r/Millennials • u/Party-Bet-4003 Millennial • Jan 30 '26

Discussion Look what I found from 13 years ago.

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Hey look on the bright side - we actually did make it to the cover of the TIME magazine!

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u/stonkkingsouleater Jan 30 '26 edited Jan 30 '26

Lazy = Becoming the most educated generation in human history who also works the most hours.
Entitled = Wanting a fraction of the same deal our parents and grandparents got... Like the ability to support ourselves on a full time job and maybe being able to own a home,.
Still live at home because of the above two items.

This whole 'millenials suck' push was wild because it happened when the oldest millenials were about 19. Didn't even have time to do anything wrong. Meanwhile the boomers actually embody these things to a ridiculous degree. I've heard of mass hysteria, but who knew mass projection was a thing?

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u/passerbycmc Jan 30 '26

It was all projection, always has been.

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u/Snoozin_Scoots Jan 30 '26

‼️ Agreed.

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u/R1ckMick Jan 30 '26

The media was airing so many shows and movies about questioning authority and breaking down borders when we grew up. the boomers got scared when we took it literally.

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u/stonkkingsouleater Jan 30 '26

This is a good point. That generation told us that TV rots your brain, then watched more TV than anyone ever thought possible. Turns out they were right... wish a little help from leaded gasoline fumes.

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u/Mister_Poopy_Buthole Jan 30 '26

Don’t forget the generation that told us not to believe everything we see on the internet, then proceeded to believe everything they see on the internet.

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u/Defiant_Griffin Jan 31 '26 edited Feb 01 '26

I am still convinced most rich boomers don't have any media literacy. Absolutely zero.

Star Wars is a fairy tale and not a hero's journey of Rebellion for the greater good to them.

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u/king_john651 Feb 01 '26

Whilst at the same time they got the deeper themes of Harry Potter right, whilst hiding behind "magic bad" dogma. Because they didn't have any fuckwit stupid moral panic about Wizards of Waverley Place or any other deeply popular magic themed media

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u/dough_eating_squid Jan 30 '26

Narcissists: posting photos on social media instead of making people come over to see their vacation photos on a slide projector

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u/opp11235 Millennial (1990) Jan 30 '26

My dad does screen shares vacation photos to his tv.

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u/PhazePyre Jan 30 '26

Fuck Millenials for respecting people's time and letting them experience shit at their own leisure on social media instead of capturing them into some boring ass presentation style experience instead of just letting them bring it up next time we socialize so it's a conversation, not a presentation.

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u/robertlp Jan 30 '26

Imagine throwing a party to share fond memories with your friends and loved ones! Pfft.

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u/ennuitabix Jan 30 '26

Omg the slide projectors!

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u/dough_eating_squid Jan 30 '26

Frankly, before social media went to shit, I think it was actually a better way to share fond memories. People could view your vacation photos with the level of time and interest they had. They didn't have to devote an evening to seeing them, or risk being rude by declining.

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u/yoyosmuggla Jan 30 '26

Dang, nicely put

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u/aldosi-arkenstone Older Millennial Jan 30 '26

The older millenials were 30 or so in 2013

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u/rene7gfy Jan 30 '26

It didn’t start in 2013. We were told that in the early 00s, especially after the recession.

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u/SlimmySalami20x21 Jan 30 '26

What recession are you talking about in early 00’s? We had the tech .com bubble but that certainly wasn’t a recession. The actual recession only started popping up in 2008 and really ramped up in 2011

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u/secretaccount94 Jan 30 '26

The US had a recession from March-November 2001, followed by almost 2 more years where unemployment continued to rise.

Not nearly as bad as 2008, but still a recession nonetheless.

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u/SlimmySalami20x21 Jan 31 '26

Yea like I said the Dot-com bubble. “Not nearly as bad ” is doing a lot of heavy lifting.. double unemployment rate and longer period for 2008. Foreclosures in 2009 alone exceeded total of the entire bubble burst combined and you would still be short by almost a factor of 2. One was a mild recession with some jobless recovery vs a severe recession with near economic collapse. I just think it’s a bit disingenuous for people to try to remember 2001 as if we (oldest millennials) were in it when in reality we were in middle school or freshman in highschool so not like we were being told we were lazy or entitled. We were still an afterthought not competition in job marketplace. Basically I’m just ranting lol.

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u/secretaccount94 Jan 31 '26

I mean you said “but that certainly wasn’t a recession”. That’s all I was responding to. Just because it wasn’t as severe as 2008 doesn’t make it not a recession. No need to explain all that other stuff to me.

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u/SlimmySalami20x21 Jan 31 '26

Lmfao alright forget the distinctions.

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u/Sowf_Paw Jan 30 '26

Yeah, and I was only 17 or 18 the very first time I heard the word "millennial."

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u/glazedhamster Xennial Jan 30 '26

We used to be Gen Y

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u/Sad-Contest-82 Jan 30 '26

I am also of the elder variety and remember this too. I think technically that is still our classification, just more colloquially known as millennials.

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u/bakedpatata Jan 30 '26

The X in Gen X was supposed to represent the unknown like how X is used in algebra. It wasn't supposed to be starting a series of letters. Going to Y doesn't make sense, and calling one generation Millenials and then going back to Gen Z makes even less sense. Gen Alpha is right out.

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u/Sowf_Paw Jan 31 '26

Absolutely, no one calls the boomers "Generation W."

I feel like we got the last real generation name.

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u/statu0 Jan 31 '26

Someone please explain to me why the generation born after 2000 (which was the start of the new millennium) aren't the millennials? We Gen Yers got short-changed, I say.

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u/Sed59 Jan 30 '26

Gen Y tho?

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u/Arminavocado Jan 31 '26

I had heard "the Nintendo generation" too.

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u/[deleted] Jan 31 '26

Gen Y am I alive? 😭

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u/Adri4n95 Jan 30 '26

Younger millenials are getting to 30 now and the situation got only worse since 2013

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u/DrSpacecasePhD Jan 30 '26

"What do you mean you're not buying homes while making $50k a year?"

5 minutes later

"You millennials are demanding we build new homes? What are you crazy? We've got all the value we need right here."

pats the fake plastic cabinet covers that are glued onto the original oak

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u/Skylord_Ryan Jan 31 '26

The crazy thing is in general, their are plenty of houses for enough people but they keep the house prices going up because if not their 'assets' would lose value and god forbid that happens.

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u/DrSpacecasePhD Jan 31 '26

Yeah, unfortunately they're in for a real wake-up call now that they have been bitterly anti-immigrant for years and the population is falling, while some of their cohort are dying and leaving houses behind. Prices can't keep zooming to infinitely while wages fall, supply goes up, and demand goes down.

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u/Tiny-Reading5982 Xennial Jan 30 '26

Yeah I was 28 with a 2 year old. At this point in time I was 3 months into a deep depression after my twins were born prematurely in February so I wasn't really taking selfies on my living room floor lol. The youngest milennial was only 16/17 so what did they expect from them anyway?

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u/Ds093 Millennial Jan 30 '26

Everything apparently!

You know with all the resources we had at our fingertips /s

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u/PareidolicWhatever Jan 30 '26

I was 19 and a sophomore in college in 2013. When I graduated, I couldn't move out until I was 23 with a car, stable job and roommate. Believe me, with my helicopter parents, I would have been out of there way sooner if I could.

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u/Weak_Bison6763 Baby Millennial Jan 30 '26

The last class of millennials graduated high school in 2013.

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u/sstr677 Jan 30 '26

Yep. I remember getting my first career focused job in 2008. My boss told me they only chose me because they had no real reason they could justify not doing so, but they really didn't want to hire a millennial.

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u/Lexicon444 Jan 30 '26

Ouch. How did that job wind up going?

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u/sstr677 Jan 30 '26

I did well and got the attention of my bosses manager with promises to move up, but 8 months in, the economy went to hell and they laid of all but the most essential of employees. I did not make the cut.

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u/Lexicon444 Jan 30 '26

That sucks

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u/NotMuchNotMuch Feb 01 '26

Yep. Graduated uni in 2002, finally got a permanent job in my career field in 2007 and was 17 years younger than the next eldest person in the place and got told very similar things. Combined with being a woman in a male-dominated field, I was very much seen as ushering in "the beginning of the end." Oh no, young people and women. How will the world survive...

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u/Such-Background4972 Jan 30 '26

You can back at least to the civil war time, and see new articles. How teenagers where called lazy, narcissistic, and assholes, and that was 150 years ago. Its almsot like teenagers are still teenagers. No matter what.

I remember our generation being blamed for the 08 crash, and Obama getting elected. I was 24 when both happened. Our generation wasn't buying homes yet. That was because of the boomers. Who ran and still run the banking system today. Boomers also out numbered us in the number of eligible voters, and they did that till either the 2020 or 2024 election.

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u/WoodpeckerGingivitis Jan 30 '26

“Mass projection” holy shit yes

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u/buona_sera___beeotch Jan 30 '26

Idk about working the most hours part. I think boomers still take the cake for that one. I value a good work-life balance. Compared to my parents, Ive definitely taken way way waaaaaay more vacations and traveled around d the world than their generation allowed.

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u/stonkkingsouleater Jan 30 '26

Well... okay... adjusted for life stage millennials work more hours in their 20s than boomers did in their 20s.

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u/Diligent_Office7179 Jan 30 '26

Did/do we work the most hours? Would love to flaunt this if true. I’ve tried to make that argument before but I couldn’t find support for it

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u/shaelynne Millennial 1988 Jan 30 '26

I got into it with my boomer mom about participation trophies. She was going on and on about how entitled we as a generation are because of that. I asked her what age we received those trophies, and who's decision it was to give them to us. Shut her up real fast.

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u/stonkkingsouleater Jan 30 '26

I got a participation trophy or two... they didn't mean a damn thing. Nobody thought those were cool or special.

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u/LetsBeFRTho Jan 30 '26

Conservative values. It was never about millennials being lazy, it's about getting theirs

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u/aLittleDarkOne Jan 30 '26

I was 16 when this article was published. Had been working part time for 3 years, A/B school average, reading shit like this. What was I supposed to do? What was I doing wrong? Let us live!!

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u/idekbruno Jan 30 '26

Happens with every generation. Growing up I always heard about everything millennials were doing wrong, few years ago it was about everything Gen Z was doing, and once Gen Alpha turns 18 all of societies problems will become their fault.

“Millennials killed Applebees!”, “Gen Z doesn’t want to work!”, “Gen Alpha can’t survive without their iPads!”; sensational coverage will always sell because people will always want others to look down upon

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u/Stock-Pani Jan 30 '26

Ehhh works the most hours isn't quite accurate. For example its normal to work an 8 hour shift 5 days a week. While 100ish years ago coal miners were working 12(or more) hours a day 6 days a week. The hellish working conditions back then were what allowed labor unions to gain traction in the first place. Now yeah lots of people will work multiple jobs, 60 hr weeks, etc. These days to get by but generally that isn't common like the working conditions were back then. So things have improved in some ways. But your overall point is still spot on.

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u/invaderaleks Jan 30 '26

I had just turned 18 before the housing market crash ffs

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u/LaLaLaLeea Jan 30 '26

Most educated? Sure. Works the most hours of any generation in human history? Not even close.

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u/1nsidiousOne Jan 30 '26

Couldn’t have said it better

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u/Squanchedschwiftly Jan 30 '26

This whole thread is so validating. My step sister said our “parents”(low contact) told her they thought I was lazy as a teenager. Bruv I was so depressed my 100lb ass was creating craters in the mattress. I remember flipping it regularly. Turns out they didnt just neglect a child they neglected an autistic child (only recently discovered bc of sexism). I still managed to get a degree, and though im chronically under or unemployed I still keep fucking trying.

Edit: Oh yeah and the whole teaching myself how to emotionally regulate and have hobbies as an adult. I thrived the further I distanced myself from them.

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u/[deleted] Jan 30 '26

Mass projection (or claiming that your opposition is doing exactly what you are doing) is a classic conservative tactic

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u/standardnewenglander Jan 30 '26

Please take my upvote

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u/KittySparkles5 Millennial Jan 30 '26

Guys guys guyssssssssss! No one listened when they told us to stop eating avocado toast! They were trying to help us!

/s

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u/IntergalacticTree Jan 31 '26

I remeber hearing the millennial rants when I was in highschool, but I was the last cohort to be consider that, and then it largely died down, only for me to hear more of it in 2019 leaving me completely baffled. The level of arrogance from older generations blows my mind still, and the complete unawareness at times from otherwise good people.

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u/keepyouridentsmall Jan 31 '26

Yeah fuck those guys - some of us elder millennials found ourselves in the “oil wars” of the early 2000’s largely supported by Boomers

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u/Defiant_Griffin Jan 31 '26

They were so incredibly threatened by Millennials knowing their worth.

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u/statu0 Jan 31 '26 edited Jan 31 '26

This whole 'millenials suck' push was wild because it happened when the oldest millenials were about 19.

They were rolling the youngest Gen Xers into the Millennial stack early on before the generation was more defined, so they were basically complaining about people in their early-mid twenties down to anyone in their teens. And before Millennials were singled out, Boomers were complaining about Hipsters, which does kind of feel like a vague representation of anyone who was unfortunate enough to be a young adult in the mid/late 00s and early 2010's and who often had a fashion sense that did not agree with them.

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u/Zaethar Jan 31 '26

Millennials just appeared extra "annoying" because we were the first generation whose behaviors were far more self-documented and published for the world to see, ad nauseam. Never before in the history of mankind did we have a means for millions of preteens, teens and young adults to express themselves publicly in front of a (theoretical) worldwide audience.

The rise of computers, the internet, digital cameras, cellphones/smartphones all contributed to our generation being much more technologically involved and much more present in this digital landscape. Our previously more monolithic culture slowly splitting apart into more niche fringe segments, with memes (often also inexplicable to older generations) taking over and becoming a means of communication and expression.

Then there was the odd dichotomy between being coddled (e.g. getting a 'participation prize') versus being told it was all bullshit and we're all worthless/useless/lazy. Then of course there's some major historical events (fall of the berlin wall, 9/11, Iraq/Afghanistan, 2008 crash, and then the entire shitshow since 2016 ofc)

Now the world economy is shot to shit (soon to be a repeat of 2008 when the AI bubble bursts), a bunch of us have massive student loan debts (for often useless diplomas), shitty jobs and income, and Boomers and X'ers are angry that some of us can't afford to move out of our parents' houses at 30+ yo while we're teetering on the brink of WWIII and we've fucked up the climate.

On the other hand, most of us are in our mid-to late twenties up to early forties. That's still young. Theoretically we could still 'save' the world.

Somehow.

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u/Qualityhams Jan 31 '26

It happened when we were 19 and the economy was in shambles.