Sometimes it seems like every link on the Internet is just another tirade about how lazy and pampered the millennial generation is. PsychologyToday.com recently published an article written by a professor from Boston College about the “resilience” of college students. Peter Gray wrote an increase of calls to mental health services on campuses reflected a weaker class of university students.
This is just another cry in a long list of complaints older generations have about millennials. More often than not, the only real motive of these arguments is comparing students now to the greatest generation in attempts to remind themselves how good at being young they were.
In reality, articles and arguments like these perpetuate a system of squashing millennial innovation to fit a system and standard that is really no longer relevant.
The article cites the professor’s experiences with what he calls an increased neediness in students. What he and so many others who also make this argument fail to realize is the possibility that students today might actually need more. Our fears of failure, which he casually attributes to a culture of coddling, are perhaps better explained by the world we have been raised in and the world facing us once we leave school.
The challenges awaiting students outside the playpen of higher learning isn’t news to anyone. National student loan debt is $1.2 trillion, according to Forbes. This massive number doesn’t even take into account the debt students accumulate through less-traditional borrowing avenues.
The usefulness of an undergraduate degree decreases as prices rise. Graduate degrees are becoming more commonplace even as employers become more concerned with work experience than degrees, meaning the few of us that will be able to find jobs right after graduation will be less qualified for higher paying positions.
The economy and the job market are not problems students are inventing. These issues are the reality of our situation and they are stressful.
In our competitive economy, Ricky Bobby, Will Ferrell’s character from “Talladega Nights,” had it right when he said, “If you ain’t first, you’re last.”
As students, we put pressure on ourselves because, having grown up through a recession, we realize what’s at stake if we don’t.
These pressures aren’t a product of being overly needy or of a fad-like increase in mental health diagnosis, like many — including this article — suggest.
The more society knows about mental health and the role it plays on our efficiency and wellbeing, the more colleges and society as a whole will see the benefit and necessity to create programs and safe spaces where mental issues can be addressed.
Just because we didn’t have these programs 50 years ago doesn’t mean we don’t need them now. As we know more, we can do more. Therefore, we should do more.
I don’t claim to understand all the pressures previous classes and generations dealt with while attending university.
But those same people don’t understand the pressures students today deal with, and it’s time they recognize that. The world has changed, and the best ways to deal with it have changed as well. Stop bashing millennials for doing the best they can in a world no one else has chartered yet.
jordrile@indiana.edu
@riledupids
