Lazy, entitled, spoiled. These are just some of the words I keep hearing whenever people are talking about my generation.
High school has given me the opportunity to meet incredible, hard working people. Hearing so many people from older generations describe us in such a way feels like we are all just set out for failure from the start and no matter how much effort we put in, we are going to be seen as lazy.
There are many issues with that type of thinking. One of such issues is that sometimes people are unable to see the flaws in societal norms and ideas they were always taught to see as completely fine and normal.
One of the unique aspects of the young generations is they are just learning the world and societal structures, which arguably makes them more objective than any other generations. Instead of focusing on how everything has worked up until now, they tend to focus on how they feel everything should work.
There are many concepts that society once viewed as normal that changed due to people finally breaking the cycle that was instilled in our society for ages. Merely decades ago people still considered racism, sexism, etc., to be completely normal.
Another important aspect to consider is how pointless it is to be spending so much time comparing one generation to another.
What people tend to not take into consideration is that every generation faces different challenges and it is simply impossible to compare them to each other. The whole point of growing as a person is learning from mistakes and fixing them.
Invalidating someone’s effort just because they were fortunate enough to not have to face some struggles the older generation had is not achieving what it intends to achieve. It is possible to acknowledge the challenges our parents had to face and be grateful for not having to face them without making it seem like our generation does not have to face any hardships in life.
The cycle of one generation growing up and criticizing the younger generations is never ending.
The use of the term “lazy” to describe people my age is not at all reasonable.
With every generation, kids are starting to learn at a younger age than most kids typically used to. Every generation keeps improving on skills that the previous generations may not have been as good at.
The people I see on a daily basis are a part of my generation, but the last word I would use to describe them is lazy. I know so many people who wake up early just to go to practice before school, go to numerous AP classes, potentially go to practice or play a game after school, and then go to work.
Everyone has a different definition of lazy, but this description does not fit mine. This also does not mean that any generation before ours had it easier. Acknowledging the struggles the younger generations did not have to face, while giving them credit for the struggles they do face is not mutually exclusive.
