Article Analysis: A Misunderstood Generation

A Misunderstood Generation The generation of the technology, the delayed life choices, the impatience, the reliance on our parents, more commonly known as Generation Y or Millennials, is the generation born between 1980 and 2000. Older generations are always finding fault with what we, the Millennials, do or say or didn’t do or didn’t say. The world is changing so fast, we can hardly keep up. It is bad enough we have to push to learn as much as we can and apply the knowledge effectively, let alone being criticized for every move we make by our elders, who don’t really seem to help matters but complicate them. There are several labels, mostly negative, assigned to my generation. Some common terms include incompetent, ghetto, lazy, apathetic,

Yes, colleges have undecided majors, but what happens after college when some people still don’t know exactly what they enjoy? Because of this, we are criticized for not having our lives together and “delaying life choices that traditionally signaled adulthood” (Evans, pg. 198) as discussed in “Boomerang Kids: What Are the Causes of Generation Y’s Growing Pains?” by Rosie Evans. The article explores and reflects on the Millennials with points of view from various sources about the issue. However, some of those points only partially apply. I believe that Generation Y cannot all fit into one, singular-tagged category. I know some people that have created bright futures and are headed straight towards their dream careers. These include myself, and several of my friends, who happen to be ranked in the top 10 of my high school class and have been accepted into multiple colleges with generous scholarships rewarding such hard work. Yet others hardly show up to school or work and would rather put off making decisions and commitment: the #YOLO crowd. For example, I see two different kinds of people at school. There are the “nerds” that focus on

Being that we were born into the “Information Age,” we are viewed as making poor life choices based on this. “Instead of pursuing a path in a growing field like computer science to develop a skillset that would open up endless career options, most Millennials have chosen college degrees and careers in business and liberal arts, both of which are degrees that are virtually worthless to employers today” (Price, 2014, para. 5). Even if we make mature decisions to move forth with education and pursue a career of choice, it is again criticized for choosing the wrong area of study; we just can’t seem to win. Being that our parents and grandparents were traditional and set in their ways, they don’t seem to approve of anything that our new generation does. If we postpone decisions, we’re lazy and incompetent, but if we go ahead and choose how we want to live life, we are selfish and inconsiderate. Unfortunately, simply getting a college degree is not enough to get by anymore. According to Price, “the real reason Millennials have the highest rate of unemployment in the last four decades despite being the most highly educated generation in human history is because they are largely unskilled” (Price, 2014, para. 8). We are misled by our parents and counselors who drill into our