17 Things Gen Z Wants Millennials To Know, And Some Of Us Might Need A Minute
I liked being a millennial more when we were the young people everyone was complaining about. At least then I could blame my problems on someone older. Now younger people have opinions about us, and I’m supposed to read them on the same phone I use to look up why my shoulder hurts.
It seems that some of the things we consider harmless are getting on Gen Z’s nerves. I’d like to defend us, but I’ve also caught myself being surprised that someone born in 2000 has a full-time job. That’s probably something I need to work on.
These Gen Z responses cover what they wish millennials understood, what they’d like us to stop doing, and a few things we supposedly have in common. Some are fair. Some feel personal. I’ll try to handle both like an adult.
1. The Screen-Time Lecture Goes Both Ways
“I love how millennial parents pretend to hate devices for kids, but are the first ones to hand their kids a phone the second they need them to behave in public. They won’t magically learn how to behave unless you actually teach them.”
—Anonymous
“The constant hate toward kids glued to their phones. That’s not Gen Z, babe — that’s Gen Alpha. The generation YOU’RE raising.”
—Anonymous, 22, Oregon
2. One Coworker Has Thoughts About Younger Millennials
“I try not to take part in generational arguments, but…I work with a lot of the younger millennials, and they are honestly the worst coworkers I have, with some of the worst work ethics possible. The older ones are pretty chill, though, so something must’ve happened partway through their generation.”
—u/johnyboy14E
3. The Blink-182 References Have Been Noted
“I poke fun at millennials for their ‘millennialisms,’ like making songs out of literally everything mundane or saying things like ‘omg this’ and Blink-182 references, but overall, I don’t actively hate millennials.”
—u/[deleted]
4. Not Everyone In Gen Z Had The Same Childhood
“I notice a lot of millennials online being ignorantly confident about how they think Gen Z collectively grew up, which is annoying. Like, I notice a lot of millennials gatekeeping older Gen Z from the ’00s, for example (some really can’t tell the difference between someone my age and someone born in 2008? They think we all grew up the same). And for some reason, a lot feel the need to give opinions that seem to fume with a superiority complex on certain topics having to do with Gen Z.”
“Like, I see millennials all over YouTube comments sections basically saying they think it’s because we never had a childhood as to why they think most of us are aging rapidly and things like that. But I feel like they’d be saying that even if we were ‘aging slowly,’ then it’d be ‘Gen Z never played outside, so that’s why they don’t have as many scars and wrinkles as previous generations…’ so I feel stuff like that is just bias. … You may hate on us less than previous generations hated on you, but having a superiority complex is about just as bad, and most millennials seem oblivious to this. A lot of millennials will say they love Gen Z, but then do things like this.”
—u/[deleted]
5. The Pet-Parent Comparisons Aren’t For Everyone
“Guys…honestly, dogs/cats are NOT the same as children. It’s so annoying seeing your videos comparing the two and acting like you’re superior for choosing NOT to have kids. Yes, millennials, we have pets, too; it’s really not that cool, and clearly, it’s not okay to hate babies that much. Being older clearly doesn’t make you better. What a generation…”
—Anonymous
6. Every Trend Doesn’t Need An Origin Story
“Millennials: Stop saying everything we do or say is something you created or started doing first. Most millennials are jealous or think we’re stealing their spark because Gen Z
is setting all the trends, or some of the trends they started in their day, we did better or made it more popular than they did.”—Anonymous, 15, Kentucky
7. The Attempts To Stay Relevant Aren’t Always Landing
“I wish millennials would stop trying to go viral lately. It feels as though everywhere I look, I see some 43-year-old trying so hard to stay relevant to Gen Z and Alpha, but it’s just SO painful to watch. Sometimes, you need to let the past go. Popularity doesn’t matter anymore when you’ve got a grandchild coming home for Thanksgiving after their first semester of college…”
—Anonymous, 24, Texas
8. People Born In 2000 Would Like An Age Update
“When will you guys stop saying that people born in 2000 are still babies or teenagers? Are you really THAT shocked that you NEED to point it out?”
—Anonymous
9. The Generation Labels Are Getting A Little Too Personal
“I think millennials are way, WAY too obsessed with generations and assigning traits to them. It’s cool to see what generations are interested in or act like overall as a sociology thing, but making it part of how you understand everyday life just makes us feel, like, othered, or at worst, like some kind of zoo animal.”
—u/[deleted]
10. Working In IT Gives You A Mixed Review Of Everybody
“I think some millennials can be cool, and others can be cringe, like with any generation. I work in IT, and I deal with plenty of millennials who don’t know the first thing about computers, which bothers me because in today’s day and age, there’s really no excuse not to know the basics at least. I’ve also dealt with others who were the coolest people ever. It really depends on the person, and this isn’t exclusive to millennials.”
—u/SupremeOHKO
11. Having Kids Shouldn’t Require Defending Your Decision
“The fact that a lot of millennials HATE children so much and question everyone who decides to have them, even criticizing Gen Z’ers who want babies.”
“Oh! Almost forgot. Is it really necessary to post videos of babies crying on airplanes? Like…can you guys stop with the cringey and annoying hate already?”—Anonymous, 27, Colombia
12. The Generational Divide Gets Fuzzy Around The Edges
“I fall in the middle, being both millennial and Gen Z, and honestly, younger millennials are really not that different than older Gen Z in terms of interests, lifestyle, and hobbies, as well as childhood. I do think older millennials are a little narcissistic and never really grew up, but that’s just my own bias from my experiences with my older siblings and friends that were born in the ’80s.”
—u/Shiftrye
13. A Short Review That Might Sting A Little
“Some of them are lowkey boomers lol.”
—u/nomoarcookiesthe2nd
14. One Babysitter Has A Lot To Say About Parenting
“Millennials really appear to be horrible parents, raising children that nobody wants to be around. SO MANY children of millennials seem very intellectually stunted, behaviorally challenged, excessively defiant, tech-addicted, and socially inhibited. And then they blame it on the same disability THAT I HAVE, when I can clearly see that parenting is at least part of the issue. Like, no, [a diagnosis of autism and/or ADHD doesn’t automatically explain away every behavior I’ve seen, and parenting still matters]. Maybe YOU’RE the problem. Like, kids from many households seem to have the issues I used to only see in children going through abuse or neglect. You put your safety at risk babysitting these kids. Do better, guys. And you guys of all people should know how wrong it is to give internet access to your child, yet they all have phones and tablets, and you still plaster pictures of them all over social media.”
“I mean, at least Gen X’ers have the excuse of not knowing how that stuff works. Man, I don’t even care about getting downvoted, so many of you are messing up your kids’ ability to make friends and be likable for the rest of their lives, and you don’t even care. Shoutout to the millennial parents who are caring, protective, and involved. But from what I’ve seen, most of y’all aren’t.”
—u/briecheeseoverdose
15. We Have Common Ground Until Someone Says “Doggo”
“Millennials are largely fine. We share a lot of the same struggles. But the ‘doggo,’ cutesy, baby voice thing and thinking exaggerated facial expressions to chipmunked audios is funny will always make me want to curl up into a ball and implode into a fine mote of dust. But that’s not all of y’all.”
—u/Zealousideal_Bunch77
16. Some Life Advice Comes From Watching What Didn’t Work
“On a macro level, there are a lot of things that millennials did wrong that Gen Z is trying to avoid. Leaving home too early and living in an expensive city, taking on huge amounts of college debt instead of considering community college or trade school, being more cognizant of cyberbullying, etc.”
—u/MateTheNate
17. The Last Complaint Got Some Millennials To Agree
“I think that many millennials have been pretty politically lazy, which is a bit bigger issue than being poor at reading. You like to complain and act like you’re playing a big game, but you’ve done literally nothing to try to improve anything. Even the boomers managed to accomplish something.”
—u/johnyboy14E
“This is kinda our thing lol. We talk LOUDLY but never actually DO anything. Whereas Gen Z is much more likely to (quietly) DO something.”
—u/LifeDeathLamp
“Honestly valid. I think we bought in completely when we were told everything would turn out OK if we did things the ‘right’ way — and it made us cowards when it comes to doing things the risky way, which is the only way real change happens. Also, a lot of us didn’t even vote.”
—u/Fibroambet
h/t: BuzzFeed