A Millenial experience

[gallahadesquire]

I went to my Fraternity's induction this weekend. You know: A bunch of college kids saying what they'll do for the rest of their lives ... actually, it is a pretty close-knit fraternity.

 

I found three things interesting:

1. How the "kids" occupied their "down-time" (there's quite a bit of time when there's nothing to do for most of the Chapter).
    
   
2. How the leadership among them was completely inadequate, to the point of disrespect.
    
   
3. That none of them appealed to me in the least. Everyone was in jacket and tie and outdoor jacket, which might have had something to do with it, but they're between 18 and 24, which was my historical go-to-age.
   

Just my observations. I'm used to dealing with 27-32 year olds (residents in hospitals and my personal trainer) who act, frankly, much more in order with expectations.

 

Label me: old.

[+ azdr0710]

How the "kids" occupied their "down-time" (there's quite a bit of time when there's nothing to do for most of the Chapter).

 

how did they?.....did they each retreat individually to their phones with little interactive socializing?....or what?

[Zapped]

OK, so here's a story about an 18-year-old college freshman.

 

Very proud of his new wireless earphones that he got over Thanksgiving break. Wears them everywhere. Proudly. Says they are very expensive.

 

He found them in the parking lot of the gym he goes to at home. He was so happy, like he'd won the lottery.

 

It hadn't occurred to him to take them into the desk at the gym so whoever lost them might get them back. Looked at me like I'm crazy when I suggested that would have been the thing to do. What if he had dropped his very expensive headphones in the parking lot? What would he want the person who found them to do? He rolled his eyes.

[+ glennnn]

A handsome, millennial guy of my acquaintance road his college campus bus every day for a semester. On the bus each day was a beautiful co-ed. He wanted to get to know her, but she was always busy with her electronics, which apparently means she Must Not Be Disturbed, so he never spoke to her. He abused himself every night thinking of her.

 

Romeo and Juliet 2016. Romeo goes to the Capulet party, sees Juliet, who is busy texting and doesn't see him. So he goes home, jacks off. He forgets her and hooks up with Mercutio. Shakespeare's story of tweet-crossed lovers in one act flat. Happy ending included.

[Zman]

And yet the media always seems to be saying that millenials have the best sex lives...

[UpDownUnder]

And yet the media always seems to be saying that millenials have the best sex lives...

 

Based on my very limite experience with Millenials, they don't seem to have any clue about what they're doing in the sack. The guys tend to have one speed: Really fast.

 

As for the media reporting otherwise on their sex lives... when does the media get anything right? I used to feel that way a little, but since November 9, I've noticed it more and more.

[Zman]

Based on my very limite experience with Millenials, they don't seem to have any clue about what they're doing in the sack. The guys tend to have one speed: Really fast.

 

As for the media reporting otherwise on their sex lives... when does the media get anything right? I used to feel that way a little, but since November 9, I've noticed it more and more.

 

Well, I do notice when I hire guys under 30 that I'm often surprised by how much they don't know despite having grown up with the internet and watching porn since they were in middle school. I guess that's why I tend to go for more experienced men these days.

[AndreFuture]

27-32 year olds are also Millennials. Did you mean to contrast two different kinds of "millenial [sic]" experiences with the college kids and the residents you deal with more regularly?

[gallahadesquire]

how did they?.....did they each retreat individually to their phones with little interactive socializing?....or what?

 

We were in a kiddy play room at a summer camp. They were acting like a bunch of kiddies .... kicking balls around, not talking to each other ... no one asked who I was or why I was there.

 

Well, I do notice when I hire guys under 30 that I'm often surprised by how much they don't know despite having grown up with the internet and watching porn since they were in middle school. I guess that's why I tend to go for more experienced men these days.

 

+1. I'm on seekingarrangement.com, for reasons that escape me. I've said "Looking for someone over 30" and almost all the responses are under 25. Is reading deficient, too?

 

27-32 year olds are also Millennials. Did you mean to contrast two different kinds of "millenial [sic]" experiences with the college kids and the residents you deal with more regularly?

 

I think some of the groupthink that goes along with the younger crowd gets diluted by the time they've gone through medical school and an internship. I will say that I've met three guys at the gym (other clients of my trainer) and they seem not to be particularly Millennial, although one is in MMA training, which I find odd.

[jjkrkwood]

So the take-away here is that millenials are rude, self absorbed and self indulgent individuals. ? (kinda like our President elect) . Now they have a role-model... OK, ill buy that... pretty much sums it up for me.

[gallahadesquire]

So the take-away here is that millenials are rude, self absorbed and self indulgent individuals. ? (kinda like our President elect) . Now they have a role-model... OK, ill buy that... pretty much sums it up for me.

 

I had a friend who used to say he was "irreverent, but never disrespectful." These kids crossed the line to disrespectful.

[Rudynate]

I talk with young techies all the time - young engineers at tech companies. They do like their electronic devices but otherwise I find most of them bright, engaging, respectful of my age and my professional status.

[+ WilliamM]

Just my observations. I'm used to dealing with 27-32 year olds (residents in hospitals and my personal trainer) who act, frankly, much more in order with expectations.

 

 

At many universities, the most interesting students have no interests in joining a fraternity.

 

You might have had a better experience walking around the campus and talking to a few students.

[bigvalboy]

Seems like I am the odd man out again. Certainly not all, but most of the millennials (I hate labels BTW) that I know are quite the opposite as described in this thread. Since moving here, I have found many of the kids I encountered to be progressive, engaged with the world, and refreshingly informed with strong opinions, and several have sought me out to help with careers and businesses. Those in school seemed focused and willing to make personal sacrifices to secure a degree. I found it refreshing...of course it could be just a southern thing.

[+ glennnn]

I didn't mean to challenge the moral or social fiber of the generation we have dubbed Milennials with my silly R and J parable above. It was meant to be wryly humourous, not condemnatory. In the first place, I don't know that many Milennials. In the second place, as with every group, they are the beneficiaries and victims of the society they inherit. I think it is hard and takes plenty of work to carve out a definite personal space in a world so full of conflicting information demanding your attention. I know that my sometimes debilitating Generalized Anxiety Disorder is fed by my inability to handle the daily storm of global communications, but I also feel fearful if I don't "know what's going on". For them, it must be like possessing ESP- a constant babble of competing tweets, texts, emails, phone calls, videos, etc, etc. They apparently have hundreds of intimate "besties" to track. Probably exhausting. My generation was thought to be mostly stoned and yet we did manage to find lives. Perhaps, communications are the new opiates. They will sort it out.

[+ WilliamM]

Seems like I am the odd man out again. Certainly not all, but most of the millennials (I hate labels BTW) that I know are quite the opposite as described in this thread. Since moving here, I have found many of the kids I encountered to be progressive, engaged with the world, and informed with strong opinions, and several have sought me out to help with careers and businesses. I found it refreshing...of course it could be just a southern thing.

 

No, it's not just a southern thing. One of the most charming and witty students I ever met (in 2012) at the University of Pennsylvania was a pre-med student who was also a community organizer and had his own radio show. I can not image asking him about fraternities.

 

We had a falling out just before he graduated. I had a very difficult time figuring out how to say how much I enjoyed his company, but we likely would not stay close after he graduated. On his last radio show, he asked me on the air to call in and chat with him (in public) one last time. Very nice gesture, which is totally at odd with other opinions in this thread.

[gallahadesquire]

At many universities, the most interesting students have no interests in joining a fraternity.

 

You might have had a better experience walking around the campus and talking to a few students.

 

WilliamM, MIT is a very special case in point, that lies in the history of the Institute. It was in Boston when it was founded, and ferried across the River Charles in 1916. When in Boston, housing was scarce to non-existent, so Fraternities chapters were created to fix a housing shortage, and explains why most of them are still in Boston.

 

FSILGS (Fraternities, Sororities, and Independent Living Groups) are a mainstay of undergraduate life at MIT, with about 1/3 of undergraduates belonging to them. Most of the dorms were somewhat more independent, but some organized around a common living space.

[AndreFuture]

At many universities, the most interesting students have no interests in joining a fraternity.

 

You might have had a better experience walking around the campus and talking to a few students.

 

No no, were all obnoxious, clueless hulks of flesh wandering aimlessly in this world, attached to our social world via our fancy Electronic Device™ thingies.

 

I must say, I learn so much from you wise and insightful elders. You all seem to know me better than I apparently know myself. Which would make sense, since you all raised us Millennials. You'd know what our deficiencies are based on your..."parenting"

[+ nycman]

I'm not sure it has so much to do with their "Milennial" status as it does with youth in general.

 

I'm am sure many "older" men found me and my behavior "vapid" when I was a child in my early 20's.

 

Thankfully, I was young enough and self absorbed enough not to care.

 

That's the beauty and the curse of youth.

 

Now, I've grown up...and most of them are dead.

 

Sic transit gloria mundi

[Kippy]

A handsome, millennial guy of my acquaintance road his college campus bus every day for a semester. On the bus each day was a beautiful co-ed. He wanted to get to know her, but she was always busy with her electronics, which apparently means she Must Not Be Disturbed, so he never spoke to her. He abused himself every night thinking of her.

 

Romeo and Juliet 2016. Romeo goes to the Capulet party, sees Juliet, who is busy texting and doesn't see him. So he goes home, jacks off. He forgets her and hooks up with Mercutio. Shakespeare's story of tweet-crossed lovers in one act flat. Happy ending included.

What happened to the suicide ending?

[+ nycman]

What happened to the suicide ending?

 

No doubt.

 

God damn it....SOMEBODY has to DIE!

 

Without death...love....is meaningless.

[+ WilliamM]

WilliamM, MIT is a very special case in point, that lies in the history of the Institute. It was in Boston when it was founded, and ferried across the River Charles in 1916. When in Boston, housing was scarce to non-existent, so Fraternities chapters were created to fix a housing shortage, and explains why most of them are still in Boston.

 

FSILGS (Fraternities, Sororities, and Independent Living Groups) are a mainstay of undergraduate life at MIT, with about 1/3 of undergraduates belonging to them. Most of the dorms were somewhat more independent, but some organized around a common living space.

 

@gallahadesquire I understand. Thank you. However, you apparently did not spend much time at MIT that day, and your comments seem to me to be a universal dig at today's college students based on very little experience. It would be very different if you take the time to get to know one of the new frat

members.

[+ sniper]

People have been complaining about "kids these days" since time immemorial. Everybody forgets that most of what we call "common sense" is LEARNED BEHAVIOR. I assure you, we were all twits in our own special way at that age.

But there has been a change in recent years as somehow we collectively decided that people need four-year degrees even to be receptionists, and since everybody is going to college, schools are piling on more homework, and more kids simply don't have the time to get the part-time jobs that often serve as an introduction to life outside the bubble of school. That's a lot of what you are seeing IMO.

My niece is up until 2am most nights doing homework and her social interaction skills have definitely not developed as they would have 30 years ago.

 

The frats at MIT are a very mixed bag, as are the dorms.

[Jbdesc]

While I appreciate outside observations, they give me a perspective other than my own - I loathe broad sweeping generalizations. Don't try to lump entire age groups into a singular category. I can confirm, we are not all the same.

 

I don't think people would appreciate if I started a thread complaining that Gen X or Baby Boomers don't understand the concept of turn it off and back on again. That would be another bad example of generalizing a large population.

[+ sniper]

Every generation is a mess in its own way. Most people are stupid. We just are.