In Defense of Millennials

Who exactly are we talking about when we millennial-bash? Does no one out there know hard-working, intelligent, caring young people between the ages of 16 and 35? I know I do. In fact, I know infinitely more amazing young people in need of direction or opportunity than I know zombified do-nothings. Maybe if we mentored millennials, caring enough about them to talk TO them – not just complain about them – we might learn from each other. If all you think of when you think of millennials is entitled, disrespectful, lazy, narcissistic snowflakes, then may I politely suggest you meet more of them? Do you not have daughters and sons, nieces and nephews, co-workers, grandchildren, siblings, friends, neighbors, classmates that inspire you? I know I have so many that I can scarcely pump the brakes when I start to brainstorm who they are. And for those who do fall into the stereotype (because every stereotype does start in a truth, however incomplete), my bet is they didn’t get that way on their own. At some point or another, someone dropped the ball in mentoring them.

Now let’s get beyond the anecdotal…studies have shown that millennials are some of the most culturally competent, innovative, socially responsible, and team-oriented workers out there. Millennials, statistically, have had to do more with less in the face of great adversity. We’ve faced a more unkind world than our predecessors in many ways, and yet persist in a divine discontent that we do not have to accept the status quo. That the way things are is not how it has to be, but that there is a better way than the long-tolerated ills of our society.

If these “high expectations” are what you disparage, then indeed, I cannot dissuade you. But if you are passionate about millennials and believe they lack direction or wisdom or validity, then do your part. Connect with one. Do your damnedest to treat them like a person. Learn how they think and why. Vitriol helps no one, and misinformation only increases the chasm between us, and I cannot help but feel that is not what Christ, if you believe in his teachings, intends for us. I will not settle for a society that boxes elders away when they become “irrelevant” or poo-poos the voice of young people because they are “inexperienced” or negates the opinions of middle-aged adults because their wealth makes them “out-of-touch.” We are all humans with something to give.

I’m honestly infuriated. You can see it, can’t you? How this faulty rhetoric is spewed for no other reason than to drive us apart from each other? Do not let it. Do not be part of the side that says, “You are the other, therefore your thoughts are irrelevant.” If we let something so petty as age cut us away from each other, are we not cutting off the limbs of the body of Christ? What then will happen when we’re lying dismembered on the carpet of our country, each part rendered useless because, ye gods, now it’s been finally liberated from the other. What then, when we can celebrate being finally “free” of those old fogeys, those young whippersnappers, those whatever-I-am-nots. When we surround ourselves with people that are like us, then we lose all the history and wisdom of the elder, or the optimism and righteous indignation of the younger. What a spiritually, artistically, mentally, emotionally impoverished state we would be.

All the change agents of history were young once. Alexander Hamilton (so praised now because of a timely musical, of all things) was the consummate disgruntled “millennial” of his day. Mozart was a “millennial.” St. Patrick, Anne Frank, Joan of Arc. And that’s just people who are dead! For God’s sake…get ready for this…JESUS was the original! He was under 33 when his ministry caught fire through Middle East, stirring up both hope and wrath, questioning long-held beliefs, championing for the souls of the broken and marginalized. People either loved him or hated him, and he was the Son of God. What makes us think we’ve changed so much since then, become so enlightened, that we would, now, know the messengers of God when we couldn’t recognize Him staring us in the face?

I am as enraged by some traits of young people as the next, but we are all responsible here. The girl who wrecked her and another’s car last week because of Snapchatting, only to Snapchat herself, bloody-faced, in a gurney a few minutes later “lucky to be alive” (somehow I don’t think you really grasp the gravity of your own statement, madam). She may be a compelling example of a stereotype, but, at the risk of being politically incorrect, there are plenty of dumb people from all walks of life who deserve the Darwin Award.

We are the ones giving young people cell phones and social media, then go berserk that this is their primary form of communication. We blow off their opinions, then are startled when they won’t share them, or blow off ours. We sell them brands and “cool” and technology, aiming to beef up our profit margins, and then balk when material things are their main focus. We make fun of their “Facebook activism” instead of kindly showing them the hard work that real advocacy and philanthropy requires. We encourage independent thought without teaching them how to back it up, or how to argue logically. (The greatest gift my father ever gave me was arguing with me as an equal at a young age, rather than dismissing me because of my years or “inexperience.”)

And as for opening doors, and saying “ma’am” or “sir”, I’m pretty sure that’s a rarity among every age group today, not just young people.

We are the mentors, the guides, the educators, and the responsible parties. But more than that, we must see the millennial generation not as they appear on the cover of magazines, or newsfeed headlines, or 60-second mainstream TV spotlights, or YouTube rants, but as people. People who have so much to give, and so much worth fighting for.