I Know Every Generation Shakes Their Fist At The Last But...

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Okay the last couple of posts have been about things that bug me and people seem to like that, but I'm feeling sort of emotionally burnt-out after talking about racial disenfranchisement and the slow decline of Detroit so how about pet peeves, things that get an emotional reaction out of me but don't require the same amount of thought as active investing, bankruptcy and the prison-industrial complex.

Hey you know what I hate? These kind of articles, the Generation Y consists of a bunch a do-nothing slackers articles.  I'm tired of this kind of thing and want to nip it in the bud, and seeing as this humble blog post is probably not going to do it ... eghhhh.

I hate them for all sorts of reasons lets start with the obvious. They're insulting.  And they are so for absolutely no reason. I'll get to that in a sec. Anyway they're the same sort of mean girl talk you see in high school except they're from "media professionals" who by all accounts have better things to write about, again more on that in a sec.

Now for the record I've seen a lot of these done well... when they have something to say about about how aggregate trends and the youth demographic can have concrete consequences. For instance every now and again The New York Times will run an article about how my generation drives less and how it is having or will have an impact on the automotive industry and how roads are funded.

Most of these aren't that though. They're cathartic fist waving at the intern who decides to text you rather than pick up the phone. Or self-righteous aggrandizing image perpetuation about how boomers have their shit together and millennials don't.  And I wouldn't have a problem with that if they were a little self aware about it, but they aren't.

They do it because they feel they can get a way with. Let's face it for most of the magazine/websites that pull this crap, their lead demographic are the middle aged office crowd for whom old man fist waving strikes a chord. It's cheap pablum that its audience will eat up.

Which is what I have more of a problem with than it perpetuating stereotypes about the young.  Half of these have the gall to call my generation lazy and unmotivated in articles that are being kicked out solely because they're easier than going out and doing real reporting.

Hey look, I get it. Sometimes a slow newsday is a slow newsday, and budget and staff reductions are budget and staff reductions, but every now and again could you just write about a skateboarding dog or something?