Millennials have fallen victim to harsh judgements. They’re often labelled as self-centred, lazy and narcissistic – something that's far from the truth. What are millennials? And why, out of all people, are they targeted?
The Millennial Generation or Generation Y refers to people born from the early 1980s to the early 2000s. There are several reasons why they're accused of being narcissistic. Parents are being blamed for focusing on lifting the self-esteem of their children whenever they fail at something. According to those who place the blame, it essential to give the child a taste of failure. Not experiencing failure promotes excessive confidence; overconfidence can lead to vanity.
I agree that children should be allowed to experience failure to excel, but lifting someone’s self-esteem isn’t the equivalent of allowing them to fall in love with themselves and not care about their surroundings.
According to an article based on a study posted on Forbes, Fred Tuffile, the director of Bentley University's entrepreneurial studies programme in Massachusetts, stated: "Millennials are realising that starting a company, even if it crashes and burns, teaches them more in two years than sitting in a cubicle for 20 years."
That seems to prove that even if the people who raised this generation like to focus on the self-esteem of their children, it hasn't caused them to live in fear of failing. On the contrary, it made millennials unafraid of taking risks.
The popularity of social media is also a factor. The phenomenon of taking a selfie and posting it online cannot be denied. People started calling those who took such pictures self-centred. The spread of a fake article that was allegedly published by the American Psychiatric Association didn't help either, stating that taking selfies is a sign of having a mental disorder.
However, there's evidence that the Millennial Generation isn't in such a bad way. The University of Illinois published a 2010 study that stated that egotism isn't related to a specific generation, but to human growth. As a person grows up, they learn to love themselves more than they did when they were younger. That could be the reason why every generation is considered egocentric, until the next one comes along.
Finally, learning to love yourself is only a way to grow into the best version of yourself. No generation can be determined as narcissistic, as it’s impossible for an entire generation to share identical traits.
The way my generation was raised isn’t a reason for it to fear failure. All people fear failure, but the Millennial Generation isn’t using this as an excuse. We're not the narcissistic generation, but the entrepreneurial, risk-taking and inspiring generation.
Alia AlHazami is a student at the American University of Sharjah and the author of the book Alatash.
If you have a good story to tell or an interesting issue to debate, contact Shireena Al Nowais on salnuwais@thenational.ae.
