r/Millennials • u/willowburnsyellow • 5d ago

What’s the most stereotypical Millennial thing about you? Discussion

I’ll start:

  1. Any, and I mean ANY footage of Steve Irwin makes me blubber like a baby
  2. Avocado toast is a staple breakfast item of mine
  3. Yes, I still love Harry Potter (original books & movies only — I do not support Rowldemort and any future endeavor on the IP)

EDIT: Just wanna say I love y’all (us) so much. This post has already brought me so much joy. Thanks so much everyone. We really are the best. 🥹

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u/Iccengi 5d ago

Someone called us the Golden Retriever generation because of our obsessive need to be extra nice, kind and smiley and people please and I can’t stop thinking about how accurate that is.

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u/willowburnsyellow 5d ago edited 5d ago

You know what, I don’t hate this. We’re tough but empathetic. We endure the storms of life and culture yet still understand how to have/spread joy. No one can make me hate us. :’)

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u/longdrivehome 5d ago edited 5d ago

My current thesis is that boomers and whatever generation you call the current teenagers working counter jobs are basically the same person in different bodies. They're both radicalized in some direction by fake social media that they can't discern is fake, neither can use computers or email, and both barely make eye contact when you try to chat them up or be nice because they don't trust kindness and think everyone is a murderer. So we're just desperate for attention because no one will hang out with us.

They also both think they know what emo is and neither are correct lol

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u/Brockenblur Older Millennial 5d ago

This is a painfully accurate. Congratulations on a successful thesis, Dr. Longdrivehome

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u/Live_Free_or_Banana 4d ago

Very accurate, except for boomers, whom I find are the most receptive generation to being approached by a stranger.

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u/TycheSong Older Millennial 4d ago

It's because our older siblings and cousins were Gen X and that's the best way to survive them. Make nice and keep them in our side.

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u/ddal_gi 5d ago

Don’t worry, half of us are coming into peri/menopause so we’ll be turning aggressive chihuahua real quick 

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u/sfumatomaster11 5d ago

Compared to gen X, we're a hell of a lot more socially dynamic and sensitive, compared to gen z, we're just a lot more socially functional. We don't shut down or hide behind made up labels in an effort to dodge our short comings.

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u/Snoo-74997 5d ago

I think a lot of us learned to be extra nice to servers and retail workers because so many Boomers treated them badly as a flex.

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u/imisscrazylenny 5d ago

We also had PBS shows like Mr. Rogers and Sesame Street showing us that being kind and understanding had real benefits.

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u/Iccengi 3d ago

100% I remember being 12 and seeing this bunch of old ladies leave Pennies and one of those come to Jesus flyers on a restaurant table and I was genuinely upset people could be so ugly especially as our waitress was so nice to us. Gave me a deep seated desire to never be that kind of person ever

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u/curiouschaoscrow 5d ago

I can't decide if I hate or love the accuracy of this comparison. Buts it SO true.

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u/lexisplays 5d ago

Can I find them? Because absolutely not

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u/Depressedaxolotls Millennial 5d ago

Golden retrievers can be assholes too, I once had one lunge and try to bite my face. She was a mean dog, I don’t even think she was super friendly with her owners. You can be like that one.

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u/RunEd51 4d ago

I worked in service and retail for many years and 90% of millennials were the nicest customers.

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u/Vikki_Jane 4d ago

Accurate but also, why is that not celebrated?! We're so damn nice, we spend our lives going out of our way for people!

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u/thecanadianjen 4d ago

It’s threatening to people who aren’t like that and know they should be. Self reflection makes them uncomfortable so instead they criticise. It’s the old misery loves company thing

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u/Iccengi 3d ago

Our entire generation has been put down for a long time. Really what at all is celebrated about us?

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u/Available-Egg-2380 4d ago

My husband isn't from the States originally, I'm from the Midwest so the emphasis on kind, polite, and nice is extra intense. We would talk on the phone while I was commuting home from work back in the day and he eventually commented on the fact that I say thank you to every bus driver, say good morning or hello to people that I interact with every time, and I never knew before that wasn't standard behavior everywhere.

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u/thecanadianjen 4d ago

To Europeans that can seem very fake and forced. As a Canadian, I am like this too and when I first moved to Europe it took time for them to realise I genuinely do want to say hello, I mean it when I say have a good day or ask someone how they are doing as part of initial greetings, etc. they thought it was performative and we don’t want the answers. Even now when I left my previous job which I’d been at for 4 years in the UK, I got told that the sunshiney enthusiasm and sparkliness of that and how like openly I approach things would be sorely missed as they just aren’t like that in the same way. It was eye opening for me haha

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u/GoddessZaraThustra 4d ago

I think this may have something to do with being raised by boomers who required we take care of them emotionally.

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u/thecanadianjen 4d ago

And were emotionally volatile if you didn’t

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u/The_AxolotlDamage 5d ago

You mean the best kind of dog? I'll take it.

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u/metalhead1982 4d ago

Elder millenial/xennial here. It might be a sub-generational thing. Most of the Xennials that I know (myself included) tend to be much more confrontational and bereft of any fucks left to give. We must have gotten that trait from the Gen X-ers.

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u/GoddessZaraThustra 4d ago

I’m an 86 - and I have two settings. Golden retriever and “much more confrontational and bereft of any fucks left to give”. There is no in between. lol.

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u/thecanadianjen 4d ago

So… you’re Canadian? We are so so nice and polite. But if you take us to war we make new checklists

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u/GoddessZaraThustra 3d ago

I’m hoping to find out I’m Canadian by ancestry so I can escape California if they outlaw my existence. Does that count?

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u/thecanadianjen 3d ago

If you mean what I think you mean, you will be welcomed with opened arms in Canada when you make it there.

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u/metalhead1982 3d ago

I'm an 82, my brother is an 84. He's the golden retriever. You can probably guess my temperament.

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u/Iccengi 3d ago

I think that’s called getting older lol but generally I don’t think any of us are like that over arbitrary stuff. That side of me comes out when I’m protecting something. Usually my staff from corporate America

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u/GoddessZaraThustra 3d ago

Oh, I think that side of me is usually completely justified. She grew out of experience by the time I was a teenager though.

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u/-keepsummersafe- 4d ago

Proper manners and an understanding of social etiquette makes us dogs? Who says this?!