[dropcap]W[/dropcap]hen I got home after school the other day, my grandpa was talking to my mom in the kitchen. The words “no respect,” “authority,” and “irresponsible” were flying around while the wok crackled. It was fried rice night at my house. When they noticed that I was in the kitchen, he turned to me and said, “I had the rudest encounter with some millennials today at the pharmacy. I certainly hope you’re not like that.”
This made me bristle, because he and my grandma raised my mom and her sisters, and in turn those traditional values were passed down to me and my sisters. They have seen me in public, and I would like to believe that I respect authority and treat others with kindness.
So when I went to go ask my grandpa what on Earth the kids of today did to him, I was given an extensive list: “Obnoxious to the people behind the counter. Making a mess of everything. And when asked to leave by one of the workers, they taunted the workers until they finally did leave.”
Okay Grandpa, that makes my blood boil too. But, in my (and our) defense, not all of us are like that. In fact, some of us want nothing to do with our generation at all.
Millennials can get a bad rap for being rude, rule-breaking, anti-authority kids. But let’s face the facts: we millennials are the ones who are moving into the workforce. We are your future doctors, lawyers, news anchors, and politicians. We are slowly invading your life, and we have no problem sharing it with the world via Twitter.
As millennials, our favourite question is “why?” Why are things structured this way, and why is this person my superior? Barnabas Piper, a blogger for Lifeway Leadership, says that “[millennials] resist the type of authority that originates in a ‘because I said so’ attitude.” Or, simply put, we “resist authoritarianism.” In the past our parents and grandparents relied on the older generation — the ‘authority’ — to be their window to the world because they knew much more.
But, according to blogger Jon Summers, “the power has shifted.” With the Internet, we don’t need authority to provide us with answers if Google can do it faster. And maybe this is where the problem lies: the tide has turned, and we don’t need to rely on our parents for information. In fact, as recounted by Summers, our parents are coming to us for help. Maybe this flattened playing field has made us a little cocky.
Through my upbringing, I have come to shrink at the sight of titles and important people. I understand that some of my fellow peers could care less that they are meeting the police chief or a very important university official, and because of this, I feel like we are suddenly in a time where hierarchy doesn’t matter as much. In the case of technology, the older generation may have a lot to learn from us, but as millennials we have a lot to learn from them as well. The relations between generations shouldn’t be filled with resistance; they should be reciprocal.
So Grandpa, I hope you see that in reality, only a small fraction of my generation fits your description of a millennial. But I urge all my fellow SFU students to really consider the importance of respect, regardless of age or title.
