Lauren Deutsch | Opinions

I have come to hate the word millennial, even though I am one. All too often, “millennial” is preceded by “lazy,” or “cynical” or “selfish,” and quite frankly, I am getting tired of hearing about all of the ways my generation is ruining our country. Complaining about the youngest generation does seem to be a rite of passage of sorts; the baby boomers dealt with it, and Gen Xers did, too. 

It’s similar to how high school sophomores are so eager to gang up on the innocent freshmen, when just a few months before, they themselves were the punching bags. I can deal with that. The reason I am getting impatient is that millennials are no more lazy or cynical or selfish than our predecessors; in fact, I would argue we are less so.

Something that has never made sense to me is that millennials are often made to feel guilty for taking full advantage of the technologies placed in our lap. We are the first generation to have grown up with the Internet, and we cannot remember a time without it. Being too reliant on our laptops or iPhones does not make us lazy; it makes us human. People will always seek out the most efficient method to solve a problem –– and we should. That is key to a productive society. 

So when I hear people complain that “kids these days” should, for instance, print out paper maps instead of taking the “easy way out” by plugging the address into our phones, it’s hard not to roll my eyes. Why would I purposely make things harder for myself when I have this incredible technology right in front of me? I’m not interested in wasting my own time. Do not try to tell me that if boomers of Gen Xers had had Google Maps on hand, they would have chosen paper directions.

The claim that we are too cynical is also rather perplexing. One of my first childhood memories is seeing the Twin Towers fall, and things haven’t exactly improved since then. I’ve seen our country plunged into costly and ineffective wars, I’ve seen the U.S. walk through the worst recession since the Great Depression, and I’ve seen elementary schoolers die at the hands of a mass shooter.

Frankly, millennials’ lives so far have been marked by national tragedies, and I would think that some degree of cynicism would be excused. But the reality is that millennials are more optimistic than older generations despite all we have seen; 49 percent of millennials believe that America’s best years are ahead, compared to 42 percent of Gen Xers and 44 percent of baby boomers. Call us young and naïve, sure, but can you really call us cynical?

Perhaps the biggest complaint is that millennials are overwhelmingly selfish and narcissistic, wrapped up in a “me, me, me” culture. Again, the data doesn’t exactly back this one up. In 2014, 84 percent of millennials made a charitable donation, and 78 percent of those donations were unsolicited by the givers’ workplaces. Seventy percent spent at least an hour of their time volunteering for a cause they cared about, 32 percent used paid time off to volunteer, and 16 percent took unpaid time off to volunteer. Millennials are not being coerced by their supervisors to give to the extent that past generations were (donations would often be deducted from employees’ paychecks) –– but they are giving anyway. This is all in spite of the fact that many millennials don’t have a ton of disposable income to go around, considering the typical millennial earns just $33,833, the lowest average earning after adjusting for inflation since 1980, despite college attendance reaching an all-time high.

I am sure that some will use this article as some kind of confirmation that millennials are whiny and overly sensitive. I can assure you, I am not deeply offended by all the millennial hate, and I can certainly take constructive criticism. However, I would prefer the criticism to be accurate, and most of the complaints I hear about my generation begin to unravel when you look at the data. With that being said –– chin up, millennials. We’re doing just fine.

Lauren Deutsch is a junior majoring in operations management. Her column runs biweekly.