"Fuck I am tired."
"I am so bloody exhausted."
"I could not get the sleep last night and when I finally did one of the kids came and woke me up because they had vomited in their bed."
"I am so fucking tired...."
"I am tired of my wardrobe. I need to go shopping. Sigh"
This line was uttered by the utterly beautiful PR girl standing with us, spoken while she texted on her iPhone. I asked how old she was. Turns out she was 23.
A few days later, I was travelling in a taxi with my colleague SawHole when the driver, uninvited, let rip about how useless his son was and how after years of sitting on his ass had finally enrolled to go to University to study.... wait for it.... LIBERAL ARTS! He then spewed forth the uselessness of studying philosophy and religion and what was he going to end up doing? Back sitting on the couch. "Bloody Gen Y's!" he proclaimed.
I asked him how old his son was. His son is 22.
This later provoked a discussion between me and Mrs Hole about why Gen Y gets such a bad rap. So I decided to ask the Gen Y that I know best. My sister and blogger Painefull (born 1985, a long, long time after me) who can answer my question. Why do you guys get such a flogging?
Lindsay Lohan
As our most prominent poster girl, Lilo doesn’t do us many favours. To her credit, Mean Girls was superb, to her discredit, she needs to learn to pay for things and drive. The reason we need a former It Girl to define us is because all roles of true leadership are still being hoarded by Baby Boomers (with some Gen Xers squeezing through the cracks to make a name for themselves, grateful for whatever scraps the people who refuse to retire will give them). What’s left to us? If we must focus on a Red Nut as the definition of all things Gen Y, let it be Emma Stone – at least she’s made a decent movie in the past decade.
When people refer to the benefits of Twitter, it’s noted it can bring down tyrants, gives news coverage an entirely new level of currency and allows the subjects of the news to speak to the world minus the lens of our cynical, phone-tapping, soul-eating media. When people refer to the drawbacks of Twitter, it’s usually simply coupled with the phrase “Self-obsessed Gen Y”. If we’re so self-obsessed, why is everybody doing it?
We’re not the generation of self-obsession, this just happens to be the age of self-obsession and we’re merrily leading the charge, blowing the trumpet and packing the bandwagon (Fake tan, check. Hair straightener, check. Apple store worth of products, check-ity check check check).
We were next…
Every generation gets trashed by those that came before it. You don’t understand our music, you’re concerned by our taste in recreational past times, and you think we have a habit of falling for the wrong men. It’s all just a little bit of history repeating.
You are jealous…
We change our minds, a lot. Is that so bad… or are you just a little bit put out that you didn’t have the option? I’m not saying a job a day keeps the climate change away, but this is a world where redundancy is not a dirty word anymore – if we don’t change direction the economy will do it for us. Jobs are booming today in industries that didn’t exist 10 years ago. We might try something for a bit and just not like it – that’s our mistake to make, and these days we’re allowed to do it.
We are idiots…
Ultimately, most of Gen Y (myself very much included) deserve constant servings of I told you so for all the mistakes we make. And then there’s the sub-group that think they are owed everything – sorry about them, they’re complete douches. I have no valid excuse for the truly self-obsessed, the utterly moronic and the completely inept amongst our number.
Gen Y.
Misunderstood? Or Moronic....
