No, Millennials Are Not Selfish, Lazy, and Narcissistic: Busting the Myths About Generation Y

It's cool to mock Millennials. We're the lazy products of helicopter parents. We have no work ethic. We're spoiled, deluded narcissists. The hysteria has grown shrill, hyperbolic, and completely unbelievable. So unbelievable, in fact, that I'd be inclined to ignore it altogether if it weren't for the fact that my generation's alleged--and often contradictory--faults serve as everything from an excuse not to hire us to a reason to ignore our political campaigns.


It's not like this is anything new. Old bags of wind have presumably been griping about the younger generation for as long as there have been generations. Gen X-ers were burnout stoners who were arrogant, disloyal, and lazy. Baby Boomers--the generation so fond now of upholding their lives as perfect examples of how to live, completely free of flaws--were the original 'Me' generation. And, of course, suffragettes were self-involved whores, and the generation we now call The Greatest Generation spent quite a bit of time partying and enjoying the end of prohibition before they spent the rest of their lives reminding us how great they are because there was a war when many of them were in their twenties.

Common wisdom is rarely wise, but everyone in the world somehow knows that millennials suck. We suck so badly that we don't even appreciate everything that has been handed down to us by the faultless generations before us -- you know, the worst economy since the Great Depression, a pointless war that killed our friends, housing costs that outpace our stagnant wages, the impossibly high price of a college education, the crushing debt load that's necessary to become a normal, functional person, and so much more.

So maybe it's because I'm part of this selfish, evil generation that's full of narcissistic communist hedonists that I'm sick of hearing my generation lambasted. More likely, it's because I'm sick of hearing bullshit recited as truth. Let's bust the myth of the worthless millennial.

We Face More Obstacles to Success Than Our Parents
Virtually every millennial has heard their parents endlessly whine about how they knew the value of a dollar back in the good old days. But that's because the dollar actually had some value back in the good old days.

Wages are not increasing at the same rate as inflation. A dollar buys a lot less today than it did in the good old days. Of course, this challenge of stagnant wages affects everyone. It's most salient, though, for people just starting in the workforce. While Baby Boomers have had an entire career to get raises and promotions, Millennials are entering the workforce at a time when minimum wage will not pay for what it used to. We're starting at a lower point, which means this generation is on track to--for the first time in recent American history--end up worse off than its parents. 

College is simply unaffordable. Most millennials have heard a parent or grandparent prattle endlessly about paying their way through college, but this is simply impossible. The cost of college has increased 500% since 1982, and wages and inflation have not kept up. Tuition at the cheap schools averages about $21,000 per year, but if you want to shell out for a private school education (the kind that's supposed to get you that job your parents are constantly on you about), expect to shell out about $30,000.

Let's put that in perspective: the average working college student earns around $7.50 an hour. Working full-time, this amounts to $15,600 per year. That's not enough to cover the costs of a public school even if all your other expenses are paid for. And the college tuition figure doesn't even take into account the additional expenses of college, such as books, fees, or lab cards. Textbooks alone cost more than $1,000 per year. Never mind the fact that, for a college student, working full-time is a demanding and nearly impossible undertaking, particularly if the student also wants to graduate on time, maintain good grades, and participate in campus activities that can pad a resume.

This means that most college students have to take out loans to cover the cost of college. The average student graduates with $30,000 in debt. And of course, because millennials have it easy, our parents can discharge their debts in bankruptcy. But student loan debt? We're stuck with it till we die (and maybe after).

The American Dream is regularly delayed and frequently out of reach for my generation. We've resorted to delaying the common rewards of all this endless hard work -- kids, a house, marriage -- because the economy in which we grew up makes achieving these dreams extremely difficult.

We're  Not Lazy
Older generations frequently bash millennials as lazy at the same time that they laugh at the endless activities and overscheduled lives of the younger generation. But then, hatred for the younger generation never has been based on facts or reason.

Turns out, though, that my generation is willing to try a lot harder in school than previous generations. The average GPA in the 1950s was 2.52, compared to 3.11 now. Today's college students also spend a lot more time studying than their parents did. Millennials were endlessly overscheduled as children, participating in the unending stream of activities that today's academic climate demands of students who want to go to good schools. The result? We're more stressed and burned out than any other generation.

Millennials are ready and willing to work long, demanding days. A survey of 2012 graduates found that they expected to work 72 hours per week. When people who graduated in 1992 took the same survey, they only expected to work 58 hours per week. But millennials are naive and lazy?

We're Not Self-Involved
The popular stereotype claims that millennials are so self-involved they're impossible to work with, but this turns out--like most millennial myths--to just be one more way older generations project their own problems onto millennials.

Eighty-seven percent of millennials give to charity, and that's a higher number than older generations. Millennials are more likely to volunteer than their parents were at the same age. And let's not forget that it's Millennials who have spearheaded thousands of campaigns for racial justice, marriage equality, and a host of other social issues. Often, it's this very insistence upon helping others and seeking equality for all that causes the older generation to direct the most vitriol at millennials.

But hey, we like smartphones and Facebook and blogs. And that's definitely as bad as bringing back torture, starting a 10-year war, crashing the economy, popping the housing bubble, starting a foreclosure crisis, and all of the wonderful "gifts" the older generation has given. And we did have those evil helicopter parents, whose behavior is somehow our fault.