Why Did Millennials Ruin Everything?

MILLENNIALS HAVE KILLED THE IDEA INDUSTRY

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Boiling down an entire GENERATION of people into one neat little set of descriptors or pinning upon them the responsibility for the failure of some industry or fast food item is ABSURD. But either way, it happens. And in our current clickbait dystopia, it happens to millennials ... a lot. Maybe because, since we’re narcissistic, we’re obsessed with what people are saying about us so we’ll click on whatever calls us out. And because, as we work through our hit list of industries, olds wanna know what segment of the capitalist utopia we’re gunning for next. Today, we’re going to accept this silly premise… that millennials are lazy ruiners of things who never want to grow up. And we’re going to talk–on the complainers own terms–about why that may be the case. And to do that: we’re gonna talk about HOW GENERATIONS WORK so we can once and for all find the answer to, “WHY HAVE MILLENNIALS RUINED EVERYTHING?”

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[jondreauxlaing]

Everytime I hear "Millenials are ruining I think to myself, "God, I hope so." I think another part of the millennial mentality isn't so much destroying the accomplishments of our elders to make room for our own, but also questioning whether those were accomplishments in the first place. In the face of our elders saying, "Look at all we accomplished!" we stare back blankly and say, "Why do you have a trophy for destroying the world?" We come right after the Xers, the generation of disillusionment, but we're coming up in a post 9/11 hell-hole in which neoliberal capitalism is tearing at the seams. The Xers grew up in a world that didn't care about them, and we grew up in a world that's openly hostile. We have the disillusionment of the Xers, but also anger at the world we inherited that the older folks might see as "entitlement".

[Lukos]

Millennials haven't ruined anything. They are too poor, too unemployed, too desperate to have that kind of agency. Globalism, free trade, de-regulation, antiquated governmental and corporate policies, and approaching the terminus of a generally unsustainable economic model have ruined everything. No one generation can be blamed for all of that. Even boomers, who benefited the most from it. The foundations were lain over a hundred years ago. But people need outrage to function. Something to vent their impotent frustration against. A scapegoat. Young people make a convenient target because they lack the power to fight back in any meaningful way.

[Pratchettgaiman]

Mike, I thought I should let you know that I posted this video onto my Facebook feed and my Baby Boomer mom was complaining that you talk too fast, so I guess "talking" is another thing us millenials have ruined.

[mahammadoutunkara]

I'm ok with killing the diamond industry

[AdamYJ]

I am technically a millenial since I was born after 1980, but I'm also of an age that I can remember when supposedly Generation Xers were ruining everything because they were "disaffected, lazy slackers". Oh, the more things change, the more they stay the same.

[LacrimosaTheNerd]

I don't think it's millennials fault that they/we're "narcissistic". We (and maybe Gen X too?) were raised in an era of perceived freedom, so many of us were told we're all wonderful and beautiful and special snowflakes an we should follow our dreams. That our parents raised us like this rather than the old way of "I want you to be [insert thing here] so that's what you're going to be, abandon your ridiculous dreams" is probably why we care more about ourselves, or at least care about ourselves in a different way (because I find older generations tend to be MORE entitled). That we were encouraged from a young age to be ourselves and make a difference, it seems strange that just a few years later as teens and young adults we are criticized and called narcissistic and selfish for following our dreams and speaking our minds. It's not easy to change the mindset you were raised with.

[FirstRisingSouI]

We millennials have to remember not to blame the next generation when it's their turn to shine.

[terriewatson]

Who wants a glorified rock that depreciates in value the second you walk out the door with it? A car is a necessity, a diamond ring is not.

[wmcduff]

Accounting for inflation, Millennials in North America earn 20% less than boomers did, cars are twice as expensive on average, houses six times more, and student debt is much, much worse. They're killing everything because they don't have the cash to save it.

[aardbeidelijkheid]

I think we "ruin" everything because we are more aware about things than ever before.

We don't buy diamonds because we don't see the importance of buying a rock that is actually pretty common and probably has slavery involved, while there are 1) other things you can buy and 2) way more awesome stones.

We don't have to buy multiple cars that are huge, because we know that that is bad for the environment (and pretty useless, why would one person need multiple cars?)

With food, I think (or at least I hope) that we're trying to eat healthier. That we don't want artificial stuff that is bad for us anymore (unless we don't have money, because I'm going to be eating my instant noodles while I'm still broke).

In the end, I think we're just not as focused on the whole 'flaunting with objects that are expensive' industry... Though I could be wrong of course :)

[busydadliving]

Yes, yes, thank you. I belong to like three different groups of people roughly the same age, and each of these groups is really, really different. I'm a Millennial with four kids. I'm like an albino unicorn.

On the topic of Millennials killing everything, I can't help but notice that all of the things that we're supposed to have killed are 20th Century constructs. They're not actually normal human things, but particularly situated in the recent West. So, yeah, culture changes as new kids have new experiences using new technologies. Was the Lost Generation blamed with "killing agriculture" because of the development of nitrogen fixing and motorized combines? Or the Silent Generation with killing music because they listened to all that Chuck Berry? No. Times changed.

If you want to charge Millennials with murdering the cultural milieu you're so attached to, you have to admit that every generation has committed its own murderers. We all have epistemological blood on our hands.

[Commanderziff]

Why exactly is it our obligation to support all of these industries? They're selling something we don't want, therefore we don't buy. Generally this is seen as "the market at work". Saying that I don't see any value in buying diamonds is not some act of destruction on my part, or some kind of refusal to grow up. This video is incredibly silly.

[Jarasilverdawn]

Emotionally, a lot of millennials came of age during a string of apocalyptic events-- start with Y2K, then September 11th, strings of wars, mass shootings, crashing economies, and natural disasters and terror attacks so long that they no longer make the news, the constant foreboding of climate change and the warning bells that we're past the point of no return, and then throw in sprinkles of multiple rescheduling of the Rapture, the Mayan New Year, and Nostradamus's end of the world.

Economically, we got hit with skyrocketing costs for education and healthcare (in the USA), coupled with stagnant wages and an economic recession that left a lot of us unemployed or underemployed.

And then add to that the fact that most of us were raised on the internet, and fed on a steady supply of information that we couldn't disconnect from even if we wanted to. There's a surge in sensitivity to alternative ways of seeing the world (genders, disabilities, sexualities, etc), because suddenly we're in touch with people who experience it differently, which can itself lead to walking on eggshells in an effort to not cause further harm.

So take all of that, and millennials are in general a bundle of raw nerves looking for some kind of relief. And all that stuff that people complain about tends to be the self-medication for those nerves.

Rejection of cars, houses, diamonds, vacations, etc? Many opt to go without because they can't afford it. Obsession with food? It's a small, simple pleasure that we actually CAN afford. Talking too fast? We feel like we're under too much pressure to slow down, so we add a tool at the bottom of our Youtube videos that lets us speed it up. Phones are a comfort item and multitool, which allows people to keep being productive, keep in touch with friends who might live an ocean away, and provide (free!) games that distract from the anxieties that they might otherwise be feeling.

[MysteryMudokon]

Millennials don't ruin anything. That's Adam's job.

[markcarls]

Funny how babyboomers are always telling us to stop blaming others for the problems they hand us, yet they always blame us for everything.

[zoomopticsproduction]

“Who do you blame when your kid is a brat
Pampered and spoiled like a Siamese cat?
Blaming the kids is a lion of shame
You know exactly who's to blame:
The mother and the father!”

[RawrMeansIDontLoveU]

The generations before us fucked everything up. We're just trying to fix their mistakes and it's a lot harder than it looks. Not to mention our generation seems to be the only one that accepts difference and uniqueness. Are you LGBT? Good for you, now help us change the world. Are you disabled? Good for you, now help us change the world. Are you mentally unstable? Good for you, now help us change the world. We're not lazy for not burning the witches and gays at the stake. We're not lazy for rejecting things you deem important. We're not lazy at all, in fact, the generations before us were the lazy ones when they decided to let someone else fix their mistakes. Their political mistakes, the harm they caused the environment, the secrets they withheld, the lies they told, the deaths of innocent people (over differing beliefs, especially), and now, dare I say, the creative industry as a whole has been ruined, not by us, but by older generations trying to appeal to us. (YouTube is popular because we're in control of the content on it rather than a boardroom of old men who can't let go of their pasts)

[MrOzzification]

Don't worry millenials will eventually grow old & complain about the new emerging youth just like the generations before them did so

[JorneDeSmedt]

Adam ruined millenials?
Geez... That guy ruins everything, doesn't he?

[Nameless_mixes]

We ruined everything because we were handed a world that was already on a downward spiral. For example:

Industries like housing, diamonds, etc. were ruined because of previous generations contributing to the global economic recession.

Vacations were ruined because again, everything’s so expensive, and also because we’re perceived as lazy and trying to not been seen that way.

Chain restaurants like Applebees (including fast food) are suffering due to us being more health conscious from previous generations contributing to the obesity rate the US is facing and again, in this economy, we’re less likely to go out for dinner when it’s cheaper to buy food at the grocery store and cook at home.

Pretty much everything can be attested to generational changes that we formed while growing up and economic changes that we inherited from our parents.