Has there ever been a more annoying generation?

[Moon108]

I’m ashamed to live in these times today. I feel slightly jealous about those in the generation before.

I’m talking about people constantly putting labels on themselves. We can’t mention gender now. All this “they/them”. I’m confused. They all seem confused and there are so many types of people now!

I’m talking about the tonnes of very middle class people I know that are very vocal about environmental issues and climate change whilst they are self confessed petrol heads or own two cars or think that buying packaged sandwiches from Waitrose is good for the world as they “use less packaging” and buy tonnes of new clothes shipped in from China and simply must go on two holidays a year.

I’m talking about this generation that are seemingly “triggered” by every single sensitive topic on the internet.

I just am failing to see much good.

I did other generations feel like this?

The day after the magnificent climate protests? YABVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVU. I'm 64 by the way. Of course they're not fucking perfect - nor am I and nor are you. But today I'm really really really really really proud of them and I think they utterly rock and you sound old and bitter, I'd watch that look, it'll take hold of you OP.

@ALoadOfTwaddle

Possibly one of the best songs ever. You could take any quote out of there and apply it to most questions/problems. It's such a good song.

Very true quote.

@Babdoc

I want to be your friend.

Not generation-specific, but here's a long list of things that improved last year alone

medium.com/future-crunch/99-good-news-stories-you-probably-didnt-hear-about-in-2018-cc3c65f8ebd0

Why on earth would you be ‘ashamed’ of people using they/then pronouns and the climate strike? Of all the things to be ashamed of fgs.

I think we hear about a lot more twattery than we used to because of the internet, TBH.

I have volunteered with teen girls and actually feel incredibly positive about their generation. They seem much kinder, confident and socially aware than when I was in school. Rampant low level homophobia and "tarts and vicars" or "playboy" parties were common when I was a teen 10/15 years ago -- these really have gone away now and girls seem much more confident in asserting themselves as independent than I remember us being. I do think social media presents challenges to this generation that others didn't have to deal with, but I don't think they're awful - quite the reverse.

When I was 16, I thought my parents knew nothing. When I was 21, I was shocked to discover how much they had picked up in the last 5 years. Winston Churchill
It has always been the case, every generation never understood the last one but now with the internet, social media etc. instead of moaning to friends one can bore the rest of the world.

Well, speaking as someone of my generation (gen X, I'm 51), the generation I find most annoying is the one that whinges about younger generations and tars them all with the same brush. That would be you, OP.

Live and let live.

I'm in my 50s if that's the generation you're talking about OP.
We have three vehicles. A car each and a camper.
We fly often.
We eat meat.
I don't give any thought to trans etc.
I don't buy sandwiches simply because I'm too tight to, or coffee or water when I'm out unless I'm in a cafe for a proper sit down coffee.
I can't get excited about issues today.
I'm probably seen as selfish, I care not. I've only got one life, then I die.
Like many previous generations, the world will still be turning when I do and no one will give a shite what I did or didn't do while I was alive.

This is all very confused. If you are going to slag off a generation at least be clear about which one you mean.

Must you swear?

Must you swear?

This is Mumsnet, it's obligatory. Also if that's your takeaway from the OP, you're missing something...

I dunno. I think my generation (I'm mid 30s) were extremely annoying teenagers. We wore those big combat trousers with tassels or giant flared jeans that were sopping wet up to the shins. We were the target market for all the X Factor Simon Cowell shite, manufactured boy and girl bands, and alcopops. We were the ones on Myspace, and later Facebook, first. I feel like we have a lot to answer for.

Tongue in cheek obviously but I do think social media started with us in the mid 2000s.

Every generation bemoans the one coming after it.

YANBU - though I don't think it's the entire generation (obviously), just that they are more vocal and possibly more prevalent, especially online.

I live above a prize specimen - non-stop tweeting about how she taught her (primary age) students about trans rights that day, lots of "triggered" chat, lots of bleating about how the big bad world is out to get her but she does these exciting things anyway to show other women what life is about.... 27, lives in her mum's basement and has real difficulty picking up her dog's shit.

Other generations didn't have Twitter.

Twitter is to blame for a lot of this naval-gazing bullshit, imo.

And I'm in my 20s, I'm of this generation you're talking about.

And as for the whole pronoun thing, is that really bothering you day to day??? Look at the wartime generation who had to put up with their kids coming of age in the 60s - they must have really wondered WTF was going on!

It's not any particular generation, it's just that communications mean it's much easier to hear about other's pet projects and causes (I try not to be too much of one of those runners )

Minority issues can gain strength because location has been removed from the equation and it's easy to find like-minded people.

Environmental concern has been rumbling along for a long time. There was a ressurgence around the mid-00s when An Inconvenient Truth came out. There was interest in the late 90s when the Kyoto agreement was signed. I was aware of many issues in the early 90s as a child. The ozone hole was discovered in the mid-80s. There was concern in the late 60s/ early 70s over gobal population growth and food supply. There were clean air acts in the 50s after fatal smogs. There are no simple solutions for maintaining civilisation and development and protecting the environment, but we do need to keep chipping away at it at different levels from consumers, industry, legeslation and international agreements. Sadly governments have been too distracted over much of the last decade, and the easy changes e.g. coal to gas fuelled power stations has already been done.

You’re coming off a bit “triggered” yourself OP.

Most of the things you have mentioned other than climate change (which is a pretty big deal) are rarely mentioned in everyday life. The trans thing I don’t understand what the big deal is, they are still a human, a person. If someone wants me to refer to them as them instead of him/her, why would I get my knickers in a twist over it? It doesn’t effect me nor does it bother me.

You also said the middle class people YOU know which is obviously reflective on only your social group not a whole generation. Plus, I’ve seen many older generations being “triggered” on social media, reminiscing about the good ole days where they could say whatever they wanted (usually racist/xenophobic) and not understanding or wanting to why it’s not appropriate anymore.

Every generation seems to think they're better then the previous generation when in fact every generation has positives and negatives.

Are gen z's perfect? Nope. But no generation is, we could sit here all day highlighting the failiures of millenials, gen x's, the generation that fought in ww2 and we could keep going back and back and back and doing the same for every generation. But we vould also highlight the positives of every generation too and how they've helped or are trying to make society a better place.

Every time I see a person of an older generation (seeing as how we're not being specific OP) on the news, 80% of the time they're bleating on about how Brexit should happen now and we need to make our own rules and we need to stop "foreigns" coming over here and ruining our NHS. I can only conclude, if we're making sweeping generalisations as per the OP, that all older people are thicko bigots, that it's been getting worse over the last ten years and I'm ashamed of the time that we live in.

Yours, a millennial snowflake.

And don’t get me started on their shallow obsession with selfies and social media...

This. Just back from holiday in Rome. Walking past the monument to King Victor Emmanuel, dreadful monstrosity IMO, saw young woman striking a ridiculous pouting pose while her male companion photographed her on a phone, causing some disruption to the flow of pedestrians. The young woman was clearly not striking the pose for a laugh, she thought she looked like a Vogue photo shoot.

The wartime generation did not think much of the younger generation (babyboomers) - they said the babyboomers lacked self-discipline, were reluctant to grow up, had too much of everything and were rude, among other things.
I'm reading old newspapers for work, late 1950s, early 60s.

Applauds @Bellsofstclements
And I'm 63.