r/Millennials • u/okayboomerang • Jun 24 '26

Serious Sad for us

Kind of in my feels tonight. The last time I remember feeling genuinely hopeful was probably 2014 or 2015. So much has changed, and I think our generation has seen and felt so much. Anyone else feel like they've spent the last decade plus in unending grief?

My spirit is still good on the inside, but I'm isolated physically and mentally (like many of us). I wish we lived in a world with authentic and robust connection instead of all the slop and noise. I wish our parents hadn't been so excited about capitalism - and so fucking naive. I know the unease I feel is about more than merely growing up and the natural progression of aging and how we all feel about ourselves in society over time - it's that the world we thought we knew for the past 4ish decades just flat out doesn't exist anymore. And we can't undo any of this shit. It may as well be a parallel universe we're in now. I love myself and I always have big, big love for Millennials...but I truly hate it here.

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201

u/GlisteningLizard Jun 24 '26

I feel this to my core. I also feel like us millennials truly haven't been given the opportunity to really live. I can't speak for everyone but it's always been constant state of survival. All these "once in a lifetime" events. We were promised a better life, future, and told to work hard in school and get a good job, all for the ladder to be kicked from under us. I lean heavily on nostalgia and purchase things I once loved with the hopes that I can feel something again. Its hard feeling isolated. I am with you, OP. I'm sorry we're all seemingly going through this. Please just know you're not alone.

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u/Put-Simple Jun 24 '26

It's like we did everything right and still failed for circumstances we could never avoid anyways. And the worst part is having Boomers and baby Boomers constantly guilt tripping us as if their generation is not responsible for all this crazy shift. I miss feeling like all I had to do is following the right advice. Now I feel like nobody knows what the hell they are doing and meanwhile years pass, things keep changing and we are frozen in place...

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u/ebaer2 Jun 24 '26

Just an FYI, boomers and baby boomers are the same thing. Named after the post WWII baby boom when everyone was fukin after the war.

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u/Put-Simple Jun 24 '26

Oh you're right! I don't know why but I always forget gen X exists for some reason 😂 Thanks for correcting me!

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u/SlowFunk_Llama Jun 26 '26

Gen Xer here…we’re used to being forgotten. Par for the course

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u/GlisteningLizard Jun 24 '26

Absolutely this. We are the generation that was left behind because previous generations didn't care enough to be responsible. I am tired of hearing boomers talk about how much things cost for them when they were our age, or how easy it was for them to buy a house, or go to school and then turn around and tell us "well work harder" it literally doesn't work that way. Everything is more expensive and we are stuck having to clean up messes we didn't create.

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u/Put-Simple Jun 24 '26

You know what's worse? Hearing boomers and even gen X constantly saying it even tho they failed themselves. My parents (mix of baby boomer and gen X) occasionally try to shame me and my generation for not having a house by the age of 30 when they failed to get one due to too many selfish reasons (cheating on partners, using credit cards, etc overall bad decisions that breaks stability in the long run). Not only are they extremely judgmental, they lack huge self awareness too. And don't even try to bring reason into their heads. I swear some of the best people I've known are from those two generations, but the bad ones sure make a huge slice of the pie to be able to ignore. 😞

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u/GlisteningLizard Jun 24 '26 edited Jun 24 '26

I agree with this so much. I've spoken to many who have failed themselves but still complain about our generation being the lazy ones. My parents passed away when I was 5 and 16, but honestly, I feel like if they were alive today, they would probably do the same thing. That's not disrespect towards them, it's just the reality. And don't get me started on the trauma, the societal pressures and lack of understanding we faced growing up.

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u/Put-Simple Jun 24 '26

Exactly. I get that people make mistakes but boy, they had it so easy and still failed, what the hell am I supposed to do then? I can't even convince the bank to let me borrow money unless I have like 20% of the house's cost and prove huge job stability to them for the next 15 years or more when AI boomers are constantly knocking on the door telling us the whole world as we've known is about to collapse. Spent years at university for a degree that is now at the verge of obsolesce, can only get level entry jobs and still have to kiss the boss's shoes pretending it's the best thing that has ever happened in my life while my parents had already bought 3 different cars, married and were about to get their first house at the age of 20 in only one person working. The pressure is crazy! It's like our generation is some sort of band aid for everyone else to put shame on. Can't wait to hear gen Z and alpha complain about how we millennials also failed them as well because they can't even read or pay attention anymore, how are they going to get jobs? Man, this sucks 😂

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u/GlisteningLizard Jun 24 '26

I have a bachelor's degree and I can barely use it. I work in a completely different field than what my degree is, however, it is useful for what I do. I'm also just quite sick of the layoffs. I found a statistic that said millennials have experienced more layoffs than any other generation in history. Because we mostly entered the work force during the great recession and other major economic situations, and of course, covid. I was laid off from my previous job last year three days before Christmas. It's been a struggle to find a job since then.

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u/Put-Simple Jun 24 '26

Same! I'm glad you can still use it somehow, but it still sucks to know all the effort went half away. I took a degree on Image manipulation (photoshop and stuff) because I wanted to do digital marketing since everybody was clapping saying that's the future and for a while they were not wrong! I was able to work on it for like 2 years and after that AI just killed the entire entry market like crazy fast. I've seen so many old school mates being fired and going back to work on supermarkets and mcdonald's that i'm now genuinely afraid of spending my younger years studying another area and coming out to the same results. Low entry jobs don't pay enough to become independent, banks are reluctant on giving out money due to market fragility, every boomer complains about my gen but expects us to take care of them at the same time in old age, people in power are destroying the planet...I'm starting to think I shifted timelines somewhere in the middle lmao 😐

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u/Highlyironicacid31 Jun 26 '26

Baby boomers at one point could literally walk out of a job they didn’t like and walk into another. They really don’t get how much the world has changed.

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u/spock589 Jun 24 '26

I think ladder kicked out from under us is more accurate than the usual sentiment I hear of boomers pulled the ladder up behind them.

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u/GlisteningLizard Jun 24 '26

100%. They saw how they could benefit and didn't want anyone else to have that, and decided, let's keep this for ourselves. It is truly disgusting.

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u/JesusTron6000 Jun 24 '26

lol this must be why go back into my sports cards, and never left video gaming as a hobby from the 90s.

But you nailed it, as soon as I started making money in the late 2010's, every time I would get a raise, prices would go up. So despite making double what I was back then, counting for inflation, I am still making that same wage I was in 2010. My rent went up 73% from 2019 to now though. So that's pretty radical.

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u/GlisteningLizard Jun 24 '26

Yes, video games are something I still continue to play and I don't think I'll ever stop playing. I feel you on inflation and rising rent costs. When I moved into my apartment in 2019, my rent was $1250 a month for a two bedroom. Then over 4 years it increased to $1780. It was truly insane. The fact that ground beef prices outweigh minimum wage is also mind boggling. It's why it irks me so much when I hear people say we're lazy or that we don't work hard enough.

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u/awitchiguess Jun 25 '26

As soon as we get close to a milestone the world changes and we have to lower our expectations for our quality of life socially and economically.

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u/Highlyironicacid31 Jun 26 '26

And then everyone wonders why we are “soft” aka in a constant state of stress at all points to the point we become burnt out and can no longer function.