“You millennials are always on your phone, put it down and talk to each another like real people.”
I get it, we’re irritating, self righteous brats. You feel like we’re scrolling our lives away, and this great technology was wasted on the wrong generation. We don’t know the value of a hard day’s work, we don’t know what good communication looks like. We’re not taking today’s privileges and technologies, and using them to the fullest potential. We’ve all heard members of the older generations talk down on us. I don’t blame them, I understand their points, but I also think they’re wrong.
We Remember
Millennials remember what life was like before the technology boom. We remember making calls from the corded home phone in the kitchen. There was once a time when people could say and do stupid things- and not worry about it living on forever via the internet. We remember when dial up internet became a reality, and how the internet and the home phone couldn’t work simultaneously. Millennials too, made the transition from polaroid, to film, to digital, and then to smart phones with amazing cameras.
Millennials understand what you call ‘good communication’- because that’s all we had before cell phones and Wi-Fi. Don’t you remember? We grew up as the very last generation to ride bikes to one another’s houses. Millennials played in the dirt, we had lots of sleepovers, and we didn’t like having our pictures taken. We know what it’s like to put our foot in our mouth, see hurt in someone’s eyes, and then regret what we said. Surprisingly, also know that there’s more to emotions than punctuation and emoji’s.
We Know We’re Privileged
Millennials took history classes, and we paid attention for the most part. We know that the previous generations didn’t have it nearly as easy as we do. Millennials understand that this newfound abundance of shared intelligence, connectivity, and communications is priceless. We already know that we aren’t special, just because we own a smart phone.
We know how crazy the reality of the internet is. We’re able to meet people online, who in another time, we would have never had the privilege of meeting. I personally have about a half dozen really good friends I met through twitter. Some of them I actually meet in person and get an ice cream with. Sometimes your hometown just doesn’t provide you with people who are best friend material- and the internet has the perfect cure for that. Sure, the internet has predators, but so does the real world- you just have to be savvy to navigate them. This is a gift many millennials have.
Lastly, The knowledge that the previous generations paid for by going to college, is now free online. Seriously, if you want to become an expert, just open up Pinterest or Google and get to reading. Almost everything you could ever need to know is given out as free knowledge. University reports, bloggers with real world experience, niche chat forums, YouTube, and more- they’re all here to help.
Millennials Should be Taken More Seriously
That’s why Millennials should be taken more seriously. We have the best of both worlds- we knew the world before the internet- and yet we’ve thrived since it made it’s debut. When you see us ‘mindlessly’ staring at our phones- know that we could be looking at dank memes, or we could be researching Roth IRAs, or we could be talking to a ‘close’ friend from the other side of the country.
Before I go, I want to leave you with this.
“Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity.”
That’s from 1 Timothy 4:12, and I think it nicely sums up what we as millennials need to do to gain respect from our elders.
As always, thank you for reading.
