Millennials aren't nearly as bad as people make them out to be. Allow me to rephrase that. Millennials aren't as uniquely bad as people make them out to be. They are materialistic. They are shallow. They are morally relative and don't know how to use a broom or a mop (trust me...I see it all the time). They use language in a barbaric and annoying manner. These things are not, however, unique to this generation. I'm pretty sure the boomers were saying these same things about the Generation X'ers. The boomers, in turn, we largely decried by the "greatest" generation, the World War 2 generation that worked their butts off for everything they had.
The one awful thing that I have found about Millennials, however, is our priorities. Let's face it, our priorities are pretty questionable. We spend way, way too much time on he internet (irony noted). We do things like texting while driving. We spend an inordinate amount of time manicuring our appearances and perfecting our wardrobes. We listen to endless amounts of music, but we won't invest time in actually learning to play an instrument. We watch Marvel movies--lots and lots of Marvel movies. The things that we think are important usually aren't. When I look at the disapproval of preceding generations, I get it. They look at us and simply cannot understand the things we value, as evidenced by the way we spend our time, money, etc.
Here's the thing. Where did we Millennials get our priorities? That's right, folks. We were taught them by our parents. Where did our parents get them? Right again! They got them from their parents, and so on an so forth. We may have different priorities from our parents, but our parents taught them to us nonetheless. Sometimes this process is explicit. You read books because your father read books. You love football because your father watched football and taught you how to play it. You love the Beatles because your father could sing along to every Beatles' song that graced the airwaves of Majic 105.7 (Fab Four at 4:00, anyone?). Education is important to you because your father placed a premium upon it, and the list could go on. We mimic our parents. We just do.
Sometimes, however, our parents implicitly place value on things, or, rather, they implicitly fail to place value on things. You never read books as the pristine binding of all the books in your parents' house revealed that they were never cracked open. You never heard music growing up, so it just isn't that big of a deal to you. Your parents didn't bother to work out their marital issues, so why bother getting married at all? You won't value things that your parents didn't value. You won't be and do what your parents didn't emphasize, both by example and command.
Even further, children will spurn traditions forced upon them that seem groundless. If you just go through the motions, your children won't even do that. Hence the religious state of Millennials. The spirituality of their parents seems empty, so they have abandoned it en masse. Christianity is being rejected by a generation who sees it as self-serving and hypocritical, and they're not always wrong. Work ethic has suffered in the same way, especially in economically sparse times. Your parents hate their jobs and haven't really advanced themselves financially, so why should you spend your time working a 9-to-5 that you hate? The logic is far more cogent than Millennials' parents care to admit.
Nature, of course, also abhors a vacuum. When no parents are around, children will glean their priorities from their friends, culture, entertainment, etc. This is probably at least partially responsible for the historically astronomic levels of drug use and suicide that we are seeing. If your parents won't invest in you and your future, why should you? If your parents don't value you enough to stick around, why should you place any value on your own life?
So what priorities have the parents of Millennials handed down to them? Materialism. Moral relativism. Hedonism. Nihilism. They have seen the time invested in entertainment, fashion, and "stuff," and they have mimicked what they have seen. Technology, often viewed as the culprit, has only exacerbated the underlying problem. If older generations would see a revival of traditional values among their Millennial children and grandchildren, they need to start by evaluating their own priorities and making sure that they're living consistently with them.
The one awful thing that I have found about Millennials, however, is our priorities. Let's face it, our priorities are pretty questionable. We spend way, way too much time on he internet (irony noted). We do things like texting while driving. We spend an inordinate amount of time manicuring our appearances and perfecting our wardrobes. We listen to endless amounts of music, but we won't invest time in actually learning to play an instrument. We watch Marvel movies--lots and lots of Marvel movies. The things that we think are important usually aren't. When I look at the disapproval of preceding generations, I get it. They look at us and simply cannot understand the things we value, as evidenced by the way we spend our time, money, etc.
Here's the thing. Where did we Millennials get our priorities? That's right, folks. We were taught them by our parents. Where did our parents get them? Right again! They got them from their parents, and so on an so forth. We may have different priorities from our parents, but our parents taught them to us nonetheless. Sometimes this process is explicit. You read books because your father read books. You love football because your father watched football and taught you how to play it. You love the Beatles because your father could sing along to every Beatles' song that graced the airwaves of Majic 105.7 (Fab Four at 4:00, anyone?). Education is important to you because your father placed a premium upon it, and the list could go on. We mimic our parents. We just do.
Sometimes, however, our parents implicitly place value on things, or, rather, they implicitly fail to place value on things. You never read books as the pristine binding of all the books in your parents' house revealed that they were never cracked open. You never heard music growing up, so it just isn't that big of a deal to you. Your parents didn't bother to work out their marital issues, so why bother getting married at all? You won't value things that your parents didn't value. You won't be and do what your parents didn't emphasize, both by example and command.
Even further, children will spurn traditions forced upon them that seem groundless. If you just go through the motions, your children won't even do that. Hence the religious state of Millennials. The spirituality of their parents seems empty, so they have abandoned it en masse. Christianity is being rejected by a generation who sees it as self-serving and hypocritical, and they're not always wrong. Work ethic has suffered in the same way, especially in economically sparse times. Your parents hate their jobs and haven't really advanced themselves financially, so why should you spend your time working a 9-to-5 that you hate? The logic is far more cogent than Millennials' parents care to admit.
Nature, of course, also abhors a vacuum. When no parents are around, children will glean their priorities from their friends, culture, entertainment, etc. This is probably at least partially responsible for the historically astronomic levels of drug use and suicide that we are seeing. If your parents won't invest in you and your future, why should you? If your parents don't value you enough to stick around, why should you place any value on your own life?
So what priorities have the parents of Millennials handed down to them? Materialism. Moral relativism. Hedonism. Nihilism. They have seen the time invested in entertainment, fashion, and "stuff," and they have mimicked what they have seen. Technology, often viewed as the culprit, has only exacerbated the underlying problem. If older generations would see a revival of traditional values among their Millennial children and grandchildren, they need to start by evaluating their own priorities and making sure that they're living consistently with them.
Comments
Post a Comment