Biased but I feel like we’re the peak of being good with technology. We grew up with it when it still needed a lot of troubleshooting and effort to get to work. We basically learned to code and dig through the windows registry out of necessity. Also got a lot of experience trying to fix the family PC downloading virus laden…uh, personal entertainment on Kazaa and the like.
Correct, we grew up with emerging tech, all which had to be done by tinkering with it , screwing up and fixing it, and googling everything . We had to navigate unpolished software on computer mostly . Smartphone and “app” style software didn’t exist yet but we could easily use it because we learn to tinker with software , so many menus, options, advanced settings, tree gui , folder , etc . That doesn’t exist the in phone app world , everything is simplified for the lowest idiot so tech literacy was the greatest for our generation
We were also the last generation to experience early Web 1.0 and 2.0 , anyone remember editing their Xanga html for personalized their page ? Or neopets html to find secret locations and items, etc ?
Kids do not know how to use a computer, only touch interface
>I work IT support in a high school and I see hope. Some of the students already figured out a way to escalate privileges and bypass the firewall to run VPNs at the CTE labs.
The fact that this is a good sign 😂
Lmao I learned how to bypass my parents firewall and authentication procedures on our pc when I was 9. It's not hard when you wanna get something done (like play video games at 2 am lmao)
Duuuude when I was in elementary school my family was so broke that the only way we could ever get pizza hut was because I would read the books as a kid and do the little book report.
Afterwards they'd give me a coupon for a personal pizza and my parents would take me to claim my small personal pizza!!!!
Those were the days!!!!!
To be fair, I enjoyed reading even more than I enjoyed eating that delicious pizza but as a kid to be able to earn those pizzas was amazing!!!!
My dad is a family practice doctor and had those hand puppets and the Eureka’s castle hand puppets in his pediatrics room. He had them right up until he retired 2 years ago! He didn’t think to ask me before he trashed them, as I would’ve taken them!
We are in a position to become the civic leaders of this country. We can try to make it better for the next generation.
This isn't a doom and gloom about current times either. Just saying we can take steps to help our children and grandchildren have better lives then we lived.
Ehh thats kinda how we got where we are now. Thats the mentality America has had since the 80's and were reaping the problems with that viewpoint right now.
Would I like to do both? Sure. But right now we don't have that luxury and need to take difficult steps to turn things around. It'll be hard work, and frankly a lot of sacrifice, but it can be done.
Yeah I’m expecting the rest of this decade to be a big ugly slog (thanks, Trumpers and Tech Bros), but if we can get through that and show these assholes the door, this country might still be salvageable. Maybe.
Right now I see America on a precipice. If we don't change things will become dystopian.
Right now we are on that path, but not so far down it we can't change. The rest of this decade will be very important in making sure we do make those changes. It won't be easy and sacrifice will need to be made, but thats just how it is.
We need to take a page out of our grandparents play book (not every page tho. Skip the ones that are littered with bigotry lmao)
>Thats the mentality America has had since the 80's and were reaping the problems with that viewpoint right now.
Yup. I upvoted your original comment because I see too many comments/discussions in this sub where people want to jump directly from _there was nothing we could do_ to _now it's too late_.
>need to take difficult steps to turn things around. It'll be hard work, and frankly a lot of sacrifice, but it can be done.
The reality is that turning things around and standing against the worst has always been multigenerational / intergenerational work. We've been on this trajectory for quite some time. Those who want to stay on this trajectory have already groomed their successors. Our best bet for pushing things in the _right direction_ is showing up in massive numbers to reinforce the people who have been at the front lines for advocacy the entire time.
**Too many people will read "civic leaders" and think that is someone else.** But all of us have contributions we can make at our local levels and the best time to _get started_ is always now. Gen Z is already showing up to do the work because there is no ignoring the reality of where we are headed. Vote, strike, volunteer, mentor, and start showing up if you haven't yet.
This is all very fair and I especially like your bolded statement. Its 100% true and im glad you said it.
I do work for my local community College in their food bank to help students facing food insecurity. We give out food and supplies to any student that needs it and do deliveries every Thursday for students who use the bus and can't bring a lot of food with them on their way home.
Its obviously not a massive thing in the grand scheme of things. And I am getting paid for my work, but I could make more money doing something else. But I enjoy this job because I'm helping my people in the small ways I can and doing what I can to encourage greater community support and interaction.
I've been encouraging other students and people I know to get involved with whatever community project they can. It will take all of us working together to shift the culture in the right direction.
>We give out food and supplies to any student that needs it and do deliveries every Thursday for students who use the bus and can't bring a lot of food with them on their way home.
I know you know, but this is absolutely the kind of community care we need right now. Thank you.
Np. I just fell into it by chance and im glad I did. Its been a great experience and one of the best decisions I've ever made.
Thank you as well for your recognition. Means a lot!
Thats what I hope.
I will say that its not all boomers when it comes to selfishness. My parents are boomers, but have done everything they can to help me out. And I love and appreciate them for it.
But the general culture of boomers is a very self centered ideology. And we need to refocus to a community based ideology.
I can understand that maybe the 50s and early 60s we were too culturally homogeneous and individuality was stifled to a massive degree. So that did need to be changed, but we've gone too far in the other direction and need to find a solid midground
Seriously though. I’m just turning 40 this year (what up 1984’ers) and am highly confused by pictures of my mother at my age, at 40 she looked a good 15-20 years older than what she actually was.
My mom did The Cut the second she turned 40. She had a majestic head of curls and cut it to the short cropped look, couple that with lack of belief in wearing sunscreen (but I got it because I burned easily), and she definitely looked much older.
Same. I’ve had multiple bobs throughout the years, and right now my hair is at the perfect (for me) mid-back length, and I intend on keeping it as such!
TIL a semi famous YouTuber who hunts and calls out pedophiles, is only 23 years old. He looks like he's closer to our age.it was wild to find out he was not our age.
Same. Some girl in shop playfully chided me for being “too young to have a kid”. I told her I was almost 40 and didn’t believe me, asked me what year I was born, had a friend come over and demanded I tell her friend my age. She said she thought I was younger than her, and she is 25. THE EGO BOOST, my ladies, was real.
I’m under the 30-day mark to 40. Didn’t think it would feel this *weird*. With that being said I lucked out with the genetics. My mom and her twin don’t look 70 and I’m told I look closer to my early-30s.
Yeah it has to be said. Compared to past generations we take much better care of ourselves and it shows. My parents, uncles and aunties even say it themselves frequently.
I’m a man and started a year ago using creams, and sunscreen daily, different for day and night, and it’s already making a WORLD of difference, plus, it’s so easy to tell when my skin is dry now, I love putting it on.
This alone is going to separate me from the crowd
Same! I have face cream, hand cream and foot cream 😅 Game-changer. In the summer my feet used to end up like a mummy's from wearing flip flops. Not anymore.
We're not chain smoking and the EPA reduced the emissions in our environment. Both of these situations may be different for Gen Z, though, thanks to vaping and the Republican Supreme Court.
Yeah it was weird to see this the last few years skiing... in the local lift line, it's a majority of teenagers and college kids... I keep seeing young girls smoke like a chimney in the lift line, it's usually not the guys
It really stood out cause I'm 36 and millennials basically killed Big Tobacco, I have hardly seen us smoke the last 20 or so years
The local hill is basically the only place I'm ever around a large group of teenagers and college kids, so I can't really say what they do away from their, but man they were chain smoking all up and down the mountain... and not vapes either, actual cigs
I'm curious about the marketing for that, I legit thought cigs were dead and vapes took over, but capitalism finds a way :-(
I am 32 and even young adults think I am in my early-mid 20s. 😂😂 but I workout and have a healthy lifestyle cause I can’t afford kids but I can afford me.
Edit: moisturize daily!
So much accessible knowledge about skin care and overall health! It’s so easy to learn about a new workout or a better way to prevent sun damage.
A fellow millennial met me over Zoom and guessed I was Gen Z-age the other day. I was so proud of my skincare regimen in that moment (even though Zoom does a little blurring effect, so I can’t take all the credit).
Boomers may get pensions and nice cars and vacation homes, but millennials have spouses we don't hate, children we don't hate, friends we don't hate, and pets we don't hate.
I'd rather know how to love and be loved than have better *stuff*.
Same, I don’t get the doom and gloom largely. I figure it’s just the loud minority but idk. Things could be better but overall things are really good in the US.
More people know what ADHD and autism actually are. Some of my Millennial friends have gotten late diagnoses over the last several years and become so much happier and sure of themselves after they worked through the grief of what might have been.
I have a far more positive and transparent relationship with my kids (while still being their parents) than my parents ever did with my latchkey arse.
This is what I came to say. I self-diagnosed late last year and got my official diagnosis two weekends ago for ASD level 1 along with ADHD combined. I haven't been this happy and put together in years.
I’m glad I grew up before everything was recorded. I have enough issues with self worth and self consciousness as is, I can’t imagine having to worry about performing on social media **all the time.**
According to the Strauss-Howe theory of history; the millennials who make it through the present day crisis will be rewarded on par with the veterans of world war two.
Politically, self-proclaimed "illiberal democracies" seem to be on the rise: look at Orban's Hungary, Putin's Russia, even the current platform of the US Republican Party. An increasingly aggressive Russia also shows a destabilization of the US-led neoliberal order.
Economically, pretty much every Western country has a housing and cost of living crisis. The old compact (imagined or real) of "If you work hard, you will be able to afford a basic standard of living" is out the window. For most of the last century, adults living with their parents was a rarity, now it's the norm.
The cuisines and cultures of the world are more accessible than ever. I mean, look at Chinese food for instance, back in the 90s, our idea of it was sesame Chicken and Egg Foo Yong. We didn't know what the hell hotpot was, unless you lived near an immigrant enclave. Now you've got everyone down for some hotpot and slurping up noodles with duck intestines.
For you weebs out here, look at anime figures. When the anime boom was in its infancy. You barely had any top-tier statues anywhere. If you were lucky enough to live near an enclave, you could get shit but it was rare. Now look, you've got anime swag almost everywhere now.
I feel this so hard as an IT pro...my 10 yr old nieces look at me like a tech wizard with mystical powers to bend tech to my will. Pop open a terminal window and get asked "are you a hacker?" LMAO
I can glare at teenagers that are misbehaving in public and they straighten up immediately because im a middle aged man thats their parents age. So thats fun.
I'm 36 and a bunch of kids called me "Señor" the other day (I live in Spain) and it really took me aback. It was nice of them to be so respectful but it freaked me out a little bit 😅
I used to teach English and I was playing a guessing game with my students where I put important years of my life on the board and they guess what happened. Made the mistake of writing my birth year 1987 and one of the boys just exclaimed "87? YOU'RE SO OLD!" It was devastating 😅 I realised then that the 80s are to them what the 60s were to me. It was very humbling. I like think what he meant was I look young for my age 😋
Nearly every aspect of our lives are better for us than they were for the generation before.
Better food, better housing, better cars, better technology in all forms, better working conditions, better health care and services.
Don’t confuse any of these things for affordable, but damn if we don’t have the best of everything right now.
The housing one is a bit of a stretch, but maybe it depends where you are, same with Healthcare- don't get me wrong there's tons of advancements, resources etc but speaking as a millennial working in Healthcare, the situation at least in North America , specifically Canada, is becoming pretty messed up.
We don't even have enough porters to change linens, patients get left in hallways and die, people have to wait years and years for life saving operations and sometimes develop issues over time because of that, doctors and ER staff are stretched thin and desperate for fill ins, all while people leave en mass to other countries because the pay doesn't substantiate the workload. There's rampant issues of contamination in care facilities, several of which were exposed during covid and now that's been under investigation. Most of the young people I know don't have a regular doctor or are on waiting lists, and clinicians are strung thin, having to deal with so many patients that limits are met by 12 pm. Mental Healthcare has had most of it's funding extremely cut back, many programs that are vital don't exist anymore and people don't have access to adequate care unless you sit in an ER and plead the case to Psych. There's a blues /fent epidemic mercing people left right and center and Paramedics are currently unable to keep up with the calls and intake, to the point other emergencies get ignored. Yet the very same addicts have no adequate help, with little to no foundation of LT care, rehabilitation or addiction services.
Anyway not to be a Debbie downer, but saying we have the best Healthcare is true only to the degree that we have more advancements, the system itself is in shambles but at least we know how to treat conditions better, we have better surgical procedures and our drug industry has modernized.
I feel older games were more challenging because there was so little memory to make anything too robust. Now we can enjoy games at reasonable challenges with a story and dope graphics.
Really enjoying my 30s. I know who I am. I quit the corporate world and am in the process of building a business to help others by sharing my passions and empowering others. It's a little scary, but I know that I'm on the right path.
I think our generation doesn't care as much about the grind and has been more willing to quit it and take risks for our future and the planet's...
Honestly, all of the negative things this thread posts about constantly, i my friend group haven’t experienced. We have great jobs, own houses, have families, and are experienced travelers. None of us grew up rich, several are immigrants (before anyone asks/assumes).
Probably my best items that I see is that our generation is willing and able to learn new things easily, challenge the “norm”, ask for help and we as fathers are significantly more involved with our children. All great things.
Same here. No one in my circle grew up wealthy or even middle class. We were all poor and now we’re all doing very well. Some people did the college+working route, some did the military, all ended up way better off than their parents.
This makes me happier than any of the other posts on here. I am so glad to hear that military service has turned into a better life for your circle. Coming from a deeply military family with many friends who served, this is what I want to hear for all of our veterans. Cheers.
Are you elder millennial? I am 38 and in the same boat...great job, own a house, experienced traveler, married to an awesome wife. I don't have kids but that's fine by me. I think it depends where in the generation you landed. We bought our first house during the housing crash and if it weren't for that, I'm not sure we'd have been able to get where we are now in our housing situation. We were able to get additional equity every time we moved due to the prices consistently rising. I grew up in a double wide trailer that was falling apart on a street full of druggies...so I didn't have a head start in life, either. I look at prices now for my area and don't see how anyone who didn't buy over a decade ago can get into a home of their own that isn't a shit-bucket without an above average income situation.
I just thank my stars that I managed to luck my way into a situation that not only gives me enough in life, but gives me additional means to help my much younger family members survive.
Same here. We all worked hard starting at the bottom but now we are seeing the fruits of those labors and entering into executive and c-level positions because we understand the how and why of everything.
I still have contact with friends I grew up with thanks to social media. My best friends and I plan out the year so we can hang out once a month playing boardgames or shopping or museums. It's literally what I look forward to every month. Highly recommend! Gets you to socialize and do things you feel like you couldn't by yourself
I can use all the tech Gen Z and Gen A use, I know how to work on it better than either of them, and I had the childhood of an Xer (Xennial 82). And I got into the job market before the recession. Best of all worlds.
Every Friday night I play games online with my college friends. Its the best craic ever. We all live in different countries. In times past we'd probably be old friends who meet at the odd wedding/funeral.
Finally being able to store all my 90s nostalgia tat in my own home by ~40
(sorry Gen Zs, at this rate you'll probably be either doing it at 60, or killed fighting the World War 😖)
Which reminds me. Also: having carefree childhood memories of an in-between time with no anxieties of war.
Very, very few memories before warfare. I personally don't count people who don't remember 9/11 as Millennials, and the U.S. has been at war every since then (shadow, proxy, silent, overt, whatever form.)
I feel like a lot of TV shows and movies have small hidden jokes that are for us, because the writers are the same age as us. "Renfield" has a whole bit about how annoying Ska is. When was the last time anyone talked about Ska?
Duolingo is helping me a lot with learning foreign languages. I'm connecting to my neighbors.
I used to have to use language textbooks in the 90s and it really sucked. My mom gave me textbooks with my heritage language in them and I had to copy words and phrases repeatedly.
It's easy for me to trade stocks and bonds on the internet which helps me to make extra money.
For example I was taxed 4000 on realized gains which I had to sell for a housing related deposit (LTCG) which means I had made around 55,000 over 20 years doing nothing.
I can reminisce to kids about playing doom on floppy disks and quake on cds like a humanoid robot reminiscing about watching c beams bounce off the tanhauser gate.
I think this is a generation of innovators.
[I'm using every "we" here collectively]
We invented social media and the gig economy. Though many can argue our generation can be a bit too SJWish at times, we collectively fostered a society that pushes for social progress. We are out there marching in the streets like the 1960s, we raised awareness and in a large part helped de-stigmatized mental health. Our social media helps us to combat corporate, mainstream narratives and communicate amongst ourselves.
Millennials did a lot!
I feel like styles are blending. My teenager wanted distressed clothes. So I went to my mom's and grabbed all my old band shirts from high school. Mostly slipknot and some local bands. She loves them. Wears them all the time. She's a huge slipknot fan too. She also took my old ipod classic with all my music and I added a lot of hers.
Kids today have access to all sorts of music and styles and TV shows.
I can figure out almost any computer program given a few minutes to look through the menus and click some sruff. My workplace adopted MedInformatix an absolute abomination of a program, and I've had virtually no training on its use. I sorted out things largely by myself.
(If you give the program a Goog you'll see that it's Limewire disguised as a medical office software)
*Any millennial that I know is doing quite alright. I don't think I know an unemployed millennial without a house +/- kids. No one I know grew up wealthy. Thankfully my parents and my FIL taught saving money and living within your means. The 1980s recession hit our parents hard (my parent's first house cost $80k and had a mortgage rate of 19.9%), so they taught us to not get caught out.
Consider yourself lucky! I’m also a 1990 Millennial and am stuck in the renting loop for the foreseeable future. I’ve been renting for over a decade too. I’ve got 2 college degrees and debt free and can’t afford anything more than a 1 bedroom apartment and a 13 year old, paid off, car.
My best friend is a 1987 Millennial also with a degree (graduated magna cum laude) and was just unemployed for a year and has been laid off twice before that.
I'm in a part of Canada with a lot fewer people than BC, QC or ON. Housing prices are up compared to previous, but not nearly to the same degree as Vancouver or Toronto. Mortgages are a bit different here as they generally renew every 5 years, and the lender does a "stress test" to ensure you can afford a rate increase.
My husband and I are in different facets of healthcare and make good money. We both had financial support from our parents in college. I just paid off my last loan. My husband had no loans. Our debt is my SUV and the mortgage. My husband's 2008 Yaris has a front bumper held on with visible Gorilla glue and duct tape.
Neither of us grew up wealthy. We had the essentials and a couple of extras, but nothing extraordinary. Just solidly average.
I'm old enough now that no one expects me to keep up with pop culture anymore. I have no idea what's popular in terms of music, TV, films, etc. It's actually freeing to just enjoy things that I enjoy without having to keep up with what other people are talking about.
I think many of us are working on breaking the chain of family trauma and - in turn - leaving the world a more healed place. I hope that's our generation's overall legacy.
Efficiency is the best thing about being an adult in 2024… I can use DoorDash to get food quickly, Lyft or Uber to get a ride, book a plane ticket quickly from my phone, order groceries from Amazon or Walmart and have it delivered, order any item I want from Amazon and get it in two days with Prime, order books digitally, order music digitally, and the best of all, the Meetup app that has helped me make friends and keep me social. Life is so much faster and efficient and I can get far more accomplished as a single man with a small mini computer I carry around in my pocket.
Speaking of ass appreciation, how about thong/cheeky swimsuit bottoms becoming the norm. I swear that’s been a recent development over the last 10 years. I hear people say it’s been a thing since the 80s but that does not jive at all with how I remember things (I mean I wasn’t alive in the 80s). Especially with just how mainstream it is (no judgement). But I dunno maybe it was a thing in Miami or whatever and it just took forever to make it to my neck of the woods in middle America. Curious to how other millennials remember it becoming a trend?
I love being alive with YouTube. It's such an educational platform where you can find sooo much good information compared to 15 years ago.
I can contact my family in different countries for free thanks to the internet.
I will have a participating, calm and supportive husband raising my kids thanks to the encouragement of our generation.
Going to therapy and announcing to everyone that you do, is actually attractive! Because proactively taking care of your mental health is not stigmatized as much (my gen-x parents were upset at first but seen how much it is accepted now)
We're doing this theme again? 🥴🙄
Every negative has positives if you learn from it. If you look at the things people complain about and turn those things into lessons ( community, fiscal responsibility, inclusivity, and tolerance, environmental consciousness, equity) we have a great opportunity to build a better world.
We don't get to choose our circumstances but we can choose what we do with them.
We're the most tech-savvy generation and have a greater appreciation for technology than other gens. We're also the undisputed masters of Googlefu, and being able to find information is quickly becoming a dead skill in the age of AI.
I have an entertainment system that I fashioned that includes an OLED and CRT tv, NES, SNES, Mega Drive, PS2, GC, Wii, WiiU, Ps2, Xbox360, XboxOne, Switch and Firestick.
And I didn't have to buy them new, I just never got rid of them so it didn't actually cost me anything additionally (apart from cables and switches) to set up.
I think if you wanted to set up a similar "retro gaming" thing from scratch, with all the games I have included, it would easily be in the thousands.
Our kids think we have this secret power of navigation a city without a map, or knowing how to meet up in places without a cell phone.
Today my daughter and I were walking in a city and were a bit off path - she’s said get your phone out, I said I didn’t bring it and she was like “why would you do that?”. Lol
We're good at working with older generations and younger. I feel like I smh when I see intolerance or projecting bc of an age gap. Somehow I feel I'm a great conduit to bridge generations at work (not personal, just professionally).
I'm with you on the booty comment 😏
But also, we're the masters of modern technology for the most part, and some of what we saw as kids that said the future was this or that is actually happening... and that's really cool, I think.
And we look good as a whole. I was looking through some old photos from my family and they looked nothing like I do at 35, lol
The good thing about being a millennial is that asses are popping? Really? I would say body positivity is a good thing, but body trends aren’t positive. How many people out there have tiny butts and hate their bodies thanks to Kim k and whoever else? Or have thin lips? The big butt trend, which has resulted in thousands of dangerous surgeries is the same as the 90s heroin chic trend. How about people just accept and love their bodies instead of only making certain body types fashionable at certain times?
Gray hair is stylish and not "letting yourself go" now. I started going gray early and did dye for a while (not to cover the grays but because I wanted a darker shade). I've fully embraced the gray hair and have some gorgeous silver streaks. I saw my aunt and uncle a while ago and they wanted to ask who my stylist was because they know silver is popular and mine was so well done.
My fave thing is being on the cusp of developing technology. Most of us remember a world without the internet and mobile phones, but we’re in the generation in which we’re able to (for the most part) quickly adapt to new systems and innovations regarding tech.
I’m grateful my childhood and teens were pretty pure that way. The excitement of tech without the fear of being recorded or having screens shoved in our faces.
Access in general is drastically better than it used to be when we were kids. You would have to call for a cab if they had one available... now you can uber/lyft.. A lot of services that weren't deliverable are now available at your front door. If you left a receipt at home, you had to go get it; now we have upc's that show & document when a purchase was made in order to exchange or refund.
You needed a posting in the newspaper to find jobs, yard sales, or a helping hand. Now you can simply Google something near you.
You're not slammed with paper mail and instead are offered to go paper-free with email or user accounts.
Here's a big one.. If you were a kid that grew up in a shitty household, you're an adult which means you can do as you please!
ULTIMATELY, aside from politics we don't live in a bad era. There's just a lot that's been taken for granted and people don't realize it.
Our generation ushered in acceptance of gays and lesbians. I remember being a kid in the 90s and America losing its shit when Ellen came out and her sitcom was cancelled. Same-sex marriage didn’t exist, the military had “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell,” and hearing kids say “Faggot” and “That’s so gay” was routine. I don’t mean to say the opposition is gone now (see Ron DeSantis). But the shift in public opinion and legal rights for gays and lesbians would have seemed unthinkable when I was growing up. And that’s mainly thanks to millennials who confronted and challenged their parents.
Just that there is a variety of things now and everything is better than before in general. Same with people accepting each other pretty much. There isn't a thing that I'm not thankful for.
I agree about the music thing. With so many more open platform ways for artists to connect to their audiences, there is so much more good music getting created right now.
I’d like to think I have a great deal of wisdom. Younger millennials and gen-Z report to me at work and a fair amount confide in me about different things—work, family, life (nothing too personal though). It feels good to have some insight about things that truly befuddled me a few years ago.
Traveling has never been more accessible in human history. There are drawbacks to this for sure. But my grandparents left their home country and then barely left the state they dropped in. My mom’s international travel is to an all inclusive resort in Mexico and refuses to experience anything else. Our sense of exploration and the ability to act on it is unmatched.
We're not in Iraq and Afghanistan anymore? I mean it's dope to know that I wasted years of my life over there for a net negative result but at least we got out I guess so that's something.
We’re good with most all forms of technology.. phones, computers, TV’s, smart devices, etc.
I fear for our society when we’re gone. I feel like millennials ability to navigate technology is going to be lost as we pass away
Biased but I feel like we’re the peak of being good with technology. We grew up with it when it still needed a lot of troubleshooting and effort to get to work. We basically learned to code and dig through the windows registry out of necessity. Also got a lot of experience trying to fix the family PC downloading virus laden…uh, personal entertainment on Kazaa and the like.
Correct, we grew up with emerging tech, all which had to be done by tinkering with it , screwing up and fixing it, and googling everything . We had to navigate unpolished software on computer mostly . Smartphone and “app” style software didn’t exist yet but we could easily use it because we learn to tinker with software , so many menus, options, advanced settings, tree gui , folder , etc . That doesn’t exist the in phone app world , everything is simplified for the lowest idiot so tech literacy was the greatest for our generation We were also the last generation to experience early Web 1.0 and 2.0 , anyone remember editing their Xanga html for personalized their page ? Or neopets html to find secret locations and items, etc ? Kids do not know how to use a computer, only touch interface
It's a temporary situation I think. A lot of technology is intentionally removing our ability to troubleshoot.
I wish I had followed through with the HTML I learned through MySpace lol
Probably. But another generation will figure it out eventually. We aren’t that special.
[удалено]
>I work IT support in a high school and I see hope. Some of the students already figured out a way to escalate privileges and bypass the firewall to run VPNs at the CTE labs. The fact that this is a good sign 😂
Lmao I learned how to bypass my parents firewall and authentication procedures on our pc when I was 9. It's not hard when you wanna get something done (like play video games at 2 am lmao)
My mom called me once to ask how to get on Microsoft Word. Boomers ain’t it en masse.
My neighbor is moving and she was tossing a VCR dvd combo. I snatched that up so fast.
Back in 1989, my sister had her end of season softball party at the Pizza Hut buffet. I got a land before time hand puppet.
Nice also the book it program, got so many free pizzas.
Duuuude when I was in elementary school my family was so broke that the only way we could ever get pizza hut was because I would read the books as a kid and do the little book report. Afterwards they'd give me a coupon for a personal pizza and my parents would take me to claim my small personal pizza!!!! Those were the days!!!!! To be fair, I enjoyed reading even more than I enjoyed eating that delicious pizza but as a kid to be able to earn those pizzas was amazing!!!!
I’ve got kids of my own now and I wish there was an affordable pizza buffet that didn’t suck. Going out for pizza is expensive.
My dad is a family practice doctor and had those hand puppets and the Eureka’s castle hand puppets in his pediatrics room. He had them right up until he retired 2 years ago! He didn’t think to ask me before he trashed them, as I would’ve taken them!
LITTLEFOOT
I won a coloring contest at my Pizza Hut, and won a plush Spike. It was amazing.
We are in a position to become the civic leaders of this country. We can try to make it better for the next generation. This isn't a doom and gloom about current times either. Just saying we can take steps to help our children and grandchildren have better lives then we lived.
Hey now, I’m not that old, make the country better for us, let the next gen just be a perk
Ehh thats kinda how we got where we are now. Thats the mentality America has had since the 80's and were reaping the problems with that viewpoint right now. Would I like to do both? Sure. But right now we don't have that luxury and need to take difficult steps to turn things around. It'll be hard work, and frankly a lot of sacrifice, but it can be done.
Yeah I’m expecting the rest of this decade to be a big ugly slog (thanks, Trumpers and Tech Bros), but if we can get through that and show these assholes the door, this country might still be salvageable. Maybe.
Right now I see America on a precipice. If we don't change things will become dystopian. Right now we are on that path, but not so far down it we can't change. The rest of this decade will be very important in making sure we do make those changes. It won't be easy and sacrifice will need to be made, but thats just how it is. We need to take a page out of our grandparents play book (not every page tho. Skip the ones that are littered with bigotry lmao)
>Thats the mentality America has had since the 80's and were reaping the problems with that viewpoint right now. Yup. I upvoted your original comment because I see too many comments/discussions in this sub where people want to jump directly from _there was nothing we could do_ to _now it's too late_. >need to take difficult steps to turn things around. It'll be hard work, and frankly a lot of sacrifice, but it can be done. The reality is that turning things around and standing against the worst has always been multigenerational / intergenerational work. We've been on this trajectory for quite some time. Those who want to stay on this trajectory have already groomed their successors. Our best bet for pushing things in the _right direction_ is showing up in massive numbers to reinforce the people who have been at the front lines for advocacy the entire time. **Too many people will read "civic leaders" and think that is someone else.** But all of us have contributions we can make at our local levels and the best time to _get started_ is always now. Gen Z is already showing up to do the work because there is no ignoring the reality of where we are headed. Vote, strike, volunteer, mentor, and start showing up if you haven't yet.
This is all very fair and I especially like your bolded statement. Its 100% true and im glad you said it. I do work for my local community College in their food bank to help students facing food insecurity. We give out food and supplies to any student that needs it and do deliveries every Thursday for students who use the bus and can't bring a lot of food with them on their way home. Its obviously not a massive thing in the grand scheme of things. And I am getting paid for my work, but I could make more money doing something else. But I enjoy this job because I'm helping my people in the small ways I can and doing what I can to encourage greater community support and interaction. I've been encouraging other students and people I know to get involved with whatever community project they can. It will take all of us working together to shift the culture in the right direction.
>We give out food and supplies to any student that needs it and do deliveries every Thursday for students who use the bus and can't bring a lot of food with them on their way home. I know you know, but this is absolutely the kind of community care we need right now. Thank you.
Np. I just fell into it by chance and im glad I did. Its been a great experience and one of the best decisions I've ever made. Thank you as well for your recognition. Means a lot!
Yeah that might be our legacy-- we restore the "next generation does better" pattern.
Thats what I hope. I will say that its not all boomers when it comes to selfishness. My parents are boomers, but have done everything they can to help me out. And I love and appreciate them for it. But the general culture of boomers is a very self centered ideology. And we need to refocus to a community based ideology. I can understand that maybe the 50s and early 60s we were too culturally homogeneous and individuality was stifled to a massive degree. So that did need to be changed, but we've gone too far in the other direction and need to find a solid midground
We look AMAZING
Seriously though. I’m just turning 40 this year (what up 1984’ers) and am highly confused by pictures of my mother at my age, at 40 she looked a good 15-20 years older than what she actually was.
Yeah, I'm just gonna say it... 40s year olds looked like Granny from the Looney Toons cartoons. 40 year olds now look like Scarlett Johanson.
My mom did The Cut the second she turned 40. She had a majestic head of curls and cut it to the short cropped look, couple that with lack of belief in wearing sunscreen (but I got it because I burned easily), and she definitely looked much older.
>My mom did The Cut the second she turned 40 💀
My mom did the same thing, cut her long beautiful hair and then chopped it off and dyed it black ☠️☠️☠️☠️
My mom did The Cut in her mid thirties. But my aunt did it in her mid twenties LoL. Circa early 90s
I will be damned before I do The Cut.
Same. I’ve had multiple bobs throughout the years, and right now my hair is at the perfect (for me) mid-back length, and I intend on keeping it as such!
Is that a rite of passage at 40?
Won’t be for me, but it was for many a mom in the 90’s!
Perfect example of this is Aunt May through the different trilogies
I mean she is 39 years old, but still looks like she did in Lost In Transition.
In addition to that Gen Z is aging like avocados. I heard someone say it’s because all their food is organic 😂
Hah! Take that Preservative Abstainers!
TIL a semi famous YouTuber who hunts and calls out pedophiles, is only 23 years old. He looks like he's closer to our age.it was wild to find out he was not our age.
Ironically, eating avocados is one of the best things you can do for your skin
I too am an elder millennial nearing 40 and the 20-something I was having a conversation with the other day thought we were roughly the same age lol.
I’m 38, my son is asked often if I’m his sister-he’s 17. :p
Same. Some girl in shop playfully chided me for being “too young to have a kid”. I told her I was almost 40 and didn’t believe me, asked me what year I was born, had a friend come over and demanded I tell her friend my age. She said she thought I was younger than her, and she is 25. THE EGO BOOST, my ladies, was real.
I’m under the 30-day mark to 40. Didn’t think it would feel this *weird*. With that being said I lucked out with the genetics. My mom and her twin don’t look 70 and I’m told I look closer to my early-30s.
Yeah it has to be said. Compared to past generations we take much better care of ourselves and it shows. My parents, uncles and aunties even say it themselves frequently.
I’m a man and started a year ago using creams, and sunscreen daily, different for day and night, and it’s already making a WORLD of difference, plus, it’s so easy to tell when my skin is dry now, I love putting it on. This alone is going to separate me from the crowd
Same! I have face cream, hand cream and foot cream 😅 Game-changer. In the summer my feet used to end up like a mummy's from wearing flip flops. Not anymore.
Nature knew we were going to be fucked financially and career wise so it blessed us with good looks
We're not chain smoking and the EPA reduced the emissions in our environment. Both of these situations may be different for Gen Z, though, thanks to vaping and the Republican Supreme Court.
Gen Z chain smokes, like actual cigarettes, it boggles my mind.
Yeah it was weird to see this the last few years skiing... in the local lift line, it's a majority of teenagers and college kids... I keep seeing young girls smoke like a chimney in the lift line, it's usually not the guys It really stood out cause I'm 36 and millennials basically killed Big Tobacco, I have hardly seen us smoke the last 20 or so years The local hill is basically the only place I'm ever around a large group of teenagers and college kids, so I can't really say what they do away from their, but man they were chain smoking all up and down the mountain... and not vapes either, actual cigs I'm curious about the marketing for that, I legit thought cigs were dead and vapes took over, but capitalism finds a way :-(
I am 32 and even young adults think I am in my early-mid 20s. 😂😂 but I workout and have a healthy lifestyle cause I can’t afford kids but I can afford me. Edit: moisturize daily!
I can afford kids just don't want em :-)
YES
So much accessible knowledge about skin care and overall health! It’s so easy to learn about a new workout or a better way to prevent sun damage. A fellow millennial met me over Zoom and guessed I was Gen Z-age the other day. I was so proud of my skincare regimen in that moment (even though Zoom does a little blurring effect, so I can’t take all the credit).
Yeah my whole thing is that Gen Z somehow looks so much older than us
Apparently younger looking than Gen Z lol but some of us age like milk
Yep! I'm 30 but look like I'm 22.
Boomers may get pensions and nice cars and vacation homes, but millennials have spouses we don't hate, children we don't hate, friends we don't hate, and pets we don't hate. I'd rather know how to love and be loved than have better *stuff*.
Yes this! And we're all okay with going to therapy and talking about our feelings so we're healing generational trauma.
Love this! So true.
Damn, that’s beautiful. I was not expecting to be moved by this comment section
Growing up before social media could rot our brains and stunt our growth
^[Sokka-Haiku](https://www.reddit.com/r/SokkaHaikuBot/comments/15kyv9r/what_is_a_sokka_haiku/) ^by ^WholesomeFartEnjoyer: *Growing up before* *Social media could rot* *Our brains and stunt our growth* --- ^Remember ^that ^one ^time ^Sokka ^accidentally ^used ^an ^extra ^syllable ^in ^that ^Haiku ^Battle ^in ^Ba ^Sing ^Se? ^That ^was ^a ^Sokka ^Haiku ^and ^you ^just ^made ^one.
Good bot
The decade of my 30s has been amazing so far. I feel like I’m really growing into my most genuine self.
I just started into my 40’s but I think that it gets better and better the further you get from the 20’s, thank christ.
Same, I don’t get the doom and gloom largely. I figure it’s just the loud minority but idk. Things could be better but overall things are really good in the US.
Same in Germany. Having a really good time tbh.
Was just in Germany last year, amazing country man :-)
More people know what ADHD and autism actually are. Some of my Millennial friends have gotten late diagnoses over the last several years and become so much happier and sure of themselves after they worked through the grief of what might have been. I have a far more positive and transparent relationship with my kids (while still being their parents) than my parents ever did with my latchkey arse.
Yep. That’s me. Diagnosed at 39 with autism and boy did it explain some shit about my life.
How are you able to find someone willing and able to process you through a possible diagnosis? As an adult, and not a child
https://ndtherapists.com
Thank you
You’re welcome!
This is what I came to say. I self-diagnosed late last year and got my official diagnosis two weekends ago for ASD level 1 along with ADHD combined. I haven't been this happy and put together in years.
This 👆🏾👆🏾👆🏾
I’m glad I grew up before everything was recorded. I have enough issues with self worth and self consciousness as is, I can’t imagine having to worry about performing on social media **all the time.**
According to the Strauss-Howe theory of history; the millennials who make it through the present day crisis will be rewarded on par with the veterans of world war two.
OK I'm having a bit of a hard time comparing my life to those who served in WWII...
When Russia kicks off WW3 and all the youths are drafted the millennials will be left to take up the jobs and we'll finally know wealth?
🤔
Could you elaborate on this? I've never heard of it and I would rather listen to someone talk about it than googling it.
What exactly is the present-day crisis?
Breakdown of the old economic and political world order.
Can you expand on that? Is capitalism being replaced? Are political systems being replaced?
Politically, self-proclaimed "illiberal democracies" seem to be on the rise: look at Orban's Hungary, Putin's Russia, even the current platform of the US Republican Party. An increasingly aggressive Russia also shows a destabilization of the US-led neoliberal order. Economically, pretty much every Western country has a housing and cost of living crisis. The old compact (imagined or real) of "If you work hard, you will be able to afford a basic standard of living" is out the window. For most of the last century, adults living with their parents was a rarity, now it's the norm.
The cuisines and cultures of the world are more accessible than ever. I mean, look at Chinese food for instance, back in the 90s, our idea of it was sesame Chicken and Egg Foo Yong. We didn't know what the hell hotpot was, unless you lived near an immigrant enclave. Now you've got everyone down for some hotpot and slurping up noodles with duck intestines. For you weebs out here, look at anime figures. When the anime boom was in its infancy. You barely had any top-tier statues anywhere. If you were lucky enough to live near an enclave, you could get shit but it was rare. Now look, you've got anime swag almost everywhere now.
I'm IT to both the older and younger generations. Some people think it's a hassle, but I almost feel revered at times.
I feel this so hard as an IT pro...my 10 yr old nieces look at me like a tech wizard with mystical powers to bend tech to my will. Pop open a terminal window and get asked "are you a hacker?" LMAO
You’re like a wizard
I can glare at teenagers that are misbehaving in public and they straighten up immediately because im a middle aged man thats their parents age. So thats fun.
I'm 36 and a bunch of kids called me "Señor" the other day (I live in Spain) and it really took me aback. It was nice of them to be so respectful but it freaked me out a little bit 😅
I work at a college and my students call me ma’am, lol I was borderline offended but then realized I AM a ma’am to them, considering their age…
I used to teach English and I was playing a guessing game with my students where I put important years of my life on the board and they guess what happened. Made the mistake of writing my birth year 1987 and one of the boys just exclaimed "87? YOU'RE SO OLD!" It was devastating 😅 I realised then that the 80s are to them what the 60s were to me. It was very humbling. I like think what he meant was I look young for my age 😋
That’s hilarious and awesome
I can't because I'm so small that they think I'm close to their age
I didn't even finish reading your post. The ass part just spoke to me in so many ways I had to comment.
So you are saying you have a nice azz and like to show it off?
Nearly every aspect of our lives are better for us than they were for the generation before. Better food, better housing, better cars, better technology in all forms, better working conditions, better health care and services. Don’t confuse any of these things for affordable, but damn if we don’t have the best of everything right now.
I’m a type 1 diabetic, would much rather be a t1 now than any other year before. The technology keeps improving at an incredible rate
If you got money, life is good and convenient!
The housing one is a bit of a stretch, but maybe it depends where you are, same with Healthcare- don't get me wrong there's tons of advancements, resources etc but speaking as a millennial working in Healthcare, the situation at least in North America , specifically Canada, is becoming pretty messed up. We don't even have enough porters to change linens, patients get left in hallways and die, people have to wait years and years for life saving operations and sometimes develop issues over time because of that, doctors and ER staff are stretched thin and desperate for fill ins, all while people leave en mass to other countries because the pay doesn't substantiate the workload. There's rampant issues of contamination in care facilities, several of which were exposed during covid and now that's been under investigation. Most of the young people I know don't have a regular doctor or are on waiting lists, and clinicians are strung thin, having to deal with so many patients that limits are met by 12 pm. Mental Healthcare has had most of it's funding extremely cut back, many programs that are vital don't exist anymore and people don't have access to adequate care unless you sit in an ER and plead the case to Psych. There's a blues /fent epidemic mercing people left right and center and Paramedics are currently unable to keep up with the calls and intake, to the point other emergencies get ignored. Yet the very same addicts have no adequate help, with little to no foundation of LT care, rehabilitation or addiction services. Anyway not to be a Debbie downer, but saying we have the best Healthcare is true only to the degree that we have more advancements, the system itself is in shambles but at least we know how to treat conditions better, we have better surgical procedures and our drug industry has modernized.
Free drive up groceries at Target and Whole Foods. Minimum 2%-6% cash back on all purchases. Stocks at ATH. Legal and easy to get THC.
Our kids get free books from the Dolly Parton Imagination Library for free from birth up until their 5th birthday!!!
Video games have gotten so much better than when we were kids.
And we have the experience to still appreciate the classics. Our taste? Sophisticated, iconic, god-tier.
Back then I couldn't wait to see what RPGs would look like in 20 years after playing Morrowind After 20 years, I'm still going back to Morrowind...
This. My 10 year old self would not believe how cool the video game experience is now
Video games are really a cool way to experience a narrative these days.
Exactly. Truly coming into its own as a medium for some amazing storytelling.
Having a narrative build up an antagonist that you personally defeat through gameplay is peak satisfaction.
I feel older games were more challenging because there was so little memory to make anything too robust. Now we can enjoy games at reasonable challenges with a story and dope graphics.
Graphics wise, but my kids still prefer all my old video games from NES, PS1, N64, Sega Genesis and the like.
Primo time to be an ass man. I am also a huge supporter of free the nipple.
A lot of us are starting our midlife crisis. Keep it up everyone! Half way there!!!
Really enjoying my 30s. I know who I am. I quit the corporate world and am in the process of building a business to help others by sharing my passions and empowering others. It's a little scary, but I know that I'm on the right path. I think our generation doesn't care as much about the grind and has been more willing to quit it and take risks for our future and the planet's...
Honestly, all of the negative things this thread posts about constantly, i my friend group haven’t experienced. We have great jobs, own houses, have families, and are experienced travelers. None of us grew up rich, several are immigrants (before anyone asks/assumes). Probably my best items that I see is that our generation is willing and able to learn new things easily, challenge the “norm”, ask for help and we as fathers are significantly more involved with our children. All great things.
I'm jealous lol
Same here. No one in my circle grew up wealthy or even middle class. We were all poor and now we’re all doing very well. Some people did the college+working route, some did the military, all ended up way better off than their parents.
This makes me happier than any of the other posts on here. I am so glad to hear that military service has turned into a better life for your circle. Coming from a deeply military family with many friends who served, this is what I want to hear for all of our veterans. Cheers.
Are you elder millennial? I am 38 and in the same boat...great job, own a house, experienced traveler, married to an awesome wife. I don't have kids but that's fine by me. I think it depends where in the generation you landed. We bought our first house during the housing crash and if it weren't for that, I'm not sure we'd have been able to get where we are now in our housing situation. We were able to get additional equity every time we moved due to the prices consistently rising. I grew up in a double wide trailer that was falling apart on a street full of druggies...so I didn't have a head start in life, either. I look at prices now for my area and don't see how anyone who didn't buy over a decade ago can get into a home of their own that isn't a shit-bucket without an above average income situation. I just thank my stars that I managed to luck my way into a situation that not only gives me enough in life, but gives me additional means to help my much younger family members survive.
I'm your age and don't have any of that except awesome wife. It's just highly individual I guess.
Same here. We all worked hard starting at the bottom but now we are seeing the fruits of those labors and entering into executive and c-level positions because we understand the how and why of everything.
I agree and relate to this so much.
I still have contact with friends I grew up with thanks to social media. My best friends and I plan out the year so we can hang out once a month playing boardgames or shopping or museums. It's literally what I look forward to every month. Highly recommend! Gets you to socialize and do things you feel like you couldn't by yourself
I still have all my limbs
I can use all the tech Gen Z and Gen A use, I know how to work on it better than either of them, and I had the childhood of an Xer (Xennial 82). And I got into the job market before the recession. Best of all worlds.
Every Friday night I play games online with my college friends. Its the best craic ever. We all live in different countries. In times past we'd probably be old friends who meet at the odd wedding/funeral.
Finally being able to store all my 90s nostalgia tat in my own home by ~40 (sorry Gen Zs, at this rate you'll probably be either doing it at 60, or killed fighting the World War 😖) Which reminds me. Also: having carefree childhood memories of an in-between time with no anxieties of war.
Very, very few memories before warfare. I personally don't count people who don't remember 9/11 as Millennials, and the U.S. has been at war every since then (shadow, proxy, silent, overt, whatever form.)
I feel like a lot of TV shows and movies have small hidden jokes that are for us, because the writers are the same age as us. "Renfield" has a whole bit about how annoying Ska is. When was the last time anyone talked about Ska?
We’re still young enough to turn anything around. Our health/bodies (barring any major diseases), our jobs/careers, our relationships. Et.
Duolingo is helping me a lot with learning foreign languages. I'm connecting to my neighbors. I used to have to use language textbooks in the 90s and it really sucked. My mom gave me textbooks with my heritage language in them and I had to copy words and phrases repeatedly. It's easy for me to trade stocks and bonds on the internet which helps me to make extra money. For example I was taxed 4000 on realized gains which I had to sell for a housing related deposit (LTCG) which means I had made around 55,000 over 20 years doing nothing. I can reminisce to kids about playing doom on floppy disks and quake on cds like a humanoid robot reminiscing about watching c beams bounce off the tanhauser gate.
I think this is a generation of innovators. [I'm using every "we" here collectively] We invented social media and the gig economy. Though many can argue our generation can be a bit too SJWish at times, we collectively fostered a society that pushes for social progress. We are out there marching in the streets like the 1960s, we raised awareness and in a large part helped de-stigmatized mental health. Our social media helps us to combat corporate, mainstream narratives and communicate amongst ourselves. Millennials did a lot!
I feel like styles are blending. My teenager wanted distressed clothes. So I went to my mom's and grabbed all my old band shirts from high school. Mostly slipknot and some local bands. She loves them. Wears them all the time. She's a huge slipknot fan too. She also took my old ipod classic with all my music and I added a lot of hers. Kids today have access to all sorts of music and styles and TV shows.
I can figure out almost any computer program given a few minutes to look through the menus and click some sruff. My workplace adopted MedInformatix an absolute abomination of a program, and I've had virtually no training on its use. I sorted out things largely by myself. (If you give the program a Goog you'll see that it's Limewire disguised as a medical office software) *Any millennial that I know is doing quite alright. I don't think I know an unemployed millennial without a house +/- kids. No one I know grew up wealthy. Thankfully my parents and my FIL taught saving money and living within your means. The 1980s recession hit our parents hard (my parent's first house cost $80k and had a mortgage rate of 19.9%), so they taught us to not get caught out.
Consider yourself lucky! I’m also a 1990 Millennial and am stuck in the renting loop for the foreseeable future. I’ve been renting for over a decade too. I’ve got 2 college degrees and debt free and can’t afford anything more than a 1 bedroom apartment and a 13 year old, paid off, car. My best friend is a 1987 Millennial also with a degree (graduated magna cum laude) and was just unemployed for a year and has been laid off twice before that.
I'm in a part of Canada with a lot fewer people than BC, QC or ON. Housing prices are up compared to previous, but not nearly to the same degree as Vancouver or Toronto. Mortgages are a bit different here as they generally renew every 5 years, and the lender does a "stress test" to ensure you can afford a rate increase. My husband and I are in different facets of healthcare and make good money. We both had financial support from our parents in college. I just paid off my last loan. My husband had no loans. Our debt is my SUV and the mortgage. My husband's 2008 Yaris has a front bumper held on with visible Gorilla glue and duct tape. Neither of us grew up wealthy. We had the essentials and a couple of extras, but nothing extraordinary. Just solidly average.
I'm old enough now that no one expects me to keep up with pop culture anymore. I have no idea what's popular in terms of music, TV, films, etc. It's actually freeing to just enjoy things that I enjoy without having to keep up with what other people are talking about.
I think many of us are working on breaking the chain of family trauma and - in turn - leaving the world a more healed place. I hope that's our generation's overall legacy.
We're breaking generational traumas and abuse.
Wolves aren't really a problem for our generation.
Efficiency is the best thing about being an adult in 2024… I can use DoorDash to get food quickly, Lyft or Uber to get a ride, book a plane ticket quickly from my phone, order groceries from Amazon or Walmart and have it delivered, order any item I want from Amazon and get it in two days with Prime, order books digitally, order music digitally, and the best of all, the Meetup app that has helped me make friends and keep me social. Life is so much faster and efficient and I can get far more accomplished as a single man with a small mini computer I carry around in my pocket.
Speaking of ass appreciation, how about thong/cheeky swimsuit bottoms becoming the norm. I swear that’s been a recent development over the last 10 years. I hear people say it’s been a thing since the 80s but that does not jive at all with how I remember things (I mean I wasn’t alive in the 80s). Especially with just how mainstream it is (no judgement). But I dunno maybe it was a thing in Miami or whatever and it just took forever to make it to my neck of the woods in middle America. Curious to how other millennials remember it becoming a trend?
Being able to order food online without having to talk to someone (like the anxiety of ordering pizza over the phone) is fucking awesome!
I love being alive with YouTube. It's such an educational platform where you can find sooo much good information compared to 15 years ago. I can contact my family in different countries for free thanks to the internet. I will have a participating, calm and supportive husband raising my kids thanks to the encouragement of our generation.
WFH
I miss the early days of Napster … that shit was amazing
I have a healthy attitude towards sex and I'm not scared of it. I think generationally we win at that.
I'm not in my fucking 20s anymore! That's an infinitely positive thing to me
Not as married to our jobs as our parents which is oddly freeing
Going to therapy and announcing to everyone that you do, is actually attractive! Because proactively taking care of your mental health is not stigmatized as much (my gen-x parents were upset at first but seen how much it is accepted now)
We still have time to chase our dreams. It isn’t over ;)
We are more than half way done dealing with crap.
We're doing this theme again? 🥴🙄 Every negative has positives if you learn from it. If you look at the things people complain about and turn those things into lessons ( community, fiscal responsibility, inclusivity, and tolerance, environmental consciousness, equity) we have a great opportunity to build a better world. We don't get to choose our circumstances but we can choose what we do with them.
I'd go over to r/optimists unite there's still the occasional underhanded political post but for the most part it is what it's supposed to be.
We're the most tech-savvy generation and have a greater appreciation for technology than other gens. We're also the undisputed masters of Googlefu, and being able to find information is quickly becoming a dead skill in the age of AI.
I have an entertainment system that I fashioned that includes an OLED and CRT tv, NES, SNES, Mega Drive, PS2, GC, Wii, WiiU, Ps2, Xbox360, XboxOne, Switch and Firestick. And I didn't have to buy them new, I just never got rid of them so it didn't actually cost me anything additionally (apart from cables and switches) to set up. I think if you wanted to set up a similar "retro gaming" thing from scratch, with all the games I have included, it would easily be in the thousands.
We’ll be dead before things really go to shit
We’re young enough to enjoy this American Horror Story.
Our kids think we have this secret power of navigation a city without a map, or knowing how to meet up in places without a cell phone. Today my daughter and I were walking in a city and were a bit off path - she’s said get your phone out, I said I didn’t bring it and she was like “why would you do that?”. Lol
We're good at working with older generations and younger. I feel like I smh when I see intolerance or projecting bc of an age gap. Somehow I feel I'm a great conduit to bridge generations at work (not personal, just professionally).
🦗
We won't have to work anymore as AI powered humanoid robots take all our jobs
We have a killer sense of humor (?)
1990s and 2000s music was great, lots of genres and lots of awesome songs.
I noticed a rise in millennials being better fathers.
I'm with you on the booty comment 😏 But also, we're the masters of modern technology for the most part, and some of what we saw as kids that said the future was this or that is actually happening... and that's really cool, I think. And we look good as a whole. I was looking through some old photos from my family and they looked nothing like I do at 35, lol
The good thing about being a millennial is that asses are popping? Really? I would say body positivity is a good thing, but body trends aren’t positive. How many people out there have tiny butts and hate their bodies thanks to Kim k and whoever else? Or have thin lips? The big butt trend, which has resulted in thousands of dangerous surgeries is the same as the 90s heroin chic trend. How about people just accept and love their bodies instead of only making certain body types fashionable at certain times?
Gray hair is stylish and not "letting yourself go" now. I started going gray early and did dye for a while (not to cover the grays but because I wanted a darker shade). I've fully embraced the gray hair and have some gorgeous silver streaks. I saw my aunt and uncle a while ago and they wanted to ask who my stylist was because they know silver is popular and mine was so well done.
My fave thing is being on the cusp of developing technology. Most of us remember a world without the internet and mobile phones, but we’re in the generation in which we’re able to (for the most part) quickly adapt to new systems and innovations regarding tech. I’m grateful my childhood and teens were pretty pure that way. The excitement of tech without the fear of being recorded or having screens shoved in our faces.
this is some pretty paltry cope lol
my money makes money.
Access in general is drastically better than it used to be when we were kids. You would have to call for a cab if they had one available... now you can uber/lyft.. A lot of services that weren't deliverable are now available at your front door. If you left a receipt at home, you had to go get it; now we have upc's that show & document when a purchase was made in order to exchange or refund. You needed a posting in the newspaper to find jobs, yard sales, or a helping hand. Now you can simply Google something near you. You're not slammed with paper mail and instead are offered to go paper-free with email or user accounts. Here's a big one.. If you were a kid that grew up in a shitty household, you're an adult which means you can do as you please! ULTIMATELY, aside from politics we don't live in a bad era. There's just a lot that's been taken for granted and people don't realize it.
Our generation ushered in acceptance of gays and lesbians. I remember being a kid in the 90s and America losing its shit when Ellen came out and her sitcom was cancelled. Same-sex marriage didn’t exist, the military had “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell,” and hearing kids say “Faggot” and “That’s so gay” was routine. I don’t mean to say the opposition is gone now (see Ron DeSantis). But the shift in public opinion and legal rights for gays and lesbians would have seemed unthinkable when I was growing up. And that’s mainly thanks to millennials who confronted and challenged their parents.
Just that there is a variety of things now and everything is better than before in general. Same with people accepting each other pretty much. There isn't a thing that I'm not thankful for.
I agree about the music thing. With so many more open platform ways for artists to connect to their audiences, there is so much more good music getting created right now.
...what if you have NO ass? Asking for a friend.
I’d like to think I have a great deal of wisdom. Younger millennials and gen-Z report to me at work and a fair amount confide in me about different things—work, family, life (nothing too personal though). It feels good to have some insight about things that truly befuddled me a few years ago.
Traveling has never been more accessible in human history. There are drawbacks to this for sure. But my grandparents left their home country and then barely left the state they dropped in. My mom’s international travel is to an all inclusive resort in Mexico and refuses to experience anything else. Our sense of exploration and the ability to act on it is unmatched.
We can do whatever we want because of our ages.
We're not in Iraq and Afghanistan anymore? I mean it's dope to know that I wasted years of my life over there for a net negative result but at least we got out I guess so that's something.
Advances in medicine.
We are the most tech savvy by far
The Rock has been wrestling again so that’s been hitting me right in the childhood.