My argument is surrounded by the question, "Generation Y, ruining the world or changing it?"  Many people of older generations have been saying for years that generation y is filled with self absorbed and lazy people who are going to ruin everything the people before us have accomplished.  However, I am investigating the idea those people have been trying to avoid. Generation Y is changing the world in ways no one has ever imagined and that's what is most terrifying. Generation Y confuses people because people simply don't understand them. Through many sources I have discovered that the members of generation y have grown up in a world like no other generation has grown up in before. They grew up in a time where the Internet and cell phones were a necessity and school shooters and acts of terrorism were happening all around them. Millennials understand that life is precious and you sometime have to be self-absorbed to accomplish certain things in life.  Furthermore, I will argue that people are worried for this generation because they simple do not "get" them. They do not understand how to operate cell phones, all aspects of social media, and the text "lingo". This so called "overly optimistic" generation wants to believe anything is possibly. They have witnessed horrendous acts of hatred and terrorism that were believed to never be possible; so millennials want to believe that acts of unexplainable kindness and dreams can be. Do you blame them? If you have seen the absolute worst, isn't obvious that you would want to believe in the absolute best. So why should people care? At the end of the day generation y is our future, and it does not matter how worried people are for the future they cannot stop it. That leaves two options. People can try to understand and teach this generation how they quite possibly could change the world or they can just keep complaining.

While researching, the most common idea I saw being argued in favor of millennials was how influential people's outlook had on the situation. I first saw it in Time magazines' article "The New Greatest Generation" written by Joel Stein, a millennial who specializes in social interaction; Stein presents facts and data to prove Generation Y is simply filled with "lazy, entitled, selfish and shallow" people. For example, "58% more college students scored higher on a narcissism scale in 2009 than in 1982", he also begins to address the generation as the "me me me generation", to continue the idea that we are the most self-centered generation in history. However, the article shifts when Stein states that we are "the most threatening and exciting generation" and that people are scared of us because they simply don't understand us. The article states "they've just mutated to adapt to their environment", we are the first generation to grow up in time where cell phones and high-speed Internet is a necessity, and mass shooting and acts of terrorism are daily topics. The article continues with arguing that we are great force for positive change. The "me me me generation", is filled with the most optimistic, creative, and stubborn people. We fight for what believe in because we know nothing is handed to you in life and that life is very precious and we have no time to waste. He concludes with the idea that it does not matter what facts you are told, you get to choose if you want to resent the generation no one understands or you can choose to believe they are going to save us from the world we are not willing to accept has changed. The facts depicting the positive and negative effects of generation y are in front of our face and we are fortunate enough to be able to take these facts and evolve our beliefs. For many, the positives are not even relevant because their idea of generation y being the worst is something they do not want to stop believing because they do not want to believe there is something better. People wonder why generation y is so narcissistic, it is because we have been surrounded by it and people are just starting to notice.

 I saw the same idea in my next article "Millennials Are The Worst...Unless They're The Best. Chris Myers, is a CEO of a company he founded and he has worked with millennials for much of his career.  Myers makes the claim that millennials are quite possibly the worst generation, however we could be over looking how they actually could be the best. To argue his claim he makes three points to prove his theory. The first being, millennials are the worst. Research has shown majority of managers believe millennials have very self-absorbed habits. The manager's beliefs are in contrast of what millennial think of them-selves, as being the best workers on staff, which Myers uses as evidence to prove the generation's narcissism. The second point introduced was, the theory that millennials could be the best. Millennials bring fresh ideas to the table and are creative problem solvers. The final point he makes is that they can either be the worst or the best.  Millennials perform extremely well or extremely bad. He believes it simply depends on your outlook on the situation. However, either way they bring a new sense of productivity and creativity to the table. 

After reading both article's I didn't think it was just a coincidence that two very intelligent and successful people would have almost identical theories, so I decided to dig deeper and try to understand why people have so much hatred toward the generation. The answer? Simple, the people who taught and parented our generation understands that we are different and we are capable of big things, and that scares them.

Furthermore, I began to research ways Generation Y has shown that they are capable of making an impact. In the article "why we can ignore Millennials" by Dan Schawbel, the author discusses how millennials have already impacted society. He tells us that millennials are a very giving generation and "81 percent have donated money, good or services". Also, the part of the generation who have already entered the workforce has already started to break down common barriers in offices. For example, millennials "have forced companies to rethink flexibility, meetings and cubicles" and "they are the reason why President Obama was elected for both terms". The author ends his article by stating  "Millennials require your help and support in order to make the world a better place". This statement really stands out because it gives people the opportunity to see that they could help influence the next generation.

Also, I read Ruth Milkman's article titled "Millennial Movements". Milkman is a professor in sociology and devotes many of her studies to Generation Y; she is an advocate for the future generation, and this recently written source presents her obvious support for generation y. Her article is surrounded around the political and cultural movements that generation y was a vital component in for many years. For example, LGTBQ and women rights movements. She argues that the negative qualities, such as being self-absorbed and narcissistic, people claim generation y have are actually very useful qualities when standing up for change. She continues with stating that in result, of the generation's high self worth, they are also very determined. Once they put their mind to something they won't stop until it's done. Her main claim is her strong belief that Generation Y has and will continue to have a positive influence on society.  This argumentative source presents her belief that Generation Y is vital to humanity by using her personal experience of working closely with generation y. Furthermore, this source is a great representation of how the many qualities people claim to "hate" about generation y are actually qualities that are very necessary when fighting for something

After reading these articles the irony of the situation started to come to light and left me speechless. So me, a member of generation y, is supposed to endure a great magnitude of negativity towards our character by the people who taught us "that anything is possible" and "that you can do whatever you put your mind to". We were taught to be self-centered and self gratifying by the people who "are worried about our generation and what we are going to do to the world", if that is not infuriating I do not know what is. These people are making millions on self-help books about how to deal with us, when they are the ones who planted the seed in our brain. Is it our fault we decided to take what you said and believe " you can do whatever you put your mind to"?

However, you cannot avoid the fact that there are many people who do not believe generation y will amount to any good.  In the article "Why You Should Be Terrified of the Rising Millennial and Gen Z Work Force" by Suzanne Lucas, she discusses how generation Y is going to ruin our society. She believes the generation "lacks resilience" and can't take risks, so they will not be able to truly be successful in the adult world. She believes that the lack of these traits is a result of how we were taught. The author argues that generation y grew up thinking they were perfect so in result they do not know how to handle failure. Furthermore, the author believes that you cannot achieve true success without experiencing some form of failure along the way, and that's the epitome of why generation y is the way they are. It is no secret that the facts are there and millennials are more narcissistic than others, so these common traits among the generation can't just be a result of what we were taught, there has to be something else. 

I found my answer in Scott Hess's Ted Talk. Hess, a VP of a global youth research firm, uses his personal experiences to make sure that young viewpoints are heard, respected, and understood. Hess uses evidence form his personal experiences to argue, that we don't like Millennials because we don't want to try to understand them. He believes millennials are who we are in result of two things. One, we already discovered, our teachers and mentors. The other is simple and obvious. The world. The world that we grew up in is like no other. We have grown up in a time where technology was constantly evolving and social media was introduced. In result, our parents were not able to block us from the outside world because there was so many ways to be informed it was impossible, for even a child not know what was happening around them. In many situations Hess states that is could be a positive but in others it can be very detrimental. We had to live through some of the most unimaginable acts of terror and have heard the news head line "school shooting" to many times to count. One of my earliest memories was on September 11, 2001. I was sitting in my kindergarten class and it was snack time, because we had been good that day our teacher let us watch an episode of "Clifford, the Big Red Dog". We were all sitting just eating and all the sudden the sound of a news alert flashed on the screen and we saw the first tower go down. I will never forget seeing my teachers' just look at each other in terror and started to cry. Even though I was young I will never forget feeling so lucky and that being able to walk the earth, was something very special. This is what I think Hess is trying to say, we have seen how fast life is, and we want to make ours count.

So how exactly is this generation going to impact our future? With the oldest members just entering the work force, we won't know their full effect for numerous years. However, some have already started see how world have started to predict how the world is going to evolve. IN the article "How Will Gen Y Impact Our Future?" by Judith McGee, she believes we are going to begin to see an adult world that is more conscious about the community. She states that they, "are more focused on community values, more likely to spend their earnings on experiences rather than material goods, and they prefer to buy from socially responsible, local, and natural companies". She continues by discuses companies that are run by millennials and how they, "have taken on entirely new business models, finding innovative ways to give back". 

They have also started to impact office environments and communication. In the article "The Gen Y Effect: Younger Generations and Their Influence on Enterprise Communication" by Barrie Hadfield, he discusses how generation y is bringing in new ways to run office, to make it a more laid back atmosphere. For example, millennials introduced "popular programs such as MSN Messaging and Google Chat, instant messaging" that are now an essential part of the office atmosphere. They are also making the idea of working "off-the-grid" an extinct technique. One impact we have already seen is how technology is being used.  In the article, "how will generation y will change the future", the authors discuss how millennials see "technology as enhancing the quality of their lives -- making work easier, allowing them to manage time better".

So the question, "Generation Y, ruining the world or changing it?" has no basic answer. But we have seen how generation y has started changing things, so why would people keep questioning, if they could possibly help them.  There is no doubt that this generation goes about things in ways that are different and scary to some, but is that a bad thing? There is nothing stopping what generation y is going to bring into the adult world, so I think it might be time to step up and join the people who are going to do big things. Good or bad? I don't know, but I know one thing for sure. They need your help.

