Millennials compared to your generation

Bry_Fitness70
Bry_Fitness70 Posts: 2,480 Member
What are some of the glaring differences between your generation and Millennials (or vice versa)? This isn't an invitation to bash, I'm just curious about what others have observed. This is anecdotal, so no hurt feelings if any generalizations don't apply to you ;)

A big one I have noticed is energy drinks consumption. Gen X and Baby Boomers largely prefer coffee while it seems like Millenials are buying Monster (or similar brands) drinks (as observed in our work cafeteria).
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Replies

  • pudgy1977
    pudgy1977 Posts: 13,499 Member
    eccomi_qui wrote: »
    Well for starters we can’t afford houses because of avocado toast

    Mmmmm Avocado Toast
  • Bry_Fitness70
    Bry_Fitness70 Posts: 2,480 Member
    I didn’t walk 5 miles to school during a snow storm.

    My parents bought their gorgeous house for $149k yet the ones I’m looking at are more like a mil. How the shiz is that fair?

    Also that...I’m a millennial and we grew up in the generation of “fairness” you know attendance awards :/

    People take a lot longer to poop these days. Cause smartphones. 2 bathrooms is now a necessity.

    I blame everything on Baby Boomers (maybe not the extended pooping issue), all of the good stuff fell apart under their watch...
  • NewlifeinNW
    NewlifeinNW Posts: 3,866 Member
    I didn’t walk 5 miles to school during a snow storm.

    My parents bought their gorgeous house for $149k yet the ones I’m looking at are more like a mil. How the shiz is that fair?

    Also that...I’m a millennial and we grew up in the generation of “fairness” you know attendance awards :/

    People take a lot longer to poop these days. Cause smartphones. 2 bathrooms is now a necessity.

    Ha! I don't know, my Dad liked to do crosswords while on the toilet. I never understood it.
  • MonkeyMel21
    MonkeyMel21 Posts: 2,396 Member
    edited January 2018
    eccomi_qui wrote: »
    My older sisters were married and gone before they were 18.

    My younger daughters aren't interested and aren't planning to leave.

    What kind of dowry are you offering?

    hahahaha, you're my favorite @eccomi_qui
  • WhereIsPJSoles
    WhereIsPJSoles Posts: 622 Member
    Those YouTube stars took a chance, man. It paid big for some of them. No different than actors and actresses who have been around forever.
  • TheRoadDog
    TheRoadDog Posts: 11,788 Member
    edited January 2018
    TheRoadDog wrote: »
    Aside from the technological issues, which makes Millennials more likely to have their noses in their phones and always taking selfies, tweeting, instagramming and texting, I think Millennials feel they are more entitled and don't have to work their way up to a level of comfort that they had at home.

    I moved out in 1972, joined the Marines and when I got out 4 years later and got my own apartment, I worked 60+ hours a week. My home was furnished with a bean bag chair, a mattress on the floor, shelving for my stereo on cinder blocks and bricks. I had a hand-me-down TV that my Grandma gave me.

    When my daughters moved out, they all had big-screen TV's, new cars, fully furnished apartments, the latest cell phones (which they exchange every time the next generation comes out).

    I think the biggest reason that they can affect this step up in comfort is credit. I had no access to credit cards when I was their age, so I had to save up for everything and pay in full. Credit Companies are shoving credit down Millennial's throats now. It's a shame.

    I will agree that some people do think they are entitled to things but for the most part I disagree that millennials feel this way. I certainly don't. I think that the issue is that people are now understanding that everyone deserves a fair chance at life and it's become more glaringly obvious that the amount of money millennials are making isn't enough when you compare it to the cost of living.

    The cost of getting an education continues to increase. The cost of purchasing a home is absolutely ridiculous - my grandparents, in 1975, purchased a home for $40,000.00. My dad and step mom bought their house (in 1999) for under $150,000.00. If I were to buy the same house today, in the exact same location, I would need $450,000.00 - $500,000.00.

    It's very hard not to feel down about this and to desire more. I might pay a lot of attention to my phone but tbh, part of that is because I don't want to think about where I'll be in ten years, because I have no idea.

    ETA: In terms of your daughters' tvs, cars, furnished apartments, did you buy those things for them? Because then that's your fault :p "


    My daughter's (3 of them) all were responsible for their own cars, apartments and insurance. We DID help them out with furnishings. The only one we spent the most on was the youngest. She skipped a grade and then went to college at 16. At that age, she couldn't sign anything without our backing.

    And, while I know that their level of comfort was paid for by me, I guess I should have said, I am pretty sure my parents' would have helped me too, but they were poor and struggled to make ends meet.
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  • denversillygoose
    denversillygoose Posts: 708 Member
    My generation was never consistently shat on the way millenials are.
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  • Caporegiem
    Caporegiem Posts: 4,297 Member
    edited January 2018
    newmeadow wrote: »
    *Our jeans were much tighter and pinched in the crotch area.

    You've obviously never seen me doing yard work in my cut off jeans.

  • cbohling1987
    cbohling1987 Posts: 99 Member
    edited January 2018
    TheRoadDog wrote: »
    Aside from the technological issues, which makes Millennials more likely to have their noses in their phones and always taking selfies, tweeting, instagramming and texting, I think Millennials feel they are more entitled and don't have to work their way up to a level of comfort that they had at home.

    I moved out in 1972, joined the Marines and when I got out 4 years later and got my own apartment, I worked 60+ hours a week. My home was furnished with a bean bag chair, a mattress on the floor, shelving for my stereo on cinder blocks and bricks. I had a hand-me-down TV that my Grandma gave me.

    When my daughters moved out, they all had big-screen TV's, new cars, fully furnished apartments, the latest cell phones (which they exchange every time the next generation comes out).

    I think the biggest reason that they can affect this step up in comfort is credit. I had no access to credit cards when I was their age, so I had to save up for everything and pay in full. Credit Companies are shoving credit down Millennial's throats now. It's a shame.

    Actually Millennials are significantly less likely to use credit cards or buy things on credit. I'm a Millennial (30 years old) and I almost never purchase anything on credit. The only reason I was able to buy a house with almost no credit history was because I made a 60% down payment.

    It's not just me either, this is a measurable trend:

    http://money.cnn.com/2017/10/09/pf/millennials-credit-cards/index.html
  • Bry_Fitness70
    Bry_Fitness70 Posts: 2,480 Member
    My generation was never consistently shat on the way millenials are.

    If you are Gen X I totally disagree. Where Gen X was disillusioned, Millenials weren't, because to be disillusioned, you had to have had expectations in the first place.

    Gen X grew up more idealistic, thinking that our lives would be like our parents in terms of jobs, the economy, marriage, religion, education, etc, and almost none of those resemble anything that we expected in the 1970s and 80s. That is why the music of our 20s was Grunge, a sort of colorless, dark, angry lashing out against what we realized life would actually be like in the 1990s and beyond.

    I believe that Millenials have had a more somber outlook which wasn't really brightened by boy bands, participation trophies, and cool electronics, and that is why being a Youtuber or a dot-com billionaire is so appealing, it is winning the lottery, rather than working some crappy service job for minimum wage and paying off 6 figure student loans while living in a cheap apartment and driving a beat-up Honda Civic.
  • TheRoadDog
    TheRoadDog Posts: 11,788 Member
    edited January 2018
    Never mind
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  • daltontf
    daltontf Posts: 63 Member
    Gen X-er here. I get annoyed when people bash on millennials as if they there is something innately superior about themselves and their generation. The perceived weaknesses (and strengths) of millennials are mostly products of the culture and events.
  • My generation was never consistently shat on the way millenials are.

    It's all those gen x-ers being on their damn computers and smartphones! :D

    And some of us baby boomers to, guilty!!
  • Bry_Fitness70
    Bry_Fitness70 Posts: 2,480 Member
    edited January 2018
    My generation was never consistently shat on the way millenials are.

    It's all those gen x-ers being on their damn computers and smartphones! :D

    And some of us baby boomers to, guilty!!

    Growing up I rarely saw my dad and grandfathers' faces at the breakfast/dinner table because they were buried in a newspaper. My grandfather also spent a lot of time whittling nothing in particular, just cutting chunks off of a piece of wood until there was nothing but a pile of shavings. I'm not sure how staring at a newspaper or magazine (or aimless whittling) in the old days is preferable to staring at a screen today.
  • 4legsRbetterthan2
    4legsRbetterthan2 Posts: 19,590 MFP Moderator
    Bry_Lander wrote: »
    My generation was never consistently shat on the way millenials are.

    If you are Gen X I totally disagree. Where Gen X was disillusioned, Millenials weren't, because to be disillusioned, you had to have had expectations in the first place.

    Gen X grew up more idealistic, thinking that our lives would be like our parents in terms of jobs, the economy, marriage, religion, education, etc, and almost none of those resemble anything that we expected in the 1970s and 80s. That is why the music of our 20s was Grunge, a sort of colorless, dark, angry lashing out against what we realized life would actually be like in the 1990s and beyond.

    I believe that Millenials have had a more somber outlook which wasn't really brightened by boy bands, participation trophies, and cool electronics, and that is why being a Youtuber or a dot-com billionaire is so appealing, it is winning the lottery, rather than working some crappy service job for minimum wage and paying off 6 figure student loans while living in a cheap apartment and driving a beat-up Honda Civic.

    Oh but we had boybands!
  • cee134
    cee134 Posts: 33,711 Member
    What is a millennial?

    Demographers and researchers typically use the early 1980s as starting birth years and the mid-1990s to early 2000s as ending birth years.

    I'm not sure some of you know you are millennials if this is true.