I need a rant about millennials

Sounds like someone with main character syndrome rather than a millennial generalisation.

This must be ironic. All Gen X. 🤣

Millennial here, doesn’t make sense, unless this person has a personal connection to the events of 9/11 and has an unusual way of communicating it?? Possibly the American aspect? Sometimes they have a very different approach to sentimental expressions.

Just saw one thread where someone was saying it's not pensioners we should blame it's poor people on benefits

Now this thread saying no this generation didn't have it the hardest, this other generation did

I'm sick and tired of infighting, figuring out who to be most angry at or place most blame on. OP you can't generalise an entire generation of people. Why would you feel the need to argue another generation had it worse than this random commenter's generation.

Divide and conquer in action while the wealthy and powerful laugh at us

And maybe she was picking up on your British snobbery? You can call Americans nationalist but let’s balance the equation accurately. Speaking as someone who has lived in both countries and is from another country but living in the UK.

I totally agree .

but I think there is something jarring about being the first generation that hasn't had things better than the generation before in living memory.

Has gen x out performed boomer generation - I think it depends on the metric but didn't think that was so.

DH job generation before would mean much higher standard of living - though DH got through uni with no loans - me few years younger had a few - debt our kids have is way more. Also gen x are likely to have higher retirement ages and more likely to have kids and elder care at same time than previous generations.

So I agree every generation seems to be finding it financially tighter - just not so sure millennials are the first generation to find this.

I'm a millennial and I think this is such utter bollocks. Basically, it's a nice way of saying 'it's harder for us because we had nicer childhoods'!

I feel very lucky to be a millennial not gen Z, and it makes me really sad to see people of my age already spouting shit about how hard we've had it and trying to dismiss the advantages we had compared to the generation below, while at the same time warbling on about how it was all better in their day. I hate that nostalgia has become our dominant public discourse, but I feel like at least it's a normal life stage for pensioners. Seeing people in their 30s and 40s doing it is just such self-indulgent nonsense.

People regularly complain on here about ageism and use of the word boomer being offensive. If those threads aren’t allowed then surely this isn’t given that it’s making a sweeping generalisation about a specific age group.

There has only been 1 lucky generation and that is the boomers.

Tell that to all the boomers conscripted into the Vietnam War.

The great events that become cultural touchstones have a particular impact on the cohort experiencing them as older teens/young adults when they mark a transition or an awakening to the wider world.

For me, that political awakening was the fall of the Berlin Wall and despite how utterly shitty things are now I have a deep belief that social justice is possible and worth striving for.

For my parents their event was the assignation of JFK and for them the world is a place where good things can be snatched away in a moment, and they hold tightly to what they value.

The end of the Cold War, ime, came on a wave of artistic, musical and cultural youth culture. It felt like we were rising. But my parents didn’t feel the same sense of optimism, because their lens was different.

9/11 was horrific, but for me. was still mitigated by a belief that good can flourish and bad things can be overcome. It was an entirely different experience for the generation who came of age to that. I can respect that. And I can respect a desire to seek fellowship in shared experiences. Sometimes age and life stage matters.

Ugh! I hate all these generations divisive chats! I recently deleted the Facebook app for many reasons but one of the big ones was constant videos/reels of 'influencers' posting about fashion choices of Millennials versus Gen z, and constant battles between the generations. I notice it seems to be Americans talking about it more than British people. Americans also I believe have an extra generation - can't remember what it's called but it's to do with Vietnam.

Also Millennials span quite a few years, the older millennials will be much more like Gen X and the younger ones will be more Gen Z. Also, how old was this person? Twenty somethings of all generations throughout all time generally think they are the centre of the universe and everything is about them. Although this person was probably just out of her 20's.

I am a millennial apparently, and have never felt like the person you were talking to, I barely understand what she's going on about!

It's all just a load of divisive crap, aimed at getting us to buy more stuff and post more stuff to keep up with the zeitgeist.

If this discussion was on Facebook or X, I'd advise deleting them, so much of social media is a cesspit of hate and division. Why oh why did Zuckerberg/Meta ruin Facebook?! It was so good when it was just about keeping up with friends and family!

I think its a bit pointless to talk about Millennials as a homogenous group. There will be a massive difference in how events affected you depending on your age within that group (google tells me Millennials were born 1981-1999). 15 year spread! The twin towers fell in 2001 some millennials would have been 2 hardly going to impact them. Others were 20 very much aware of the world and the impacts of huge events. I'm a Millennial I don't have any of those feelings. The chat gp description that @scoobysnaxx posted above sounds alien to my feelings.

Exactly this. As if everyone born in the same decade thinks the same way.

The only thing is that you may have some similar cultural references.

oh ok, that makes sense, I couldn't make head nor tail of this post and I like a good rant!

agree, it's such nonsense. Just the media trying to be more divisive so we don't focus on who is actually to blame for 99% of the issues impacting our quality of live (billionaires and now a trillionaire hoarding wealth).

A few years ago people were just older than you or younger, not split into tribes according to things like the length of their socks and how they part their hair!

OP you are being silly. You seem to have met one weirdo and extrapolated that out to over a billion people. You wouldn't do that about a particular race/sexuality/religion.

Particularly silly given millennials are probably the most likely group to be in the 'active parenting' phrase right now, and thus the largest user base of MN, I'd hazard a guess most won't agree with you that we're all arseholes! Which you also seem to have now acknowledged yourself, so not really sure why you bothered starting the thread!

We had the miners strikes, the oil crisis. 3-day weeks, power cuts. Doing our homework by candlelight. Vietnam. The Cold War, the constant threat of being nuked.

My parents were evacuated to escape the blitz. Dad did national service, told he was going to be sent to Korea. Luckily, the war ended before that.

Granddad was a boy soldier on the Somme. His parents' generation were blighted by cholera epidemics. "We want our mourning back". Lol, you don't know how lucky you are.

Another one who is completely deluded. I'm Gen X, born in 71. I was 8 years old when Margaret Thatcher came to power in 1979. There was no long boom, there were huge recessions, millions of people on the dole. For those who went to University in the very early 90s there was another recession and no jobs. Generation X is not the lucky generation. There has only been 1 lucky generation and that is the boomers.

But, and its a big but, there are lucky people from every generation who have grown up and taken advantage of family wealth. They are the big winners of life. The rest of us, not so much, regardless of what group we fall into.

Yes, especially since the borders are so arbitrary. Just looked up and millennials were born 1981-1996. I reckon there is quite a bit difference in the childhood and experiences of those born in 1980 compared to 1996. Can't really say that about those born 1980 compared to 1981 though.

I see what you're saying, but it's not quite comparing like-for-like. Yes, this kind of generational categorisation is a very blunt tool, as @Monty36 said above, but in practice, is it not likely that for a lot of people, the era they grew up in is probably overall more of an influence than e.g. race, ethnic background or disability? I'm thinking of the influence of things like the school curriculum, lack or prevalence of social media, typical technology of the time, wider cultural attitudes, interest rates and the jobs market, the state of healthcare at the time (and available vaccines), the political landscape, the wider geo-political/international landscape etc. I guess I'm saying that personally I think that is probably more of a leveller than most other categories, with outliers of course.

Elder millennial here. I've never heard that expressed, but I think there is something jarring about being the first generation that hasn't had things better than the generation before in living memory. I remember identifying that was likely to be the case during the 2008 crash and being told I was being overly pessimistic, but it has actually proven to be true. Personally I feel lucky that I had established my career and bought my first home before the crash, but I feel really sorry for younger millennials and Gen Z who have struggled to establish themselves during decades of austerity and rising living costs. The rise of AI is going to make things even tougher for younger Gen Z and Gen Alpha.

@scoobysnaxx We are the first generation to know and remember and appreciate life before and after social media. 9/11, COVID, recessions.

Hello, Gen X here. I want my 'mourning' back. You are talking utter shite. Every generation that went before you can remember what life was like before any of these things. Are you mad?

DD1 means media potrays events as worst thing ever - rather than more just what is happening.

Don't think I made that clear - she thinks it is what is is and they'll just have to get on best they can as we did as their DGP did.

Can confirm this is how I feel as a millennial, and something I think about often.

We're late stage gen x and 2008 when we had young kids was a blow - and yep there been a lot since.

Millennials are currently 30-45 in age apparently - graduating into that rather than having a few years in work place like us would have been a massive hit.

My DC are graduating now - or in few years - eldest complains in media her generation it's always the worst stuff happening - they are all late stage Z.