Blaming millennials for everything

A solid piece from Russell Howard (British comedian who has gained somewhat of a cult following in the US, while being popular in his native UK) on the matter.

Anyone else sick of this trend?

I dislike the term. I dislike being associated with it. Do most other countries have generational terms like this or is it just the English speakers who are obsessed with categorizing everything?

Blaming stuff on the younger generation isn't anything new. "Millennials" will be shitting on whatever generation it is now, Z? before long if it's not already happening.

In any case, it's all annoying. Pointing fingers at other groups of people for pretty much all problems in society. Humans are really good at doing that.

"Youth these days..."

@nintendoboy16:

If you want to see a decent UK comic who’s always hopping around the states, I highly recommend Simon Amstell.

Russel Howard’s comedy mostly revolves around making stupid noises and taking potshots at the easy target of the week for easy applause.

‘Oh, Brexits a bit sh*t isn’t it?’

Ahahahahahaha

Such witty commentary Russell, what will you think of next?

@ezekiel43: @nintendoboy16:

What's a millennial?

Someone who became an adult in these first few years of the century.

Nothing new. I will say this, though: I think Millenials are going to change a lot of things. We seem to be focused on quality over quanitity, something new in America, a land where we like our bread white, our sugar white, we like more cars than we need, and so on. We are focused on quality service and less on fixing things ourselves (just look at cars, for example; it's pretty difficult to work on a car these days compared to back in the day). More focus on environmental things, taking it easier at work, and so on.

I'm a "on the cusp" millennial, being born in 1984, there are a lot of things I just struggle to understand with some of my younger peers within my generation, but I generally understand it and even desire to be that way. Especially with work, I wish I could take it easier with work, feel more entitled to things, etc.

Apparently "Generation Z" will be killing off email. I get it; I rarely use email these days to communicate with people, texting is easier, faster, and more efficient. I really only use email for account stuff, bills, and so on. Business, in other words.

I was born in the early 80's and can't stand this modern era. I wish I could of lived in the 90's forever. Minus the school part great music no annoying smart phones or social media ect....

I feel like almost no one in my generation Millennial uses email. It's phones and social media. I don't use my phone. I like email, but all the junk gets annoying.

I feel like the world is generally getting better as the years go on. If you look back at the 1900s the first half was pretty crappy, wars and the Great Depression, work was backbreaking and dirty and unsafe. The last half saw things becoming more peaceful and equal, lots of great music came out of those decades.

To me the past nearly 20 decades are a continuation of that. I know a lot of newer issues are surfacing, but I think we're better off than we've ever been.

Being born in the late 80s, I have always felt like I'm in some sort of weird generational gap. I feel like older people were raised stronger, but younger people were raised with newer knowledge of the modern world. I know I'm probably included under the umbrella term of "Millennial", and maybe that's not so bad. But I don't think people realize how hard it is for people born in the in-between years to identify with the older and younger Millennials. I'll probably spend the rest of my life being really divided on things internally.

It definitely feels a lot different for millennials. It seems like there's no end to the chorus of people blaming us for everything under the sun, and then blaming us for trying to fix the things they blamed us for in the first place. It also seems to be a lot more vitriolic. Yes, people always complained about the younger generation, but they never blamed them for destroying whole industries, the institution of marriage, human procreation, etc., etc. I know they said a lot of the same things about Gen X, that they were lazy and listless, but it never felt this intense. And what's kind of ironic is not only do we have boomers and "greatest" gens blaming us for everything under the sun, but plenty of Gen Xers buy into it as well. They faced the same kind of hardship, they were the first generation in a while to have lifetime earnings beneath that of their parents for example, but they still tend to have a negative view of millennials, possibly because we're starting to see better job prospects than they are.

Anyway, yes, I'm completely ****ing done with it. I'm sick to death of people calling us entitled and lazy when we work some of the longest hours of any generation for subpar pay, of people who made a nice life for themselves on union salaries torching unions on their way out and then acting like it's our fault when we earn less money than they did, of people not taking into account the effect that skyrocketing education and housing costs have on our lifetime earnings and ability to save, of people not recognizing that we have some of the lowest lifetime earnings of any generation because of a recession that we didn't create, and of people acting like all the ways in which we're behind our own parents is because of some generational character flaw and not in the slightest because we have to deal with all of these issues. I was actually reading a well-researched article the other day that was going through all of the things that impact millennials negatively-low wages, high tuition, student debt, high housing prices-which seemed to be sympathetic to millenials. Then right at the end, with no substantiation, it said that the way out of all of this was for us to save and I wanted to scream. Yeah, we're having a hard time affording the basic necessities like rent, but we can just put MORE money aside to SAVE our way out of this problem! Why the hell didn't we think of that?

You can blame millenials all you want for their habits, but who raised them? For example, what generation sold them(raised them on) the technology to become a twitch game streamer?(just an example)

I think that's just because the internet is a relatively new thing. People were always blaming the younger generations for stuff, it's just that it was harder to hear all that complaining when social media wasn't being blasted at people 24/7.

Yeah it does seem like it's become more of a thing these days. It's annoying but I guess as long as it doesn't bother me all that much I don't care. I'm just laid-back like that lol :P

Why TF would I want to use email with all the spam I get? Sure it is useful, but that spam filter is working overtime. Same thing with Facebook actually. Every third post or so in my feed is an add for something. So I stopped with FB as well.

Linear TV is filled with commercials, so I no longer bother with it. I use youtube less and less because of ads. If Netflix or HBO decides to have commercials, I guess I'll call it quit there as well.

Don't complain about business dying when the same business fail to change their ways when the marked changes.

Am I the only one confused by this reply? I don't know where this aggression is coming from and why you're telling me not to complain when I didn't complain.

Anyway, one reason I prefer email is because it's free. I don't want to renew my prepaid minutes/texting. I call and text so few people that there is almost always plenty left by the time they expire. I can also type far faster than I can thumb-text.

My aggression was not intended to be aimed at you. Sorry if it seems that way.

I don't care what they do or don't so long as they are not a burden on me. Though I do have to chuckle to myself whenever I see a grown man out shopping with mommy.

Yeah well, they deserve it. Ok, ok just kidding mostly, not sure who to blame for adults living at home til they are 26.

Millenials do seem to have an annoying sense of entitlement, but again, I'm not sure who to blame there. Probably parents.

"Adults" living at home until 26, staying on the insurance of mommy and daddy, etc..,

I talked to millenials all the time and they are already doing what their predecessors are doing, talking shit of Gen Z. Its just a cycle..

Yeah I wasn't complaining, just an observation. As I said, outside of business, I rarely use email.

I don't mind it, it's sort of the natural evolution of tech I guess. Some people are going to be "inconvenienced" by it but in a likely short amount of time it will be gone and we will have moved on to something better.

Kidding :D

They allready blamed Gen X for everything.

@mrbojangles25: Never tell me what to do

suck it up, mils.

just think about all the complaining you'll get to do in 30 years on the younger generations.

Yep. Every generation blames the younger generation for anything and everything.

Millennials should break the trend. Blame the older generations for everything that is wrong.

Older generations blaming and complaining about younger generations has been happening for millennia, apparently as far back as Ancient Egypt.

LOL they already do that.........

I don’t identify as a millennial despite my age. I have a lot more in common with Gen X than I do with with Gen Z.

I have no idea why Generations last 25 years. I am vastly different than people that are 5-10 years younger than myself.

Worst generation ever. They’re responsible for peanuts being banned from schools because bad parenting made them allergic.

Enjoy the unemployment line with your gender studies degree!

The thing is, it's mostly been the older generations (baby boomers) that have collectively made decisions that have made themselves a financial burden on everyone else. That's where millenials get pissed, not only are dumb accusations thrown at them all the time, it's usually that they are getting accused of things that are being done to them by their accussers.

Is it weird?

They are just beginning to shape society through political changes. Yet blamed for killing of industries for a decade or so already :P

I don't want to complain about younger generations, I want people to have a bit of decency and respect for each other instead of taking all the aggression that other people undeservedly directed at them out on other people who don't deserve it. And I think one gen Z is smarter than 30 boomers combined, so even if I wanted to complain about them I wouldn't know what to complain about.

"I want people to have a bit of decency and respect for each other"

"I think one gen Z is smarter than 30 boomers combined"

lol

@ajstyles:

They don't always last 25 years, the true Baby Boomer generation only lasted from those born 1945 to those born in 1954......after that from those born 1955 (the beginning of Rock and Roll) to those born in 1964 (year of The Beatles invasion) is now called Generation Jones, the 2 are VERY different.

Generation Jones grew up in the 70's not the 60's and weren't involved with Woodstock, Vietnam, and the 60's movement. Generation Jones was the audience for the original New Wave and Punk movements of the late 70's. The younger ones tend to relate better to Generation X then Boomers, but the older ones relate better to Boomers. They used to be called tweeners because they were in- between 2 generations.

The 2 were often put together as Boomers because they both have massive numbers. But they have great differences.

That's not disrespect, that's a statement of fact. Most boomers I know go around complaining endlessly about millenials, blaming them for all the world's problems, and acting completely oblivious to any role they might play in those problems. Most gen Z's I know look at the same problems and actually recognize them as problems and try to find ways to solve them. One approach is patently stupid, the other is extremely intelligent. Saying that isn't a matter of respect.

anecdotal evidence is anecdotal.

You know at the same time, I don't think it's right for millenials to blame baby boomers for everything either.

I think there's different ways of looking at everything. People get so hung up on there being only two sides to an argument, when there are so many alternative views.

Dude, it has nothing to do with evidence, anecdotal or not. When boomers rain down a never-ending shitstorm of criticism of millennials, mostly for having to deal with problems that boomers themselves created, you can't expect millennials to have a favorable view of them. When someone treats you poorly you can't reasonably be expected to coddle them and go above and beyond to make sure THEIR feelings aren't hurt, yet that's exactly what people seem to expect of millennials. I've got no time for that. I'm not going to take my aggression out on the next generation and continue this ridiculous cycle of one generation ****ing the next one over just because they got ****ed by the last one. I'll save my resentment for the people who actually deserve it, the ones who go around criticizing my generation for being lazy and entitled even though we work more hours, have to deal with worse economic conditions than they did, and are going to have a worse quality of life because we came of age in a recession we didn't create at a time when they were dismantling all the public benefits that they benefited from but don't think we should benefit from.

@theone86:

You complain too much about boomers, those of us who grew up in the late 70's didn't have it easy too. You act as though millenials have had it rougher than everyone else, which is flatly untrue. Millenials often do seem to feel entitled, I think there's good reason they get that rap. I certainly don't think they all do. In fairness, you could blame their parents for why many millenials were sheltered from the outside world and spoiled with cel phones, internet access, and game systems by the time they reached their early teens. But most of these parents are NOT the true Boomers that you complain about.

The parents of Millenials are Generation X and my group, formerly the 2nd half of Baby Boomers but now generally acknowledged separately as Generation Jones. But neither us or Generation X had it that great either, even if the MTV 80's in general seemed to be a fun time to live through in the U.S.

So, in reviewing, I don't blame millenials for everything, in fact I'd place more blame on my generation and X for a lot when it comes to raising millenials. But you can also praise my group for including Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, both of whom were born the first year of Generation Jones and Rock and Roll (1955)!

Old people can be bitter AF!!!!!!!

I don't disagree with what you're saying in general, mils have it kinda shitty right now. however the phrase: "Most boomers I know go around complaining endlessly about millenials, blaming them for all the world's problems, and acting completely oblivious to any role they might play in those problems. Most gen Z's I know look at the same problems and actually recognize them as problems and try to find ways to solve them."

is completely anecdotal.

every generation got shit on by the ones before it. welcome to earth. if you want to turn that tide, by all means do it.

It's just something the older generations do to make themselves feel better about becoming obsolete.

We don't destroy things, we just do them better and faster.

Boomers raised millennials, what's that say about them as parents?

Old parents.