#Howtoconfuseamillenial

[jackfaire]

I am late to this particular Hashtag game but as I recently learned apparently the term Millenial means anyone born 1980 to 2000 as apparently generational tags are less about when you were born and rather when marketers can first start directly getting your money. Around about age 20 so if you were entering 2000 between the ages of 10 to 20 you're a millennial.

Good to know because I knew I wasn't a Gen Xer. The one time I tried to say I was a Gen Xer said I was born too late. Anyway again the Generation thing is really only truly important to one group and that's Advertisers. This is because Advertisers like money and while we always chew them out for targeting minorities, women, or children with discriminatory ads we not only don't care if they target an age group but we fully embrace their decision of what is important to that group and what that group is like.

When I started looking over some of the tweets that was when my confusion started. See nothing that was shown was something that would confuse a 5 year old much less anyone else. I will admit I haven't seen every single one but.

Both I and my daughter know how to use an Encyclopedia and they are still printed either physically or electronically and sold to schools.

Since the day they put the internet in my high school they have been telling students, "The internet is not a reliable source," from the assignments my daughter has had that rule hasn't changed though it's been modified to except that specific sites such as university websites where they publish professorial research papers.

A rotary phone was the kind of phone I used for the first 8 years of my chlidhood.

That's important because here's the thing 5 year old me taught 5 year old me how to dial the thing. It's not a complicated device. It just seems to go on and on from there.

I feel like the hashtag could be funny if you took it to extremes like "This victrola"

That would be funny.

But "This Fax Machine" given that they are still used in literally every office I have worked in saying it would confuse anyone is calling them stupid.

And to me that's what it feels like they are doing a lot of them are posting something that still exists and saying it would confuse younger people Even if it's someone that thinks they are talking about someone that's still a child I have to wonder what they are thinking.

Now I have to admit I did comment on another thread and there it seemed to get heated someone accused me of being bitter and angry. I am not. I just think picking on an entire group whether I am a part of it or not is wrong.

I guess I am looking for people to weigh in with their opinions. No matter what generation you are would you take it with a grin and laugh "Ha ha you're so right I wouldn't" if someone told you that your generation doesn't know how to work a microwave or would it kind of bug you realizing that there are people who genuinely think this about you.

To me that's where they were trying to get the humor not from "ha ha funny thought if true" but rather "isn't it funny that this is true"

Anyway post away.

[s_stabeler]

I'd say it depends on the situation. If I was with friends, and we were joking around, then I'd probably laugh it off- or even find something newer and claim they had no idea how to use that- but if it was someone seriously suggesting I didn't know how to use something fairly recent I would get both cross, and probably sarcastic. ( my favourite way of teasing my father is to suggest he used to have a pet dinosaur, for example- if I wasn't in a situation where I needed to watch my tongue ( like at work) I might reply "oh, go back to your cave painting" or something along those lines)

but yes, if you dismiss my ability to understand something due to me being a millennial, I would get pissed off fast.

[jackfaire]

but yes, if you dismiss my ability to understand something due to me being a millennial, I would get pissed off fast.

Especially if it's something like overtime. I am not sure if the person thought overtime has been made illegal or that we are too lazy to want to work extra hours to make a wage closer to a living one?

[s_stabeler]

The issue with people who say you should work overtime if wages aren't high enough is two-fold. 1) many companies that pay MW also forbid overtime. 2) the fact is, it shows a somewhat callous attitude to poor people to say that they should be forced to work longer and longer hours ( since the MW has been frozen for almost 19 out of the last 35 years, that is effectively a cut of 50% in what you can buy IIRC.) 3) the CBO has actually run the numbers, and if the minimum age rose to $10.10- which would bring it close to (after the effect of inflation) the level it was in 1968 there would be about 500,000 jobs lost, but 16.5 million people would see their wages rise. Since the increase in wages would be roughly 25%, and the decrease in jobs is 3% of those on MW, it's not difficult to imagine that the "job losses" are actually down to people cutting their hours ( the increase in MW is not enough to offset lost benefits, so you probably will see people asking for their hours to be cut. This is not actually bad- basically, it's either people who notice the increased wages put them over the threshold for benefits and the increased wages do not offset the lost benefits, or they are choosing to be able to do something other than work, eat and sleep 6 days a week. (maybe they cut their hours back so they can enjoy that mythical creature, a 2-day weekend? ( or, for that matter, since you would need about 1.5 full-time jobs, not 2, have both a 5-day workweek and do something other than wolf down dinner and immediately go to bed. (ironically, you would have time to look for a better job, for example)

Basically- for those who couldn't read that wall of text- it bugs me when it's assumed poverty is due to not working hard enough, when the truth is that the minimum wage has not risen in real terms since 1950. (or rather, the current minimum wage is, adjusted for inflation, the same as it was in 1950) Which, considering that things like food prices rose higher than inflation in the interim IIRC is kinda unfair.

edit- oh, and do you know the hilarious thing? because lower-wage people don't tend to save much- being more interested in putting food on the table and suchlike- even if prices rise, the net effect is actually one of an overall increase in GDP, because the now-richer MW earners tend to spend their wages, while the price increases fall mostly on the middle and upper classes- who were probably saving the money, so it actually enhances the alleged "trickle-down effect" often touted by corporate capitalists as a reason to cut taxes on the rich. ( and frankly, in the context of tax cuts for the rich, I have thought before as more referring to the rich pissing on the poor more than they used to, rather than a flow of money. ( especially since I suspect in practice, the actual money flows are from the middle class to both the upper class ( the rich) and the working class ( the poor. Incidentally, it is called working-class since in days of old, the upper class were the aristocracy, the middle class were the Gentry (the main difference is aristocrats either have a substantive title, or are the Heir Apparent ( or presumptive) to one. Gentry were second- or third, etc sons, or the descendents therof, who didn't inherit the family title. They still were usually rich enough not to need to work) and the poor were the people who actually had to work for a living.))

[jackfaire]

I agree I shouldn't have to work overtime just to make a living wage.

Their "Joke" was saying that because I am a Millennial though that I would absolutely refuse to work overtime or even fail to recognize what it is.

Given that I once had a job that paid me so little I had to work 17 hour days 5 days a week just to make rent it offended me the implication that I am just a lazy person coasting by on what? My huge nestegg I saved up from my lemonade stand when I was a kid?

[Greenday]

Basically it's an older generation bragging about using slower, antiquated technology. That's not stuff you brag about.

The one I hear most and hate most is calling us lazy. Because we stay home with mom and dad longer, despite the fact that wages have barely gone up relative to 30 years ago but housing has skyrocketed. College tuition has skyrocketed and we are in debt so we are lazy for having debt, despite a lack of jobs for inexperienced kids fresh out of school. The older generation has caused our issues but happily pass the blame on to us.

[s_stabeler]

it's not just the blame.
1. the Deficit- and National Debt- that millennials will have to deal with was run up by older generations ( regardless of your opinion on Obama, millenials only started turning old enough to be eligible for the Presidency in 2015. He's not a millennial even if he was one of the first politicians to try to appeal to them)
2. Climate Change- I don't want to turn this into a debate on if humans were the cause. suffice to say human activity doesn't help, regardless of if it's natural variation or not.- will, if it continues, start really causing problems for Milennials. same applies, by the looks of things, to anything being done about it.
that's not even starting on the various standard generational complaints.

[HYHYBT]

It's hard to come up with good names for generations. "Millennial" has a good sound to it, and the name itself ties one end of the generation to an easily-identifiable point: if you were alive on this date but less than 20 years old, you qualify.

"Generation Y" was an obvious placeholder until a better name came along. "Generation X" isn't a good name to begin with, but it's too late to change it now.

It makes sense to wait a while to name one. "Baby Boomers" have pretty much had that name all their lives, but what would you have called "The Greatest Generation" if you had to name them before the Great Depression and WWII?

[jackfaire]

Because we stay home with mom and dad longer

Mine isn't even staying home longer. I moved out with my girlfriend when I was 18. Got married had a kid. Divorced. And until 2011 I pretty much lived on my own. But after struggling for years with a constant stream of roommates who were "going to get a job anyday now" I said fuck it and moved into not my childhood home which had long since been sold but into the second bedroom my mom and stepdad had.

It's made a lot of difference. I am under a lot less stress because I am no longer the only one paying the bills. The reason I put all of that is because it's a roommate situation. Yes my roommates happen to be my folks but that to my mind doesn't make it living with my mom and dad.

I just decided rather than my irresponsible friends or the ones with kids I would live with childless people so I could have some space, some peace and some money in my pocket given my jobs don't pay a living wage.

But if i tell people I live with my folks a lot of times if they are older their thought is "Oh you're a basement dweller" Nope I am a productive member of society who takes the jobs he can get because a High School Degree and 10 years of experience doesn't stretch as far as it used to.

[jackfaire]

It's hard to come up with good names for generations. "Millennial" has a good sound to it, and the name itself ties one end of the generation to an easily-identifiable point: if you were alive on this date but less than 20 years old, you qualify.

I like the name no issue with the name it's the BS generational stuff that bugs me. And it's not just older people who do it.

When I was a teenager every other week my folks would be "The NEWS says you're doing this thing (that no teenager has ever or will ever do) ARE YOU??!?!?" I knew those stories were bullshit then so when I became an adult and I saw the news make up some obviously bullshit 'YOUR TEENS ARE DOING THIS" story I called bullshit and moved on with my day but then at work and at friends houses the very same people who were all "Can you believe what our parents think we do what idiots" were suddenly all "OH my god can you believe what teenagers are doing" It damn near broke my brain.

I seriously don't understand how so many people can just suddenly forget this is just a rehash of the same BS they went through at the same age. It's like what do they drink from the River Lethe every ten years?

[AmbrosiaWriter]

First phone was a rotary phone. Use a fax machine every damn day at work. Sort-of know how to drive a manual (but never have to drive one often enough to keep in good practice.)

I surprise a lot of my clients (a lot older than me) when I mention certain bands, movies, or shows that were from before I was born that I know really well. (The one that always gets them is "The Moody Blues.")

Still currently live with my parents but that's because my being located in the state is so tenuous at this point that they told me it's not worth it to try and find an apartment because I might not even be in it a year. They want me at home to save the money I would have to be paying on outrageous rent (I live in MA, CoL is HIGH) so I have it on hand when I am going to move.

Which is looking like it will happen within the next 6-8 months.

And yet I'm paying off my student debt (paying more than the minimum payment), paying for my own lease, insurance, for my car, as well as responsibly managing two credit cards. My credit score is 765. I pay for my own food, and am around to help my parents with the dogs when they want to take last minute weekends or nights out.

To say I'm a lazy mooch off my parents, who doesn't understand basic technology is insulting, and I wouldn't laugh at it.

Oh, and last week I worked what amounted to an entire shift of overtime, but that's a rare occurrence because where I work avoids having anyone work OT like the plague. It's not that I'm not willing, it's that they don't want me to!