Generation Y

In Response To: Generation

I know I am still the new kid on the block, my writing technique still needs work, and not many people will read this post. But I thought since today’s One Word Prompt from the Community Pool was Generation, I would shed a little light on why I chose to title my blog Welcome to Gen Y and why I sign off every biographical post Girl Y.

You see, my 21st birthday is this Friday (yes, Friday the 13th, please spare me the sympathetic grimaces). Someone once told me that a generation ends every twenty-one years. I do not know if this is true, but I started thinking about my “generation”.

The Millennial Generation or Generation Y  are the people that were born between the years 1980 and 2000 (according to Google. If this is wrong, please feel free to correct me). Due to the rapid progression of technology and our inappropriate usage of said technology, our generation has gotten a bad reputation.

Some of the things I have heard about our generation are:

“They are lazy and do not know how to work for anything.”

“They do no know what discipline is.”

“They are rude, selfish, and narcissistic.”

“Do they even know what a book looks like?”

The list goes on. What people seem to forget is that we did have a life, albeit a short life, without the modern day technology. We grew up with the computers that screamed at us when we connected to the internet, we remember the time of landlines and when cell phones were only for the 1% of the people that could afford them.

What does this say about Generation Y? I think it says we are adaptable, some of us better than others. Some people from the generation caught on really fast. They kept up with the latest texting language, they learned to to quickly evolve their selfie game before selfie was even actual word.

While some youngsters thrived under the demands of this new technology, others only just kind of slid by, barely reaching the minimum requirements of the demands, while others, out of fear, or hate, or pure indifference never really caught up with the technology.

It is also be worthy to note that as children many of us played with baby dolls and toy trucks. We had to use our imagination. Sticks turned into combat weapons and our toy guns actually shot lava at our enemies!! We didn’t have touch screens or  phones to play mini-games on. Later on in life, if we were lucky, we played pinball on one of those “dinosaur “computers.

So before you judge a young person for using their cell phone, or posting a selfie, just remember, we grew up learning about this new technology just like many of the older generation. And just like some older people, some of us adjusted  better than others with what we were given.

I chose to title my blog Welcome to Gen Y because I am proud of when and how I grew up. I want to show the world that not all Millennials are shallow and self absorbed. Some of us are small town girls just trying to live a life.

-Girl Y