I need a rant about millennials

[HanG77]

Okay, I may offend millennials but hear me out (and please, millennials, offer me an explanation as to why your generation do this)...I've just had a discussion with a millennial on a thread for a social media post showing the Tartan Army having a blast in Boston, her comment was about how it was "healing the millennials". I replied saying it's lovely for all generations to watch given how divisive the world is, and she said due to 9/11 millennials crave the world healing more. I get this a lot with millennials - like they think every cultural experience is about them or for them - even taking things that are from other generations and claiming it as their era - and they act like no other generation has had any big events to deal with. I argued the Lost Generation (world war) and Gen Z (being children/early adults when the whole world stopped) have had it worse out of all the living generations (in my opinion).

For context, I'm a British Gen X, also I have a lot of close millennial friends so it's not personal, it's about them as a collective. Also, this person was American - I think maybe the American nationalism adds to it (more so than with Brits of this generation).

Can’t say it’s something I’ve noticed. 🤷‍♀️

As a millennial that didn't make sense

Millennial here, never ever heard anyone say anything like this before!

I don’t understand her comment suggesting that 9/11 affected millennials more than other generations tbh, no generation should claim that.

I think the whole argument that one generation is more hard done by than another is a bit odd, it’s a bit of a race to the bottom isn’t it?

I have literally never seen or heard this. I think it’s a you thing.

I think some Millennials feel a bit short changed because they were the first generation to not experience economic growth. Obvs every generation has their struggles.

I mean i don't really understand what the particular person who were talking to is on about but maybe the below explains your wider concerns about Millennials.

"Economic research, including a landmark UK study by the Resolution Foundation, identifies Millennials (born 1981–2000) as the first modern generation to potentially miss out on a massive, generational income and wealth boom. Unlike prior cohorts, they have faced stagnant wages, heavy student debt, and housing crises during their prime working years"

I'm a millennial, I don't understand what she was saying, and I've never come across that sort of attitude before.

Think you’re unreasonable to extrapolate the opinion of one person to all Millennials. No one person speaks for every member of any group. You’re welcome to rant about this one Millennial if you like though.

I'm a millennial and I haven't heard of this before. If I was you, I wouldn't worry about it.

I’ve not noticed this.

Every generation seems to think they have suffered greater hardship than any other. This was a meme before the internet was even invented.

I am a millennial.
of course other generations have been through their own trials and tribulations and seen many world changes.
but for us, there is a real mourning attached to it. There is a very VERY stark contrast to life as we knew it as kids and the life we expected we could achieve, compared to what it is now. It’s really sad. Of course life for any generation becomes different when you reach adulthood. We are the first generation to know and remember and appreciate life before and after social media. 9/11, COVID, recessions. Have all completely changed the life we expected we could achieve. It has been really disappointing in some ways. I worked really hard, have multiple degrees and a good professional job with a decent wage. But I am not where I thought I would be. It has been so hard to get the things I wanted to have and in turn to give my children. My dad is late 70s and he is disappointed at the state of the world for me and my kids. Nothing to do with not working hard.
so yes there is a real mourning.
of course I know other generations may have their own feelings of loss/nostalgia/hardships.
I think it’s because we are the last generation before the internet really. My kids have a totally different life to what I had as a kid. Everything was so simple back then. Well simpler.

Was it because the things mentioned happened during formative years? Especially as American 9/11?

As pp said, we got fucked economically. So yeah some of us are quite sour about that

The lesson here is not to engage in debates or discussion with people on Facebook (or similar). It's pointless. The people you're arguing with might be of below average intelligence, or be trolls.

You had an issue with one person's comments and are then extrapolating this to all millennials. I know you say you get this a lot with millennials, but the fact is there are self-absorbed people in every generation, and these people tend to be the loudest so you probably notice them more.

I am fed up with all this boomer/millennial/gen Z nonsense. It's like saying everyone born in the year of the dog or pig is the same. People are individuals.

I've heard 'our generation had it worst' from people of almost every generation, not just millennials. One of my gen z kids argues with her genx dad's commitment to recycling, telling him that 'her generation don't want to recycle because your generation were responsible for fucking the planet over so there's no point' (yes, she's an idiot and I blame the parents).

Interestingly, I haven't heard it much from my lot (gen x), which may be because by various metrics we've had a pretty good go of it (hard hat on for the barrage).

Let it go

Can you explain why all British GenXs make sweeping generalisations based on isolated interactions?

https://highline.huffingtonpost.com/articles
Here's a 'fun', interactive article about the joys of being a millennial.

FWIW, I do think they have a harder time than the currently-alive generations before them. Short of people who lived through the world wars, of which there are few around these days, it's a pretty shit time to be alive. I don't think the folks who grew up in the 50s-80s actually understand how few the opportunities are for millennials. It's a stunted life.

Though I feel worse for the GenZ, Gen Alpha and Gen Betas who have all the same crap to endure but they don't even get the fun memories of life without internet or what it was like to be a teenager without a tracking app on their phone.

I think it's a very online take - and specifically on tiktok, I do see that sort of stuff all the time.

I'm GenX/ Millenial cusp - have friends and relatives as well as work colleagues both much older and much younger, and can't honestly say I notice half the stuff I see posted online about 'Boomers are like this, Gen X are like that, Gen Z hate millenials blah blah blah'. Some of the funny little traits/ habits/ cultural references sure, I definitely see myself in some 'millenial' stuff and like laughing about some of the things we used to wear and do. But it definitely goes too far sometimes.

9/11 was a seismic event our lives for those old enough to have lived through it - I think to have experienced it as an American child/ teen would have had even more impact though to be fair.

I am a millennial and I can confirm this is something every single one of us thinks.

Not something I’ve noticed, and I think we need to stop putting people in these tedious “boxes” and talking about them like they’re all some homogenous mass who act and think the same.

Chat gpt summarised it a bit more succinctly for me

Millennial mourning isn’t simple nostalgia; it’s a quiet, generational grief for a world that dissolved while we were still living in it. We were among the last to have an analog childhood and the first to be thrust into a digital adulthood, old enough to remember privacy, slowness, and optimism, yet young enough to have no control when it all changed. Events like 9/11 marked a psychological rupture, ending the sense of collective safety and ushering in an era of fear, surveillance, and uncertainty. We grew up believing in stability, progress, and reward for effort, only to watch those promises unravel in real time. What we mourn is not childhood itself, but the loss of a softer, more hopeful world — and of a version of ourselves that existed without constant comparison, performance, or an audience.

I don’t bloody recall optimism during the Cold War - I grew up fearing nuclear winter and wondering how that would interact with global warming

and the generation before me - peace and love man - a product of all the wars around them

None of us have been as unlucky as the generations that went to war. Wars are a stain on the soul of a nation, kills off hundreds of thousands of young men or maims them physically and psychologically. Not being able to buy a house or progress in a career is nothing by comparison.

I think anyone who assumes the 15 million millennials living in the UK all think the same is a bit odd personally. How can anyone lump 20% of the population all into one homogenous group?