Hey reader,

What a bright, hot and sunny day of 6th of May, hopefully we all get some refreshing breezers out this summer. You already know with the subject of the blog what I am going to talk about, Millennials. For those who doubt what and who are Millennials, these are the people who are born approximately between 1984 and 2004, also known as Generation Y, who are likely to share some traits like tough to manage, narcissistic, self interested, unfocussed, lazy but yet full of talent.

Today’s blog will be mostly an excerpt out of one interview found on internet which I found very influential and motivating. So let’s move on and hope you all get inspired at the end as well.

A big percentage of these Millennials are currently exposed to working at various corporate and social fronts and they confound the leaders too much that the leaders ask them what do they want? Replying to this, the responses are they want to work for some purpose, they want to make an impact and the most interesting ones include “We want free food and bean bags.” But despite of this, some of them who are working for some purpose, get free food and have bean bags, are still unhappy.

If we break it down, there are some missing pieces which make these highly motivated, talented and inspired people unhappy. These pieces are 4 characteristics- Parenting, Technology, Impatience and Environment.

These Millennials, most of them, grow up subjected to failed parenting strategies (not my words). They are taught that they can have anything they want in their life just because they want them, some kids got A’s not because they deserved it but because teachers don’t wanted to get into argument with their parents. Some used to get the participation medals and certificates, i.e. simply getting a medal on coming the last, which in other views, devalues the medal and reward earned by the one who came first and did the hard work.

Then these Millennials, get into colleges and from there they are thrust into the real world. They go to offices. And then, in an instant, they found that they are not special. Their mom’s can’t buy them promotions and they can’t have them just because they want them. The whole self image is shattered and as a result, we have a whole generation living in low self-esteem as compared to previous generations. Another problem is the Facebook-Instagram world which taught us how to put the filters and we live putting the filters of joys and happiness and show that we are having a great time and have everything figured out and in reality, most of us haven’t figured it out and are depressed and unhappy. And it’s their fault, just they are dealt bad hand.

Now, putting in the Technology. This is something I came to know with this interview only. As per a research from Harvard Research Team, using social media and cell phones releases a chemical in our body called, Dopamine. That’s why, when we get a text, we feel good. When people like, react your status, post and pictures, it feels great and then there is trauma for young kids of getting unfriended. So when we feel not much good, we take out our cellphones and starting sending texts.. “Hi.. Hi.. Hi.. Hi.. Hi.. Hi..” and so on to various people because we know we will feel good when we get a response. We know if we get it, we will get a hit of Dopamine which will feel good.

Also, Dopamine is the same chemical which is released and makes it feel good when a person smokes, drinks or gambles. In other words, it’s highly highly addictive. There are age restrictions on smoke and drinks. But there are whatsoever no age restrictions for using cell phones or social media. It’s just like opening up a liquor cabinet and saying to the teens – hey, if this adolescence thing is not going good for you and letting you down! 

Another point to notice is, mostly every alcoholic discovered alcohol when they were teenagers. Why this is important because, when they undergo any stress, rather than turning to a person they turn to a bottle, be it any financial stress, social stress career stress, etc. And now we are having a whole generation addicted to social apps engagements and cell phones, so just wonder, what will their coping mechanism be? Like all addictions, in time, it will destroy relationships, it will cost time, and it will cost money and it will make your life worse.