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Let me first begin by clarifying a few things:
1. I'm obviously biased considering I fall in to the category of a 'Millennial' at the ripe age of 24.
2. This is strictly opinion and observation, you are absolutely fine to have your own perspective on the matter.
3. This is purposed for discussion. Comments are welcomed as long as they do not contain crass verbiage or contains inappropriate content which does not contribute to the conversation.
4. I'm a psychology major, not an english major, please excuse the grammatical and spelling errors, should they appear. My heart goes out to you little Grammar Nazi's around the world.
So in laying that foundation, let me expound upon my title:
I have heard the phrase "Millennial Entitlement" so often that it has seemingly become accepted truth. This phrase is rather broad and is defined differently based on the source. I am going to lightly define it as a person who spent their adolescence and/or early adulthood in the 2000's. This meaning that they did most of their 'growing up' in a season of human existence where technology was developing at a rapid rate. This is the generation where personal emails became a common thing, cell phones were now being owned by the majority, social media made its debut, and video gaming developed extensively past a single joy stick. We became more connected than ever and yet also less connected.
So going back to the entitlement thing, it is proposed that Millennials are the most entitled generation thus far. I'm not sure who suggested this, but I believe it's fair to say this is pretty commonly accepted. I even opened up my textbook for my marriage and family counseling class this weekend and there was a section about this very topic. I keep hearing this, and hearing this from professors, leaders, media, and common folk on the street complaining and the whole time I'm just like... "What?"
Many fingers have been pointed. Ooh blame social media, televised media, internet, peer pressure, drugs, what have you... but my concern is not necessarily the 'what' because we have not addressed the 'why'. Why is this generation the poster child for entitlement? I would like some factual support for that and not just easily-fabricated statistics.
My husband likes to watch these videos on youtube (doesn't that just sound uber millennial) where people act ridiculous and it gets caught on camera. Most of the time it repulses me, but one evening my ADD got the best of me and I leaned over his shoulder to watch the nonsense. I watched a video of a middle aged woman flip out in a McDonald's over not wanting mustard on her burger and receiving mustard on her burger. This lady was losing her ever-loving mind. Then right after was another video where a beefy older man gets out of his vehicle at a stop light and tries to beat out the window of the person driving behind him. After that a crazed man chewed out a gas station clerk for what I could only understand as his frustration of not having available the right brand of cigarettes in supply. It was disgusting. There were videos of young folks, but also many videos of not-so-young folks and they were all screaming "I want", "you did this to me", "I deserve", and so on... a.k.a. "I'm entitled to..." It appears to me this notion of entitlement is not just an exclusive problem of Millennials, but really a people problem all together.
I used to work retail. It got me through college but I hated it with a passion. Southern shoppers are the worst and I left many days feeling that my faith in humanity was shot. One particular day I was in a great mood. It had been an easy day and I had a manageable flow in my department. About 15 minutes until closing just after they had made the announcement over the intercom a woman (I'd say was about in her 50's) came rolling up to my counter with a cart loaded with clothing items. I said my normal counter mannerisms and began to organize her items to be rang up and bagged. About half way through this process she mentions she has a coupon. "Wonderful, may I see it please, to ring in the system?" She looked around, "it's in the sales ad' she said with a huff. "Well mam, if you are referring to the ad that ran on Sunday, I'm sorry but that sale is already over, it ended on Wednesday." She looked taken aback, "Well no one told me! Just give me another coupon." I wasn't sure what to say, we didn't have any coupons running at the time, certainly none of which I would have ready hand at the counter. "I'm sorry but I don't have one available, are you a store credit card member? You can still receive points for your purchase." She slammed her hand on the counter, looked me dead in the eye and said "You just won't give me the coupon cause you're racist." ............. seriously? "Mam I can assure you that I am not, and that I am not purposely withholding a discount from you...." without even letting me finish she knew which card to play "I want to speak to your manager". At this point I'm fuming, "Gladly! I'll call her now." I call my manger over who tries to speak with the woman. I walked away in to my storage room to try and calm down. I was shaking with anger. I watched through the door window and the woman kept pointing her finger my way, screaming profanities, and then had a toddler-appropriate, temper-tantrum, melt down in front of God and everyone at the front doors. After she stormed out I walked out to meet my manager and help her pick up the clothes thrown about on the floor next to the over turned cart. My manager was empathetic towards me, but ultimately the store patron got exactly what she wanted. She left with an exclusive 20% off coupon that she applied toward her meager purchase that day and for use at another time. I couldn't believe it. I am a behaviorist at heart, and that is exactly what you do to reinforce bad behavior.... but hey, she was 'entitled' to that coupon, so she deserved it.
Everyone wants things, not just Millennials. We would all love free stuff with no penalty. We all think we deserve good things in our life and we all want those things for ourselves. It's not just a millennial concept in my opinion, it is simply learned behavior. It is animalistic survival coming out. It is Freud's ID at it's core. Our dark human nature taking over our morals, values, and beliefs. It is not necessarily limited to one people group. I heard a blog one day t about "What Millennials Want in their Jobs". Every item listed sounded pleasant, but ultimately I was thinking "Who wouldn't want those things if offered?"
And even more so, if you did want to pin this mentality to the Millennials alone, look at it this way; as Isaac Newton put it, "We are standing on the shoulders of giants before us." As Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs would suggest, because the generations before us has worked diligently to make living life easier and most of our basic needs are met, we are now able to pursue self-actualization more than ever before. That's a wonderful thing, and a huge accomplishment for the human race. We can make food grow better and all year round, we can turn garbage in to shelter and fuel, we have better communication and easier access to forming new relationships, we have better life expectancy and higher education levels than before! That's excellent! So maybe Millennials appear to be more entitled because they are finally at a point in history where they can focus on the point of the pyramid more than maybe the generations before them. This may not necessarily be a bad thing.
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Thoughts?
