Hi there. My name is Generation Y. I was born between 1980-94. If you are of the traditionalist or baby-boomer generations, I expect that you are a bit worried about my place in the world today. I like alternative rock music, thrift stores and video games. I’m on anti-depressants, and I am still in debt from being unable to monetize my liberal arts degree that I earned almost a decade ago. I rent a room in a three bedroom apartment and have virtually no chance of purchasing a home in the foreseeable future as two salaries are required for that, while my salary – due to the inflation that you caused – barely qualifies as one.
It’s fair to say that I’m a bit of a mess. I like to think, however, that I am an organized mess.
Why am I such a mess? This is largely a matter of perception, for we have different values. You value hard work while I value passion. You value family while I value personal freedom. You value tradition while I value new ideas. We couldn’t seem more different on the surface, and therefore, as the moment creeps nearer, you are extremely hesitant to hand down the torch of society to me. All of your feelings are completely justified, and even I can admit that much of what you do works. You’re right about a lot. I am here to convince you that things will work out just fine despite out differences. I may have led you to believe otherwise because I’ve asked of your values “why?” Hence my name, but that very question is what will keep society afloat for the next few decades. Allow me to explain.
First, I’m trying my best to live a life that is meaningful and unique, and, without discrediting your values, I question whether your path should become mine. I see the world as a place of possibilities rather than inevitabilities, and the difference in our values not as “mine-not-yours” but rather as “mine-then-yours.” Don’t worry, you’ll get your grandchildren – just fewer of them and later than you’d like. I want it all, and I think I can have it. I’m a dreamer, but I am also aware of the utility and importance of your values. It is taking me a while, however, to find balance between them. This balance is necessary, as the next point will show.
Secondly, the world is changing quickly, and my logic suits it. Technology is evolving at a much faster rate than our brains can, and however unfortunate, this is having a harder impact on my future everyday. I often praise it, for it allows me to entertain myself and work freelance from home in my pajamas while I order food to be delivered right to my door. You see that as a threat to the value of hard work, and that is often correct, but what constitutes work in the first place is changing. I’m doing my best to adapt to this shift to an extent that you don’t need to.
Thirdly, my conditioning, due in part to your well-intentioned attempt to protect me, has led me into the forest without a flashlight. As a child, I was often rewarded for participating incompetently. I left a box in your attic full of green ribbons to prove it. You knew that wasn’t true, so you reassured me that in the case that I could not make things work on my own, you would pick up the slack. I’m grateful for that, sincerely, as it has given me short-term security, but you have overcompensated for my delayed success; I still have to take responsibility for my long-term ends. I am having to cut myself off since you didn’t have the heart to do it when I was 22. I’m sorting through the mess, finally, and I’m even teaching myself to cook out of necessity just to save money – a skill I could have learned from you.
We’re different, yes, but we’re also the same. I didn’t grow up like my little cousins in Generation Z are doing right now, having had an iPhone from age 12 and forming personal identities through others’ verification on social media. I’m only minimally influenced by it. Gen-Z, however, is a lost cause in that regard. They are lazy, have no practical skills, use GPS on their phones to get to the vape shop and will gladly pay $9 for avocado toast at the Internet cafe on the corner. They have no sympathy for tradition nor understanding of the depth of your values. They’re too far removed from them. Who is parenting them anyway? Oh yeah, Generation X. Let’s not mention them.
Unfortunately, Gen-Z isn’t simply going away, and that means I have a job to do: serve as the mediator between your generation and theirs. I understand and can get through to both sides. As long as I take over the world before they do, perhaps even through negotiating with them, then I can guarantee that it won’t come to an end just yet. Just sit back and relax, for your job is done. Trust me like the greatest generation trusted you (for better or for worse), and let me organize my own mess. You have no other choice.
Overthought Consulting 