Rachel Kiley
Boomers have never seemed particularly fond of millennials, blaming us for everything from our own problems to the end of every industry or company that has shuttered in our lifetimes. And Gen Z already isn’t getting much better treatment from the olds.
But while there’s always a natural gap in understanding between generations, there are some hard truths boomers refuse to acknowledge to the point of absurdity, such as the simple fact that the world as it exists today is vastly different than the world as it was when they were coming up in life. That’s made our lives and opportunities very, very different from theirs—and often not in a good way, on a larger scale.
Getting them to grasp such a basic concept has largely proved fruitless, but still, we try.
Now Millennial and Gen-Z Redditors are banding together to share what other things they wish the older generations understood about life these days.
It’s cathartic if nothing else. Emphasis on the nothing else.
1.
Customers ARE NOT always right.
2.
Things change.
3.
Stop telling me directions, I’ll just use GPS.
4.
The reality and severity of global climate change.
5.
That it is reasonable to not want kids and enjoy life with your spouse.
6.
Millennials didn’t kill industries. Complacency and a lack of forethought killed them.
7.
Fox News and Talk Radio did to you what you thought video games would do to us.
8.
Texting is much more convenient, sometimes even better, than making a phone call.
9.
I don’t want the moon. I just want what I was promised after doing everything you asked me to.
10.
We’re not lazy, and we don’t see anything wrong with “paying our dues.” We just want to be fairly compensated for our work, and also the job market is a lot more competitive.
11.
Just because I know where/how to find the answer to something doesn’t mean I “think I’m smarter than you.” I’m just trying to save both of us from wasting time.
12.
Apparently sleeping till 11 AM makes you lazy regardless of whether or not you had to work until 12:30 AM at your shitty Wendy’s location.
13.
I can’t stand those Facebook memes of some 80’s era photograph of a vinyl record all like “how to confuse millennials lol.” You don’t have to be born before the invention of cars to know what a horse is.
14.
Just because someone is Family DOES NOT MEAN YOU HAVE TO LOVE THEM. Terrible toxic people should ABSOLUTELY be cut out of your life REGARDLESS of their relationship to you.
15.
Just because we’re more aware of our mental health and allow ourselves to feel what we want to feel, it doesn’t make us weak or “snowflakes”. If anything, it makes us better at coping with, well, everything!
16.
That $15/hour in 2021 does not give you the same purchasing power that it did in 1985. When I hear an older person say “I used to get by just fine on $15/hour”, I wanna slap them.
17.
“You’ll have to start out in the mailroom and work your way up.” Rofl, no. The job my grandfather had requires a masters degree – he had a High School diploma. If you’re hired for the mailroom? You’re going to stay in the mailroom.
18.
That the cost of education far outpaced inflation and wage growth in the US. If I had a dime for each boomer who lectured me about working my way through school like they did, I might almost be able to buy a house!
19.
You gave us the f—king participation trophies although I agree they’re dumb. You were the snowflakes who couldn’t let your precious little angel grapple with the fact that he wont be one of the like 500 NBA players one day.
20.
How old the oldest millennials actually are. “Millennials cannot afford houses” doesn’t sound like a big deal if you only see millennials as people in their 20s, but the problem is that the oldest millennials are approaching 40 and they still can’t afford a house.
21.
How much college and housing really costs compared to when they bought those things. And it’s just a domino effect, too. The less reasonable college is, the harder it is to buy a house with all your loans. And both of those things make it very difficult to have children.
22.
Yeah, we know. You rode in the back window of a car that had no seatbelts, you got measles, rode bikes with no helmets, and still turned out just fine. Just because you happened to be in the group of people who survived doesn’t mean any of these were a good idea.
23.
Throughout our schooling, we had to write research papers using online sources, and our teachers really stressed the importance of being able to identify a credible source before citing it. Don’t be offended when you send us an article from Americanpatrioteagle.ru and we dismiss it outright.
24.
Kids use computers/phones for more than just playing video games and scrolling through social media. I basically live on my computer. My best friends are online. My favorite activities are coding and making games. But no, my parents assume the devil computer is rotting my brain and making me stupid.
25.
They took everything. They are still taking everything. Their lifespan is draining our whole society from pensions, healthcare, education housing, tax policy, the list goes on and on. They took advantage and were bad stewards of the society they inherited. The me me me generation is not millennials… it’s the baby boomers.
