10 things we need to stop blaming millennials for

Millennials catch a notoriously bum rap.

True, we pay way too much attention to the Kardashians, sext, and #YOLO unabashedly, but every generation makes mistakes. Remember shoulder pads?

In all seriousness, though, millennials get blamed for a lot more than embarrassing fashion faux pas. It would appear the one thing we're best at is being older generations' scapegoat. But one thing our critical elders seem to forget is that millennials were born into a particularly bizarre set of cultural, political, and economic circumstances that we had absolutely nothing to do with.

Here are things we need to stop blaming millennials for, right now.

Oh, you mean the recession I graduated into in 2009? The one that prompted the dean of my university to send a letter of apology to his students, and warn them to learn a trade “they could do with their hands”? Right.

Fact: The Great Recession didn’t happen overnight. It started back in the mid '80s when consumer spending grew perilously high, and low interest rates and subprime mortgages created a housing bubble that was just begging to burst. What were millennials up to at the time? Being born.

...Or what Vanity Fair called the “dating apocalypse.”

Millennials aren’t exactly known for their ability to commit, whether it’s to a steady job (we’ll get to that later) or a romantic partner—and mobile apps and online dating sites haven’t exactly helped our cause. But digital dating doesn’t have an age limit. Millennials aren’t the only ones swiping, as those of us who have had to adjust our age preferences on Tinder know all too well.

And while it’s true that millennials are generally waiting longer to settle down, it’s actually baby boomers who are behind the increasing divorce rate. So what’s worse: hooking up for a while and parting ways, or getting married too young, having children, and then getting a divorce?

Keep in mind: One of the reasons we're waiting to get married is because it’s hard to pay for a wedding, let alone support a child, when you’re still paying off your student debt.

Millennials are the most overeducated and underemployed generation in history. Society's knee-jerk explanation for this is that we’re lazy or unwilling to tough it out at a job we don’t love.

But we’re not lazy, and we’d be happy to tough it out—if it weren’t for the repeated layoffs millennials face as a result of the recession we didn’t cause. That's not to mention the fact that we’re also getting paid less, or at least less than our parents did at our age. In pursuing higher education, millennials entered the workforce later on, and our salaries lagged as a result.

Millennials are also a part of what’s been dubbed “Generation Rx.” While baby boomers had their fun with marijuana, cocaine, hallucinogens, and maybe the (not-so) occasional Quaalude, our generation is relying more heavily on Big Pharma to get high.

Prescription drugs are often easier to get a hold of, and because they’re regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, users feel more secure with what they’re getting. If millennials’ dependence on prescription drugs proves anything, it’s that the War on Drugs failed, and neglected to take on our homegrown cartels: pharmaceutical companies.

What's more, millennials aren’t just self-medicating for fun. Stimulants like Adderall are being used for their performance-enhancing effects, whether at school or work. This raises the question: What kind of society are we living in that young people feel they need pills to succeed, and what can we do to change that? Those are the questions we should be asking, but we choose to blame the victims of a flawed system instead.

After four years of freedom, the last thing any post-grad wants to do is boomerang back to Mom and Dad’s house. But you don’t have much of a choice if you can’t find a job, and earning your degree has put you in severe debt.

Home-cooked meals are great, but so is having sex without your parents walking in on you. Trust us when we say moving back home was not our first choice.

Millennials are notorious for their perceived self-absorption. The generations before ours didn’t take photos of themselves, but then again, it’s harder to photograph yourself without a reversible-camera function.

Narcissism isn’t a millennial problem; it’s a youth problem. But the advent of social media has definitely dialed up this stereotypical adolescent tendency. And for all that self-obsession, we don’t seem to be as keen on ourselves as people think. Millennials have internalized society's criticism, and are more likely to “ascribe negative stereotypes of themselves” than other generations, according one study.

Older generations accuse millennials for thinking that the world owes us something. But maybe this sense of entitlement is a healthy dose of resentment for having inherited a shattered economy, a planet on the brink of environmental collapse, and the responsibility to fix it.

The only thing millennials feel entitled to is a chance, but it appears we’re going to have to fight a little harder for that.

Despite our inability to pay rent and the ability to turn a mason jar into just about anything, society believes millennials consume mindlessly.

So which one is it? Are we unemployed, basement-dwelling freeloaders, or are we titans of mass consumption? While neither is entirely true, most of us simply can’t afford to waste our resources.

In one study, which compared the aspirations of baby boomers, gen-Xers, and millennials, ours was the generation found to be the most apathetic about the environment. Upon closer observation, however, the study was based on the responses of high school seniors and college freshmen—not exactly the fairest demographic on which to judge an entire generation.

It’s not that we don’t care, but we are a little burnt out. How can you expect a generation to mobilize on the issue of climate change, when we can’t even get U.S. Congress to do that? Also, the study was based largely on participants’ self-assessment, not objective markers of environmental activism. If the study proves anything, it’s that baby boomers and gen-Xers have higher opinions of themselves.

Social media gives some people the impression that millennials are nothing but worthless Internet trolls. And while we do spend a lot of our time online, it’s because the world has gone digital.

Social networking is an invaluable asset to getting ahead in life; we’re doing our best with the tools we have to make something of ourselves. In the absence of financial stability and a strong job market, we rely heavily on the Internet to find jobs, market ourselves as young professionals, and even start businesses.

Millennials aren’t lazy—we were born into a drought of opportunity. Success as it was prescribed by the American Dream isn’t realistic for us. Life has different rules now: Getting a degree doesn’t help you get a job, and any job you get will probably pay you relatively less than it would have 10 or 20 years ago. Millennials are expected to succeed in the way our parents did, but we’re also charged with the unique responsibility of trying to figure out how to do that ourselves.