We're all millennials here

TotalSororityMove.com, a blog about college life, recently posted an article called “Why Our Generation Needs an Ass-Kicking, Pronto.”

The article was posted on my news feed by several of my friends. It’s written by what I assume is a sorority girl, given the blog title. And it decries the Millennial generation and our apparent constant need to drink and party and take things for granted.

Now, I will say that Millennials are not without their faults.

We’re a young generation in the midst of figuring it out, and, for many of us, cleaning up after the Greatest Generation and Generation X’s mistakes.

We do tend to take things for granted. Any fan of “American Horror Story” will remember Emma Roberts stony-faced and cigarette smoke infused speech about how we don’t feel, that we are immune to real emotion and that we have a sense of  entitlement the size of a flat screen television.

But I can’t believe that’s true. Total Sorority Move claims that “study after study” has proven that we don’t care about anything at all.

I beg to differ.

Millennials are the first real “modern” generation. Our world is fast-paced and information filled. Yes, we live on ramen and vodka. We’re used to ease, and we’re used to making things easy.

But we are not a generation that cares less — in fact, we’re almost a generation that cares more.

We’re environmentally aware and socially conscious. We have the ability to tap into a constant ebb and flow of information, which means we’re not “sloppy and arrogant,” but in the middle of an information overhaul and mastering new patterns of social behavior and interaction.

In essence, we live in a world that previous generations struggle to understand, and, if I may remind anyone who sang peace songs in protest of Vietnam, we’re not the first younger generation that older generations fail to comprehend.

But we don’t need an ass-kicking, as Total Sorority Move recommends.

“Some people” do not “need to suck it up and stop whining about making copies at their internships.” There are Millennials putting themselves through college. Millennials who work three jobs to support younger siblings or sick family members. Millennials starting companies and charities.

Yes, we like a good party. But simplifying us down to a stereotype ignores the work we are doing.

We’re not going to ruin the world. If anything, we may fix it.

— ewenning@indiana.edu

Follow columnist  Emma Wenninger on Twitter @EmmaWenninger.