Attention Millennials: Anyone else sick of hearing about how much we suck?

My last semester of college, (AKA two months ago) my professor assigned an excerpt for us to read from "The Dumbest Generation" by Mark Bauerlein.

By the time I was reading that article, I was so sick and tired of reading about how dumb millennials are. How we don't read. We lack empathy. We have no idea how to communicate effectively. We want to spend our days in basements not working for anything. 

(Ironically, I was the only pissed off one in the class. I later realized I was the only one who actually read it. Not helping our case, guys.)

I have been assigned similar articles throughout the entirety of my college career, and I realized that I didn't know a single peer who fit that bill. 

I would like to explain something before sounding like a hypocrite.

I wrote this post while reading that article.

But I am happy to report that it's not just people of my generation who seem to have a hard time discussing something other than how much they hate things.

It's a healthy mix of "everyone in between."

People who are ungrateful. Who don't care. Who only know how to gossip.

Every generation has them.

But you know what else? There are plenty of people who do care. Yes, on that particular day, I was feeling a bit downtrodden by people I had been speaking to. But I do have friends who engage in intellectual conversations. And they span a wide variety of ages. 

With that out of the way, I would like to move onto the topic at hand:

I am so tired of hearing about how my generation is going to destroy the world.

A friend posted this article on Facebook, along with this.

I found this one to be fair as well.

Look, I can't speak for all millennials, but I love talking to people. Fishing for their motives. Finding out what drives them. And let me tell you, I know an incredible amount of caring, driven, compassionate, humble millennials. Here is what I know about millennials I know in real life:

-We want to work. We do not feel like something should be "handed to us," as is so often assumed. We expect, just like every generation before us, to work. And we expect to find it. I think that is a fair expectation to have. We also realize the economy is not at its best, and that search can be grueling. Trust me, I know. I'm in the middle of it right now. I expect it to take time, hard work and a whole lot of proving myself, but yes, I do expect to eventually find a job and a career path.

-We value more than money. There is a stereotype that floats around that paints the millennial as someone who wants to be a millionaire without working for it. Do those people exist? I'm sure they do, somewhere. I don't know any of them. Those I do know have realistic expectations of what they should receive, and expect to work for it. Regardless of what trophies they were handed in little league.

-Please, leave us alone about the freaking smart phones! I get it. The internet is all up in our business. Last I checked, our entire society is inundated with it. Not just millennials. Yes, we've practically grown up with it. Yes, we now operate our daily lives with it. But this is a societal switch. Are we used to it and accustomed to it now? Yes. And so is pretty much everyone else.

-"Here we are. Now, entertain us." We are capable of getting work done without having to be seduced by shiny gadgets that talk to us. I promise. You don't have to lure us to your university/workplace with an iPad.

-Some of us are narcissistic wimps who live in a dream bubble. It's called "youth." Every generation is criticized for it, not just millennials. Doesn't it make sense that people just getting started on their careers who aren't yet married with children are going to be self-absorbed? Why shouldn't they be? I'm not saying they shouldn't care about anything besides themselves. I'm just saying that selfishness in youth can be an effective, though mildly annoying, survival skill that helps us fight for what we need in order to set up a solid future.

All that being said, stereotypes don't jump from thin air. There are plenty of wired hipsters out there who don't want a real job. And there are plenty more who defy all of that. The world is changing, not just the world's youth.

I really got tired of the professor who assigned us that article bashing us about how dumb, lazy and pathetic we were. Guess what? That professor was 28. Otherwise known as a millennial. 

But hippie and hipster alike, this all may just be a rite of passage to our thirties, where people leave us alone and focus on the next group of whippersnappers out to wreck everything. Like Generation Y and Baby Boomers, every generation goes through it, and every generation has their stereotype.

Ours just happens to instagram our breakfast and watch a lot of cat videos. Simultaneously. And then Tweet about it from our parents' basement.

Now if you'll excuse me...I have to go back to job hunting.