Millennials...

CINCLANTFLT

Zillah wrote: »

Every generation has people with flaws in it. Millennials seem to have a larger than normal percentage of snowflakes. Not all that bad in the grand scheme of things. Millennials aren't the ones who demolished the global economy. They're the most liberal, green, and tolerant generation to exist, and they're inheriting a mountain of problems from the very previous generations that are whining about them. They're more educated and worse paid than the generations before them. They've the most job insecurity, they've the lowest chance of owning their own home. They were raised in a time of boundless optimism and just about the time it came to them leaving school/college and starting their careers the entire thing came crashing down - not because of trigger words or safespaces but because of the greed and carelessness of Xers and Baby Boomers.

Y'all got an easy ride, then ruined it for the next generation. Don't sit on your accumulated wealth, whining about the next generation that you screwed over, who you expect to pay your debts and bloated pensions.

Poor snowflake...

andekwarhola

Zillah wrote: »

Every generation has people with flaws in it. Millennials seem to have a larger than normal percentage of snowflakes. Not all that bad in the grand scheme of things. Millennials aren't the ones who demolished the global economy. They're the most liberal, green, and tolerant generation to exist, and they're inheriting a mountain of problems from the very previous generations that are whining about them. They're more educated and worse paid than the generations before them. They've the most job insecurity, they've the lowest chance of owning their own home. They were raised in a time of boundless optimism and just about the time it came to them leaving school/college and starting their careers the entire thing came crashing down - not because of trigger words or safespaces but because of the greed and carelessness of Xers and Baby Boomers.

Y'all got an easy ride, then ruined it for the next generation. Don't sit on your accumulated wealth, whining about the next generation that you screwed over, who you expect to pay your debts and bloated pensions.

Evidently so.

Wibbs

"The old order changeth yielding place to new"

I would tend to agree with MilesMorales1 and the increase in narcissism and a sharp drop in attention spans, though from my observations that's not just limited to the Millennials. I've seen quite the percentage of Gen X types with a bad dose of it. Some level of narcissism is a basic and generally healthy human thing made wanton by social media.

The attention span thing is multi generational too. I can personally think of any number of 40 + year olds who got a severe if acute attack of the feelz over the dead refugee child on the beach who wouldn't have a bulls notion of the poor mites name a few months on. The same yahoos drape their Facebook avatar in whatever flag tragedy de jour too and cry over pity porn headline. They exhibit the same tendencies attributed to Millennials, but are middle aged and ought to know better.

If anything I have far less time for my fellow Gen X types acting like frivolous teenaged girls following whatever drama or shiny thing on a weekly basis. They/we didn't grow up with the interwebs and social media as another sound in the background. We have distance from that and have no excuse.

Zillah

CINCLANTFLT wrote: »

Poor snowflake...

andekwarhola wrote: »

Evidently so.

Ah, After Hours, a great place to come and hear the unimaginative share the first obvious thing to flit through their heads.

osarusan

Deleted User wrote: »

I am the age the op is complaining about and I basically agree with him. Every generation might have the old complaining about the young but the traits complained about by the older generation change. The current batch of undesirable traits possessed by my generation are particularly loathsome to me anyway!

Every generation thinks the young ones are 'a new kind' of different, too, that needs a new label.

Wibbs

CINCLANTFLT wrote: »

Poor snowflake...

In fairness he has a point, though much less so in Ireland. Irish Gen X types grew up in a society where they left school and it was the boat or dole for many, facing some of the highest unemployment in Irish history. I was privately schooled and just under a third of my class peers emigrated. Education places were far more limited in scope too.

So yes the previous generation overcooked the pot, but most didn't have a pot to piss in to start with so it's understandable. American Millennials do have a valid argument that Zillah made, but nope, not so much here.

Actually Zillah raises a different point which I have noticed as a "new" thing. He is basically spouting what an American would say of their generations. That fitting of Yank culture to Ireland is nearly always wrong headed, but increasingly common. This very thread a perfect example of it.

Pretzill

All generations have generalised traits based on the environment they grew up in.

Some of us straddle generations both my parents were post war cohorts - I am generation x (the baby boomers didn't figure in my family and I'm sure there are many my age the same anyone whose parents were born between 1928-42)
There was a lot to learn from post war cohorts I probably didn't realise that until I was older.

Generations often shake things up - cut a path themselves, music, literature, art etc.
I don't see anything new in millenials except perhaps how the younger end of the generation are influenced by social media, social causes (any causes, not fussy or particularly educated on fact beyond an emoticon) and very influenced by their own peers a lot more than other generations.

Sometimes there are things to be learned from those who have already been there. It's a pity we don't often get this realisation until another generation has matured.

Zillah

Wibbs wrote: »

In fairness he has a point, though much less so in Ireland. Irish Gen X types grew up in a society where they left school and it was the boat or dole for many, facing some of the highest unemployment in Irish history. I was privately schooled and just under a third of my class peers emigrated. Education places were far more limited in scope too.

So yes the previous generation overcooked the pot, but most didn't have a pot to piss in to start with so it's understandable. American Millennials do have a valid argument that Zillah made, but nope, not so much here.

Actually Zillah raises a different point which I have noticed as a "new" thing. He is basically spouting what an American would say of their generations. That fitting of Yank culture to Ireland is nearly always wrong headed, but increasingly common. This very thread a perfect example of it.

I didn't mention the US, though, you did. I'm referring to the rates of Irish young people getting mortgages (down), the rates of young Irish people starting families (later than ever due to economic insecurity), and the rates of emigration (higher than they've been since the mid-80s) . I'm talking about the scandal of the Jobbridge scheme, where well-established middle-aged people with their own companies or generous salaries expect young people to literally work for free in exchange for the privilege of being able to put anything on their CV. The generation above millennials, in this country, like many (yes, including the US), have accumulated huge amounts of wealth - a lot more than the millennials could expect to ever get.

pumpkin4life

Wibbs wrote: »

In fairness he has a point, though much less so in Ireland. Irish Gen X types grew up in a society where they left school and it was the boat or dole for many, facing some of the highest unemployment in Irish history. I was privately schooled and just under a third of my class peers emigrated. Education places were far more limited in scope too.

So yes the previous generation overcooked the pot, but most didn't have a pot to piss in to start with so it's understandable. American Millennials do have a valid argument that Zillah made, but nope, not so much here.

Actually Zillah raises a different point which I have noticed as a "new" thing. He is basically spouting what an American would say of their generations. That fitting of Yank culture to Ireland is nearly always wrong headed, but increasingly common. This very thread a perfect example of it.

I'm not sure I agree. While my cohort of lads are not 100 grand in debt for a useless degree, most are ****ing off/****ed off abroad or on the dole. For the middle class it ain't much better, unless you wandered into IT/STEM etc. In which case the country's doing very well.

Lux23

I think making generalisations about groups of people based on their age is rather stupid. I know plenty of people of all ages who are lazy, never take responsibility etc. And the stuff people say about millennials/gen y is the same crap that was said about gen x. We all eventually grow up and become adults so this generation stuff if purely fodder for columnists who have nothing new to add to the world.

Although baby boomers are selfish and have no idea how lucky they had it.

Sheeeeit

What the **** is a millenial?

Ronald Wilson Reagan

I watched millennium once and it really freaked me out.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcKyW_AtXB0

StupidLikeAFox

LexieOnRale wrote: »

How old do you have to be to be a millennial

1,000 years old

MilesMorales1

MilesMorales1 wrote: »

Not at all. My generation is terrible. Social media has enabled our self indulgent narcissistic tendencies as human beings to explode, we live in a digital world that may or may not exist, we have a tendency to get very annoyed about stupid stuff for short periods then completely forget about those things cos something new came along.

On the other hand, we're not nearly as terrible as a significant minority of your generation, who, as you continually slide into irrelevancy, become more and more bitter about it, and decide the best way to vent that frustration is to claim how terrible we are, missing the fact of course that one shouldn't judge an entire generation of people based on anecdotal evidence of people you've met, or people who post on boards.ie, or comment sections.

I venture in fact that if smartphones, selfies, the internet in its current form, had existed for 'generation X' you guys wouldn't be that much different from us. You're not that different already in fact, you just like to think you are cos it makes you feel smug and like you're not getting old and less useful. So you do you.

awaits inevitable 'millennial tantrum' comment from OP

I welcome your decision to drop the personalisation of the issue. Accepting and applying the advice of older generations is always good.

Not sure how my generation slide into irrelevancy. Do you think getting older actually makes a person "irrelevant"? Woah, that's a heightened sense of self worth there...:D:D I have employees and relations and friends who are Millenials, I have never regarded them as "more relevant". That would surely be simply a trait of someone with an inferiority complex rather than a facet of the Gen X and Millenial thing?

I agree that my generation may have turned out differently and had that "self indulgent narcissistic tendencies" we agree exists in Millenials had we the same access to social media.

andekwarhola

Zillah wrote: »

Ah, After Hours, a great place to come and hear the unimaginative share the first obvious thing to flit through their heads.

Evidently so.

Wibbs

Zillah wrote: »

I didn't mention the US, though, you did.

You're aping the American perceptions, experiences and culture in your very language. EG Millennials, Snowflakes, Xers and Baby Boomers. I hate to break it to you but we didn't have post war "baby boomers" like the US. That's a US postwar concept you're attaching wholesale to a very different society and population.

I'm referring to the rates of Irish young people getting mortgages (down)

Down from Tiger levels certainly, but again go back a couple of generations and a mortgage was more a middle class thing than seen as a given. Never mind mortgage rates are even now a fraction of what they were for previous generations.

the rates of young Irish people starting families (later than ever due to economic insecurity),

Ireland held the record for the highest age of marriage in the west for decades. Ironically you mention "baby boomers" that didn't exist in Ireland, now will in 20 years time as we're living through a baby boom right now. Again unlike most other western nations.

I'm talking about the scandal of the Jobbridge scheme, where well-established middle-aged people with their own companies or generous salaries expect young people to literally work for free in exchange for the privilege of being able to put anything on their CV. The generation above millennials, in this country, like many (yes, including the US), have accumulated huge amounts of wealth - a lot more than the millennials could expect to ever get.

I agree Jobbridge is a load of bollocks, but I dunno where you're getting this idea that anything like a good chunk of Gen X people have "accumulated huge amounts of wealth" That's a complete nonsense and provably so, though again another example of imported US perception(though they more blame their boomers).

and the rates of emigration (higher than they've been since the mid-80s)

Right. The mid 80's when Generation X were leaving school into few jobs and far fewer educational avenues. Yet apparently said generation, with less education and as few jobs(in reality far fewer) were able to rise above it and accumulate huge amounts of wealth according to you? Yeah, sounds more like you've a whinge on to me.

Lt Dan

Deleted User wrote: »

In your experience, what are the characteristics of the typical Millenial?

I find that many of them have a chronic lack of responsibility. If they do something wrong at work, it's a shrug of the shoulders. If they screw up in life, same thing...although if they perceive the slightest wrong to them, it's drama and strops all round. Just an inability to perform simple tasks. I think this may be down to them being the children of baby boomers, and treated in a way that other generations before had not experienced.

An obsession with looks, physique, appearance. See the way gyms now focus on the body rather than training to run faster and lift more, or simple athleticism, and there are suggestions that steroid use is frequent. We live in an era when some people actually look to the likes of Roz Purcell for advice. Scary. Presumably linked to use of social media where images are so crucial to communication. Can us Gen Xers imagine the laughter if you went into school with pics of your lunch and a dozen selfies every day?

An inability to accept criticism or challenge. I had one person at the upper end of the Millenial age range recently get very annoyed at my dismissal of the gluten free fad, and say I had just told her that her parents, siblings and everyone she knew was suffering from a fad. I pointed out that the prevalence suggested both self diagnosis and over diagnosis. Cue amusing tantrum and silence. Again, probably linked to their being the children of doting baby boomers.

On the plus side, they are generally more liberal and tolerant than preceding generations...though Gen Xers may argue that they were the generation where taboos were really smashed.

Anyone note any other characteristics? Incidentally, I know that this is purely based on observation, I am not claiming this is a sociology study. Oh and us Gen Xers are aware we have flaws, pointing to them can be a matter for another thread if any Millenials would like to open one.

Absolute t*ss8rs. Self centered and soft & spineless!

Everything handed to them and they can't deal with hardships - even though today's society does have it's own pressures and problems. Things are harder today in some aspects

We all can be guilty of it, even before the smartphone, the mobile phone is rarely out of their hands. At a restaurant, night club, gym while taking up space or on the benches (Jesus the times I have been tempted to smash them with a dumb -bell) Their lives can't be that great where a conversation needs to last 25 minutes to the same morons that they were talking to that morning . They tell you how much they can lift (bruh) yet get them onto a pitch they can not play and even pull up with the smallest of injuries.

Idiots are famous for no reason. Purcell, how is she a model! Big alien head slapped in layers of make up. At least Andrea Roche had some natural beauty

Oh, and remember the boom years. The adults the way they flaunted their wealth (hey good luck have fun). The fawning by the likes of "journalists" Barry Egan, dying to tell us how great Sean Dunne and his "gorgeous" "sassy" trophy wife was, and er, Ger Keane and Desperate Dan. Good god. They made car sales men like Bill Cullen look like mega successful men akin to even Alan Sugar or Bill Gates. Who were any of those on the Irish version of Dragons Den , a coffee franchise owner, a guy who owned Black Tie (now out of business) , a women who with DJ Carey (that did not go well for both sadly) .

Then you had these lads http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/courts/bankrupt-stokes-twins-must-hand-over-detailed-list-of-property-holdings-34573877.html . Again, let us not begrudge people who take financial risks and try to make themselves better, but it is how people went down the route of failure that makes is shocking

"It was subsequently revealed that ......continued to use their company expense accounts to go on lavish holidays and buy Gucci suits, even though their businesses were crumbling."

I know a Lecture and PhD holder, who is no older than many of the senior students , tell me that some first years (third level Uni) had their parents ring in to complain about Johnnie not being able to do a subject (which was elective) . The subject was only available depending on demand or it clashed with other core subjects was the explanation. Parents coming from the other side of the country to do your batting, at Third level!!!

Widdershins

There are still sound people with their head screwed on under age 30 but I definitely meet a lot of snowflakes . Lots of virtue signalling and I find that I get the full run down of their emotional state without ever asking . Mental health obsession . It's important to be able to be honest and open and no need for stigma but this is an obsession .VERY hard done by , without any 'grit'. I get on better with people who are older than me for this reason .

topper75

Wibbs wrote: »

"The old order changeth yielding place to new"

****! was only reading that line last night in Morte D'Arthur.:eek:

Was leafing through that Exploring English reprint.

As you may then gather, I am no millenial!

Zillah

Wibbs wrote: »

You're aping the American perceptions, experiences and culture in your very language. EG Millennials, Snowflakes, Xers and Baby Boomers. I hate to break it to you but we didn't have post war "baby boomers" like the US. That's a US postwar concept you're attaching wholesale to a very different society and population.

I think using names for any generation is a bit silly, I was just using a handy term for people who are currently middle-aged/retired. Doesn't really matter to me where the word originates.

Down from Tiger levels certainly, but again go back a couple of generations and a mortgage was more a middle class thing than seen as a given. Never mind mortgage rates are even now a fraction of what they were for previous generations.

Does it being a middle class thing some how mean it's not relevant? Housing is so much more expensive now, and employment so precarious, that Millennials are renting more and longer than previous generations.
http://www.irishexaminer.com/business/fewer-mortgages-being-given-to-younger-people-390554.html
The past decade has seen the percentage of mortgage protection policyholders in their 20s dwindle to 4% of the market compared to 19% in 2004, data from Royal London shows.

I agree Jobbridge is a load of bollocks, but I dunno where you're getting this idea that anything like a good chunk of Gen X people have "accumulated huge amounts of wealth" That's a complete nonsense and provably so, though again another example of imported US perception(though they more blame their boomers)

Right. The mid 80's when Generation X were leaving school into few jobs and far fewer educational avenues. Yet apparently said generation, with less education and as few jobs(in reality far fewer) were able to rise above it and accumulate huge amounts of wealth according to you?

You seem to think I am particularly picking on Gen X, I'm not. I mean more middle-aged people, with long careers and their own homes. Seeing these sorts of people sitting back and sneering at millennials is a bit rich.

Yeah, sounds more like you've a whinge on to me.

I'm not a millennial by the way, you might have guessed that from my reg date. It's a shame that if you speak out in defence of X everyone assume you are one of X and you're only arguing because it's in your self-interest. I'm just a bit sick of seeing people online attacking an entire generation over trivial stuff like selfies and calling them lazy and entitled while ignoring the dire economic prospects they're forced to endure.

Maximus Alexander

I was going to post a deep and thought provoking response to the OP but it sounded a lot like work and I couldn't be arsed. It indirectly criticizes me and I can't accept that, so I'm going to go do some work on the abs instead. Gay marriage is cool.

Wibbs

topper75 wrote:

****! was only reading that line last night in Morte D'Arthur.:eek:

Was leafing through that Exploring English reprint.

I knew it was Tennyson, but TBH I remember it more from Uncle Monty's speech in Withnail and I. "shat on by Tories, shovelled up by Labour" etc

recylingbin

These things even themselves out over a century. They may all look like Gaylord's now, but in 20 years time, they'll wear sensible clothes, have sensible haircuts and be bitching about generation robot.

Zillah

Let's put to bed the idea that previous generations did not have it easier than millennials:
http://www.independent.ie/opinion/columnists/colette-browne/entitled-brats-its-not-millennials-who-destroyed-the-world-economy-34894875.html

Last week, the Economic Social and Research Institute (ESRI) released a report confirming what most of us should already know - young people have been disproportionately affected by the recession.

Measuring quality of life using 11 separate indicators - including income poverty, housing quality problems, inability to afford basic goods - it found those aged between 18 and 30 are nearly twice as likely than those aged over 65 to experience multiple problems.

Putting flesh on the bones of this study yesterday was a report from a UK think-tank, Resolution Foundation, which outlined how millennials' future prosperity was torched in the flames of the financial crisis.

While previous generations could always be reasonably assured they would be financially better off than their parents, that certainty no longer exists. A typical millennial today earns £8,000 (€9,600) less during their twenties than the preceding generation, those in Generation X.

Alarmingly, researchers have estimated this could be the first generation whose lifetime earnings will be lower than those who came before them. One only has to look at the yellow-pack contracts being offered to young gardaí and nurses to find evidence of this.

But sure they like the gym and instagram so let's call them a gang of pretentious brats with no concept of responsibility.

Gyalist

Millenials, Gen X and baby boomers all in one post - mind blown!

A good war is all it would take to sort out the deficiencies of Millenials.

Maximus Alexander

Gyalist wrote: »

Millenials, Gen X and baby boomers all in one post - mind blown!

A good war is all it would take to sort out the deficiencies of Millenials.

You'd probably have a pretty tough time convincing us to fight a war.

Zillah

Zillah wrote: »

Let's put to bed the idea that previous generations did not have it easier than millennials:
http://www.independent.ie/opinion/columnists/colette-browne/entitled-brats-its-not-millennials-who-destroyed-the-world-economy-34894875.html

But sure they like the gym and instagram so let's call them a gang of pretentious brats with no concept of responsibility.

Ummmmmmmm, as you didn't use the quote function, could you specify...who exactly were you responding to?

L.Jenkins

hidinginthebush wrote: »

THEY WEREN'T EVEN ALIVE FOR ITALIA 90!!!

I honestly have trouble wrapping my head around that fact whenever I meet someone under 26

I know I'm joining the thread late, but what baffles me is meeting self entitled little feckers who weren't around for Sept 11th 2001 or can't recall it.

Maximus Alexander

L.Jenkins wrote: »

I know I'm joining the thread late, but what baffles me is meeting self entitled little feckers who weren't around for Sept 11th 2001 or can't recall it.

You mean teenagers? Teenagers were never proper humans, and never will be. That's why we don't let them do any of the cool stuff.

Wigglepuppy

I think the "tiger cub" age group (born between mid 70s and second half of 80s) can be shockingly self entitled and lacking personal responsibility. If anything, "millennials" haven't had the same luxuries.

Then there are the people of all generations with shocking self entitlement and lack of personal responsibility, which is to do with attitude and upbringing and values rather than age.