Wednesday, January 09, 2019

How to understand a millennial

I don't often frequent BuzzFeed, but this article about millennials was forwarded to me by a millennial, my daughter. And it is a very well-written and well-thought out article. The author is pushing the limits of "millennial" at 38, but clearly identifies as one, and is much closer to her subject than I am. The article still might make you cross if you're of a certain age, but it also might just help you understand the most misunderstood demographic of our times.
I'm not going to paraphrase or summarize the article here - it's quite a long and wide-ranging piece - but I encourage you to read it. It starts off talking about why many millennials find it so hard to complete simple little domestic or administrative tasks, and concludes that this is a psychological response to a kind of emotional and cognitive burnout that millennials frequently complain of. But, before you start to roll your eyes about another whiny millennial slacker, this is not THAT article. It is a much deeper analysis, and a genuine attempt to try to understand (and explain) where these feelings and reponses come from, and why.
Even this author ultimately concludes that a full understanding may not even be possible, but that the very act of analyzing the claims, stereotypes and reality of millennial life as she does has been a therapeutic process. You might find it so, too.

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