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Humans tend to unconsciously do what we do best in response to the imminence of change and diversity among us: we chunk, categorize and label.\u00a0 <\/span>We do this to just about anything. This way, our brains have an easier time processing information. <\/span><\/p>\n One way we do this is between generations of people. <\/span><\/p>\n We take a major division of people who were born around a certain time, give them a name and then, develop a range of stereotypes that negatively reflect that generation in order to make other generations feel implicitly superior.<\/span><\/p>\n I started looking into the history of generation shaming after becoming exasperated with the negative rhetoric towards millennials. <\/span><\/p>\n Generation shaming dates all the way back to a Greek poet named, Hesiod. <\/span><\/p>\n He states, \u201cI see no hope for the future of our people if they are dependent on the frivolous youth of today.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n Sound familiar? Baby boomers are spoiled hippies, Generation X are a bunch of lazy slobs and of course, Millennials are whiny snowflakes.<\/span><\/p>\n Why do we always have to pick on the newbies? Especially when the generation who is doing the picking, is the one who raised that so-called failing generation. <\/span><\/p>\n I believe that generation shaming is an excellent way to get a bunch of independent free-thinkers to shut up. <\/span><\/p>\n When I reflect on my generation as a whole, I don\u2019t experience what the media is talking about. <\/span><\/p>\n I feel that millennials are following a similar pattern to what many generations have done before them. Taking advantage of the latest technology, learning to educate ourselves more proficiently and making the world a more loving, accepting\u00a0 <\/span>place.<\/span><\/p>\n When millennials advocate for equality, LGBT rights and cultural acceptance, people use this as fuel to say we are just creating \u2018problems that don\u2019t exist,\u2019 but I believe that we are simply addressing the problem that got swept under the rug. <\/span><\/p>\n We can\u2019t expect our parents\u2019 generation to fix everything and what doesn\u2019t get fixed usually becomes tradition, and we know how people become attached to tradition.<\/span><\/p>\n As developing generations grow up with a fresh pair of eyes, we identify things that we see unfit to continue on and guess what us young and lazy generations do\u2026 we fight it. <\/span><\/p>\n Our fight for change is not always an easy request for a lot of adults. They try to shut millennials down by claiming we are over dramatic crybabies, which has worked for them a few times. <\/span><\/p>\n I see some millennials even turning on their own generation, so they might have the chance to escape the stereotype.<\/span><\/p>\n Another thing millennials have fought for is empathy. I am proud to say my generation has been on the frontline fighting to end the stigma around mental illness. Opening the doors, so those who are not okay can get help. <\/span><\/p>\n Millennials have been fighting for the right to help transgender people feel safe, to end slut-shaming and to abolish the norms around rape culture, but we are not usually met with support. <\/span><\/p>\n It\u2019s easier to not have to take our arguments seriously, when you can just call us \u2018snowflakes\u2019, right? <\/span><\/p>\n One day it\u2019s going to be us millennials in charge and we have a lot to learn. So instead of fighting with baby boomers over who is more valuable to society, I would see great worth in communication that acknowledges the others competence and opinions with respect.<\/span><\/p>\n Every generation has important knowledge and skill that deserves to be taken seriously, whether that\u2019s from a traditionalist baby boomer or a liberal millennial.<\/span><\/p>\n Hannah Hamlin<\/strong> Humans tend to unconsciously do what we do best in response to the imminence of change and diversity among us: we chunk, categorize and label.\u00a0 We do this to just about anything. This way, our brains have an easier time processing information. One way we do this is between generations of people.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10290,"featured_media":14582,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[1727,1729,1407,1384,1728],"class_list":["post-14591","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tartan-news","tag-generation","tag-millenials","tag-my-voice","tag-opinion","tag-shaming"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":false,"source_text":false,"source_url":false},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/Generations.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5s3vR-3Nl","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14591","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10290"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14591"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14591\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14592,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14591\/revisions\/14592"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14582"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14591"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14591"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14591"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nReporter<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"