By Johnny Oleksinski, July 4, 2016 |

Millennials are the worst. I should know — I am one.

At 26, I’m stuck in the middle of the world’s most maligned, mocked and discussed age group. And I hate it. Imagine being forever lumped into a smug pack of narcissists who don’t just ignore the past, but openly abhor anyone and everything that came before them.

“My boomer co-workers get paid more and they have no clue what Reddit is!” drones the millennial victim as the tiny violin plays. Meanwhile, baby boomers gave us, um, computers, and our major contributions to society are emojis and TV recaps.

2016 hasn’t exactly been a banner year for the Lousiest Generation.

First there was Talia Jane, the dopey, 25-year-old Yelp employee who was rightly fired for whining about her low salary on social media. Next came the 27-year-old Mic writer who told his boss he was taking time off for a funeral when he was actually building a tree house.

And then entered the Sandernistas, Bernie Sanders obsessives who preached reform and inclusion by berating their closest friends and family for daring to think differently. (One post on the “Bernie or Bust” Facebook group reads, “I don’t want to be friends with you if you support Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump.”)

This is what happens when parents slap their toddler’s headshot on a birthday cake.

Recently, a comment from a colleague hit me like a stray selfie-stick. She said, “In some ways I love being a millennial, because it’s so much easier to be better than the rest of our generation. Because they suck.” It was jarring to hear the truth so plainly stated. But she’s right. We suck. We really suck.

Like a member of Alcoholics Anonymous, I must admit that I’m powerless to my biological age. Nonetheless I fight back every day against the traits that have come to define Gen Y: entitlement, dependency, nonstop complaining, laziness, Kardashians.

People like me are called “old souls,” or “26-going-on-76.” We’re chided by our peers for silly things such as enjoying adulthood, commuting to a physical office and not being enamored with Brooklyn. Contentment has turned us into lepers. Or worse: functioning human beings.

My millennial friends want me to be hopelessly nostalgic for the ’90s, obsessing over which “Saved by the Bell” character I’m most like, while ironically purchasing Dunkaroos and Snapchatting my vacant expressions for 43 pals to ignore. Or flying home for the weekend to recover from office burnout by getting some shut-eye in my pristine childhood bedroom. Thanks, but I’ll pass.

This is my number one rule: Do whatever millennials don’t. Definite no-nos include quitting a job or relationship the moment my mood drops from ecstatic to merely content; expecting the world to kowtow to my every childish whim; and assuming that I am always the most fascinating person in the room, hell, the zip code.

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The situation looks bleak — but we can turn it around, millennials. Here’s how. Action item one: Stop blaming everybody. Don’t blame the big banks, don’t blame your mom, don’t blame the baby boomers, don’t blame your employer, your landlord, the economy, the Apple store, the media, the airlines, the weatherman, George R.R. Martin. By absolving ourselves of responsibility, we’ve become forever 8-year-olds, tattling on the world in hopes it will better our situation. It won’t. It will only make it crummier.

Action item two: Stop being so insular. Many young people were shocked when Brexit won out in the UK, or when Donald Trump became the presumptive GOP presidential nominee. That’s because you’ve curated your social media accounts — where most of your interaction takes place — to be in total agreement with your opinions. But most of the world doesn’t think the way you do, which doesn’t make them bad, just different. Try empathy on for size. Befriend some dissenters. Grab a beer with them, listen to what they have to say. For once, don’t yell at them.

Action item three: Stop waiting around for something big to happen. Getting a job is hard. Filling out a million online forms isn’t enough. Primping your LinkedIn and hoping your God-given greatness will finally be recognized by everybody else like your grandma always said it would will get you zip, zilch, zero. You need to leave your apartment, meet people, be assertive, interested, open. I’ve gotten full-time jobs by sitting at bars and dancing at wedding receptions.

Fellow millennials, I want to like you. I really do. But you make it damn near impossible sometimes.

http://nypost.com/2016/07/04/im-a-millen...neration-sucks/

Quote: Rufus T Firefly wrote in post #2

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I'll agree with the author up to a point - where he talks about the Sanders supporters. My millenial daughter is one - but she and I don't talk politics and we get along fine. Most of the other stereotypes mentioned in the article she doesn't fit. She's a hard worker, has had the same job for a while, etc. And her millenial husband does not share her Sanders views. His political views align more with mine (which means he is correct - ha ha).

I guess I'm a member of the "boomer" generation. I'm not going to be too quick to throw stones at others - especially since MY generation produced the likes of the Xlintons and the Obamas, and worshipped people like Che Guevera.

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Quote: Rufus T Firefly wrote in post #6

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I think every generation has its good and its bad. We don't get to choose the era in which we are born. Even the so-called "greatest generation" (i.e. my and my wife's parents - alive during two world wars and the Great Depression.) We look back now and wonder how they did it - being dirt poor during the depression and then either going to some hell-hole theater of war or living here at home with all the rationing and shortages)

But they did do it and (most) survived - just by taking it one day at a time. That's all any of us can do.

There are good millenials and not so good millenials. Just to close a loop - my son-in-law (who I mentioned earlier) served a stint in the Navy in the Persian Gulf. Came out, got his degree, and is now making a very decent living. So I hope everyone can understand my reluctance to paint the entire generation with a negative broad brush.

One of the things that DOES irk me about the millenials however is their lack of knowledge of what used to be termed Liberal Arts (not to be confused with political liberals). Liberal arts - particularly history - and the ability to put things in historical context.

But then I realize - if an entire generation does indeed lack in formal education, could it be the fault of the generation that was charged with their education?

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Quote: conservgramma wrote in post #9

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The day Grampa and I were discussing a recent trip to Boston and the Minute Men National Park being a must-see with a millennial comes to mind when the kid says, "The Revolution? Did we win that one?"

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