I really don't like generational generalities. I had to say that; it's such a fun alliteration. But seriously, why is it that every ten years we get buried under angry editorials about what losers the newest kids on the block are? Any logical person can reason that it isn't fair to excoriate millions of people over the course of 1,200 words. And yet the cycle continues. Oh, the tumblr generation—they're lazy and that's why they don't have real jobs. Maybe if they weren't so busy making gifs they wouldn't have to make my cappuccino. The worst part about this cycle though, isn't the hollow criticisms. That's not the worst part. It's that they spoon feed it to us, and they use our favorite medium: television.
TV is full of losers. TV losers are different from actual losers. TV losers have good stubble and don't disgust people when they don't shower. TV losers can get away with being terrible friends and generally unreliable. It's because they're lovable. What our television fails to tell us is that in real life they're much less lovable. Nick Miller from New Girl is a perfect example. I've read a multitude of articles criticizing my own generation for our love of Nick Miller. Nick is the classic lovable loser. He doesn't have any money. He doesn't have a good job. He owes his friends absurd amounts of money (another real life issue so casually glossed over). He does laundry once every few months and he doesn't even have a bank account. In spite of all of this, he is able to land the girl of his dreams. What exactly is there to love about Nick Miller? Nothing really, except that we're told he's lovable. Zooey Deschanel's character loves him right? He's loyal, that's gotta count for something right? In real life, when someone owes their friend $1,900 (the actual number from New Girl) they aren't considered lovable and loyal. Loyalty involves paying loans back in the real world.
Don't get me wrong. I'm not hating on television in general. I'm a lover of television and watch far too many shows to admit here. My problem is with the idea of Nick Miller representing our generation. He's paraded out on TV as "lovable" but when we love him—we're criticized. We get told that he "represents the problem with our generation" and "it's no wonder the state our country is in with idols like that" and other nonsense. On top of the obvious flaw: young people didn't create the economic crisis, they're the biggest victims, there is the fact that young people didn't create Nick Miller either. And we shouldn't be criticized for liking him.
We're criticized for liking someone that is portrayed as likeable. That doesn't seem fair to me. It's like giving a child pudding and then getting upset when they like it. Despite what television would have us believe, TV isn't written by young and beautiful people. Young people don't write television shows. Young people are portrayed in television shows. They watch television shows (more than anybody else). They even have opinions about television shows, but they don't write them. So the idea that twenty somethings are at fault for liking Nick Miller, that he somehow represents what our whole society is going to be in ten years, is absurd and unfair.
Can't we all sit back, enjoy good television, and accept that every generation is criticized? Anybody remember Woodstock? Draft dodging? That was all young people then right? I'm pretty sure they all did drugs and wore tie dye shirts and spread STDs. They might have even caused the gas crisis. Or maybe that's just something I saw on TV once.
I'm aware that I refer to everyone who isn't a millenial as "they" and that it's a generalization. I don't think everyone who is older criticizes millennials. I'm only responding to criticisms that have been made.
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