to the world and educate ourselves about what’s going on is what other generations think, but the truth is we are informed. Of course,  if we ever try to inform others, we’d seem like we’re letting our self-esteem excel way too much.

Maybe other generations are jealous of  Generation Y because we have something going for us that is not necessarily in their plans. I always thought about going into the art field for a career and was constantly told that, “Art isn’t a career” or “There’s nothing to do in art.” However, I’ve come to learn that being successful in the art field is just like being successful in every other field –  it takes some time to get to where you want to be.

Perhaps other generations are mad because of some of the success that millennials have had, including some younger ones. Or, perhaps, it is the way that millennials receive recognition for simply “being,” which is exemplified by “participation trophies” for finishing in last place. Whatever it is, millennials and their ways are frustrating to older generations because success means credibility and we all know what that means, right? It means that the baton is passing – that one generation rises and another moves back. Perhaps that – the passage of time – is what makes older generations upset the most. Just think about it if you were them and were slowing becoming “less relevant” in society might get to you too. Although at the same time trying to put other down for that is sad.