Here’s a list of all of the things millennials have been accused of ruining

Guest Post by Kari Paul

Comedy Central/Everett Collection
Abbi Jacobson and Ilana Glazer of Comedy Central’s ‘Broad City’ live with roommates and eschew traditional relationship definitions.

Millennials can’t get a break.

When they aren’t spending all of their retirement funds on avocado toast (or eating out in restaurants, to be more exact), they’re getting rid off beloved American staples like movies by binge-watching shows online, putting the death knell in sitcoms, and even single-handedly bringing about the end of churchgoing.

Some of these trends may be overstated, but millennials do have different tastes and priorities than past generations, a new study from travel site Contiki found. They prioritize activities over physical purchases, with 71% of 18- to 35-year-olds citing experiences as the most important thing in their lives. Generation Z, those born between 1995 and 2012, takes it even further, with 97% saying experiences are the most important.

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Millennials, those born between 1977 and 1994, are also more socially and politically aware: 61% believe in equality and 75% feel the economic and political state of the world will have a big impact on their generation. We also are living under the weight of massive student loan debt and a less-than-ideal job market.

These shifting values have led to the death of more than a handful of now-outdated norms. With the help of a recent Twitter roundup on the topic, here are some of the things the generation has been accused of ruining in recent years. And, no, MarketWatch isn’t exactly innocent when it comes to blaming millennials for some of these trends.

1. The 9 to 5 work week

Millennials are demanding more flexibility in their jobs, and now nearly 40% of U.S. workers can work from home at least one day a week, according to a 2016 study. They also don’t unplug at 5 p.m., with 68% saying they check work emails from home. The extension of our work lives into the home may concern some who are more tied to the traditional 40-hour workweek, but studies show employees in a flexible workplace can be more productive and happier with their careers.

2. Focus groups

Americans in their 20s and 30s are too cynical to reveal their hopes, dreams and buying habits to advertisers directly, one marketing officer told digital marketing site Digiday. This means more companies have to abandon traditional marketing strategies like focus groups and instead rely on social media sourcing and native advertising. This can also be to the detriment of millennials, as companies amass a wealth of personal data on them.

3. Dinner dates

With the ceaseless mix of Tinder swipes and OkCupid matches they are subjected to, millennials have essentially given up on the dinner date. Experts say they are dating more often and more casually, making the idea of sitting across from someone at a pricey dinner for a potentially long amount of time less desirable. “Online dating creates an enormous number of first dates in a short period of time,” said relationship and etiquette expert April Masini.

Still, some millennials don’t think they are missing out on anything: “Sure, getting asked to dinner might seem more exciting, but if you really like the person, isn’t it just as good to hang out and watch Netflix? Does it matter what you’re doing if you enjoy one another’s company?” wrote college student Amanda Spina at the Odyssey.

4. Cruises

Maybe millennials weren’t exactly accused of ruining cruises, but they haven’t been too supportive of the industry either. For some time, cruising had been designated as a vacation option for an older crowd, taking an additional hit after a string of high-profile gaffes including on-sea disasters and ship-wide illnesses. After being accused of nearly getting rid of the cruise, millennials are showing signs of bringing it back to life, after the industry took a number of measures to attract them.

5. Napkins

Millennials are giving up the paper napkin, with 86% saying they are opting instead to use a paper towel as a napkin at the dinner table according to a 2016 study from market research company Mintel. The good news: Experts say the paper towel’s ability to clean up messes make it a more versatile and economical choice, especially as fewer millennials eat dinner at home.

6. Running

Last year, The Wall Street Journal informed us millennials were ruining the sport of running. Despite being the largest living generation and traditionally the largest share of runners, 18-to-34-year-olds made up only 33% runners in 2015 and 35% the year earlier, according to a study from industry-funded research group Running USA. This decline comes despite a peak in 2013, when the number of runners reached an all-time high of 19 million. Instead of continuing its increase as expected, the numbers plunged. Thanks a lot, millennials.

7. Golf

Another sport millennials have been blamed for doing away with is golf. They are playing fewer rounds and even watching it on TV less frequently, the Guardian reported in 2016. In fact, it is estimated that if such apathy continues, golf as we know it could disappear in 52 years.

8. Soap bars

Young people are over the soap bar — not because they are a dirty generation, but because they prefer liquid soap, a study from consumer-research firm Mintel found. Millennials found soap bars gross, with 60% saying they believe it is covered in germs after use.

9 . Sex

Do we live in a more permissive society? Not where teenagers and people in their early 20s are concerned. It seems that members of the younger millennial cohort are apparently over sex as well. Despite being pegged as the “hookup generation,” a 2016 study published in the Archives of Sexual Behavior found 15% of millennials had not had sex since they turned 18. The sexual revolution is passé. People born in the 1970s reported an abstinence rate of 11.5% between the ages of 18 and 24 and 6.3% for those born in the late 60s.

10. Relationships

Millennials aren’t just having less sex, they’re also dating less frequently and more casually. Only 14% of people ages 18 to 29 were living with their partner in 2014, and few millennials use “boyfriend” or “girlfriend” to describe dating partners, according to a report from Mic. A 2014 study also found that college students today are significantly less likely to have a regular sexual partner.

11. Marriage

Millennials are marrying less often and later in life. With more debt to overcome, millennials are frequently living at home with their parents or with roommates according to analyses from real estate listing site Trulia. They’re also pushing off marriage until they are financially stable, which could be years for many of them. Don’t blame them, however. Blame the $1.3 trillion in student debt that college graduates in America are currently shouldering.

12. Face-to-face interaction

Millennials have replaced face-to-face communication with the smartphone, some studies say. Nearly 4 in 10 millennials interact more with their phones than they do with parents, friends, children, significant others or co-workers, a 2016 Bank of America study found.

13. Vacations

Millennials are neglecting to take their allotted vacation time, with 43% qualifying as “work martyrs” — a category of people who feel guilty about taking time off and overworking themselves. This compares with just 29% of all workers, a study by ‘Project: Time Off’, which promotes vacation time for America’s workers and obviously has a vested interest in the subject. Many millennials also don’t have the funds to go for vacation, unless they take out additional debt.

14. Homeownership

Perhaps the most prominent norm millennials are accused of undermining: Homeownership. If they’re unable to afford vacations, they certainly can’t put a down payment on a house in most places. Under crippling student loan debt, many millennials are opting instead to move back in with parents or have a roommate long into their 30s. Given stagnant wages and rising house prices, however, who can blame them?

15. Wine corks

Millennials love wine but they don’t love uncorking it. That’s why the generation, which consumes nearly half of all wine in the U.S., is opting for cans of wine and bottles with twist-off caps, according to market measurement organization Nielsen.

16. Diamonds

The diamond industry has struggled to woo millennials to the luxury item, with companies like De Beers slashing prices by 9% to reach out to the generation, which prefers to spend money on experiences like travel rather than expensive goods, the Daily Beast reported. “Young consumers increasingly shun the taint of conflict and exploitation, and middlemen have been hit as banks balk at gemstones’ untraceability,” according to The Economist.

17. Department stores

As online shopping grows in popularity and millennial shopping habits shift, stores like Macy’s M and J.C. Penney JCP have had to close hundreds of stores. Studies show millennials are instead boosting traffic to outlet malls, preferring to shop for specific brands at stores devoted to them rather than picking up a piece of apparel here and there at department stores.

 

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33 Comments
Uncomplicated
Uncomplicated
June 12, 2017 12:32 pm

As a Gen X-er I, also, prefer paper towels to napkins. They are bigger and stronger and I bet if I asked my wife, they are cheaper too. It just seems like a no-brainer to me.

james the deplorable wanderer
james the deplorable wanderer
  Uncomplicated
June 12, 2017 3:25 pm

We still use cloth napkins?

Uncomplicated
Uncomplicated
  james the deplorable wanderer
June 12, 2017 5:40 pm

I do like Hardscrabble’s maple syrup. Just not in my laundry!

TPC
TPC
June 12, 2017 12:46 pm

Man, the more I read about my generation, the less I feel apart of it.

Except this part, “activities over physical purchases.” I buy the things I need, then use the remainder to clear off debt, improve my property, and see a bit of the world before the next big war kicks off.

Trapped in Portlandia
Trapped in Portlandia
June 12, 2017 12:50 pm

As a Boomer I can’t see too many problems with the Millennials kill list. 9 to 5 work week, cruises, paper napkins, running, diamonds, and department stores could disappear and the world would be better off. The fact that golf is losing popularity just means I can now play a round in under 4 hours, which is a good thing. And about the decline in dating and sex, well just look at the woman in the photo for an explanation of that phenomena.

musket
musket
  Trapped in Portlandia
June 12, 2017 4:42 pm

Amen brother……

jimmieoakland
jimmieoakland
  Trapped in Portlandia
June 12, 2017 11:28 pm

Uh, those are dudes…

norman franklin
norman franklin
  Administrator
June 12, 2017 1:23 pm

Looking at that picture I now know why millennials have less sex. Yuck, Those two are double baggers at the very least.

MrLiberty
MrLiberty
  norman franklin
June 12, 2017 10:56 pm

You got a problem with hairy lesbians?

TampaRed
TampaRed
  MrLiberty
June 13, 2017 2:23 pm

not if i’ve had enough beer,as long as they were lesbians at birth–

MMinLamesa
MMinLamesa
June 12, 2017 1:51 pm

Hey, I like vino with screw tops, never played golf, prefer liquid bath soap, hated those damn monstrous cruise ships when I sailed the Carib, worked for myself since I was 18 so I wouldn’t know a 9-5 job if it crawled into my shorts and out here in the boonies(w Texas) the nearest Wal-Mart is 45 miles away so I shop online.

Tommy
Tommy
June 12, 2017 1:52 pm

Millennials are the product of their parenting. I’m guessing 1/4 or so are awesome and the rest are doomed – not by their choice but their ability to cope, deal with, and master the world that lays before them. There simply are no good jobs for society much less the millennials…..that said, the 3/4 of the brain dead aimless doomed-but-don’t-know-nor-care…..good God are they maddening to employ – I just can’t say it simpler, they’re useless. Their emotional ‘skin’ is so thin that the slightest thing is an insult to their very being, and they’ll walk. So what I want to know is what happens when a situation appears they can’t just walk away from?

Westcoaster
Westcoaster
  Tommy
June 12, 2017 7:14 pm

What happens is you’ll get the “I just think you need to cut me some slack” line. This actually happened when I drove 60+ miles to rent a trailer and move my Millennial daughter and her likewise boyfriend to a new apartment. When I showed up at the agreed-upon time, they had neither procured their new place yet, nor were they packed, and weren’t even close to being ready to move.

jimmieoakland
jimmieoakland
  Westcoaster
June 12, 2017 11:34 pm

If they are adult enough to move in together, they should be adult enough to rent the trailer themselves and get some friends to help them move in. It’s what adults do. Next time say you’re too busy and go play golf.

Zarathustra
Zarathustra
June 12, 2017 1:59 pm

Every so often, a cosmetics company has a meeting of it’s senior marketing staff. There they discuss charts that show their market share and results of surveys that compare them with their competitors. Once in a while some bright guy or chick says, something to the effect that they have a secure but static market share and the potential for growth is limited. As the group ponders this, another says,
“well, why don’t we repackage it. Let’s put a picture of a sports car on the label, change the name and get men to use it. We could double our revenues! The others nod in agreement.

This is how liquid soap came to be popular. It’s nothing but a chick product repackaged and marketed to gullible males. Same thing with cologne. If they could figure a way to get men to buy douches and tampons, it would have already been done.

Fuck that! I will not be manipulated to pay more for shit to replace shit that is already as functional as it needs to be. You can take my bar soap from my cold, dead hands.

BL
BL
June 12, 2017 2:17 pm

Oh sure……..Gen Xers/minnies in this thread extolling their virtues and how their shit don’t stink after lambasting the boomers. Right…..

Iconoclast421
Iconoclast421
June 12, 2017 2:42 pm

“few millennials use “boyfriend” or “girlfriend” to describe dating partners, ”

That’s because they are using utterly stupefied words, like “bae”.

Ed
Ed
  Iconoclast421
June 12, 2017 6:23 pm

Or because they’ve never had a relationship with anyone of the opposite sex because they watch internet porn and jack off instead.

Westcoaster
Westcoaster
  Iconoclast421
June 12, 2017 7:16 pm

They refuse to be gender-specific because it might be “triggering”.

MrLiberty
MrLiberty
June 12, 2017 2:46 pm

And generation after generation has worked hard to destroy freedom and liberty in this country. Why is that NEVER newsworthy?

And one can probably pick a generation to blame for the destruction of the candle industry and the embrace of electric light, the demise of the horse and buggy and the rise of automobiles, the demise of healthy food and the embrace of everything processed and packaged, the demise of sound money and the embrace of fiat currency, the demise of flintlock pistols and the rise of cartridge ammunition, the demise of self-reliance and the embrace of the welfare state……….

Change happens. You can either adapt or you can sit around blaming someone else for your lack of adaptation.

Anonymous
Anonymous
June 12, 2017 3:55 pm

seems like it is those slick marketeers from NYC and LA who have failed to grasp what the next generation of spenders will consume.

did we blame Genx for the death of Vinyl or CDs? no, we blamed the music business for not keeping up with technology (the MP3 killed the hard copies of music)

did we blame the baby boomers for not getting us to Mars? no, we blamed NASA for being on bloated bureaucracy, that killed too many astronauts, and cost too much to do basic space launch lifting of orbitals.

the only thing we can blame the millennials for, is there eager acceptance of technology, like the smart phone social media. it is technology that is driving the disruption and change, the kids are just along for the ride.

the kids are only a reflection of the parents.

TPC
TPC
  Anonymous
June 12, 2017 4:11 pm

“the kids are only a reflection of the parents.”

A bullshit argument parroted in several comments up above.

All but a few Millennials are in the workforce now, there is no bloody excuse for the wanton waste and utter lack of maturity.

There comes a point in a person’s life where they must own their decisions and, at the very latest, that point is at 18.

Personal responsibility above all else. If everyone first focused on making sure them and theirs were taken care of before trying to shoulder the burdens of others the entire goddamned world would pull itself out of this globalist malaise it has found itself in.

DRUD
DRUD
June 12, 2017 4:46 pm

While I admit some decent wine comes with screw tops nowadays, how fucking lazy do you have to be to shave eight seconds off opening a bottle of wine with a corkscrew?????

llpoh
llpoh
  DRUD
June 12, 2017 5:19 pm

Drud – only the uninformed would buy wine under cork. The amount of wine that goes bad under cork is around 5%. That is too high. Screw caps have zero spoilage. And screw caps last indefinitely. They wine ages somewhat more slowly, but it also does not disappear like it does under cork.

Cork is only used because people who do not know any better still expect good wine to be under cork. Some great wines are now under screw cap.

DRUD
DRUD
  llpoh
June 12, 2017 5:24 pm

I understand and I agree–there are some very nice wines with screw tops. Plus you can store screw top wines vertically with no detriment.
But godammit I like to smell and collect corks, not to mention I have some solid corkscrew skills.
I can be a bit of a traditionalist at times.

llpoh
llpoh
  DRUD
June 12, 2017 5:39 pm

Drud – old fuddy duddies like us tend to have these issues.

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musket
musket
June 12, 2017 4:47 pm

These are all mouse turds……anyone who wants to earn or win an objective, prize or achieve any goal will get off his or her a$$ and get the job done. Sniveling and whining are non-starters and if you look carefully there are some real gems in the so-called millennial portfolio. Don’t get in their way…find them, hire them, give proper guidance and resourcing and watch from a non-hovering distance.

Card802
Card802
June 12, 2017 4:54 pm

How about ruining the art of having an honest discussion? Remember those? They used to be entertaining, enlightening and sometimes maddening, but it was still fun to talk.

“The Culture of the Smug White Liberal”

From HufPro of all places……..

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/nikki-johnsonhuston-esq/the-culture-of-the-smug-w_b_11537306.html?utm_campaign=hp_fb_pages&utm_source=bv_fb&utm_medium=facebook&ncid=fcbklnkushpmg00000047

james the deplorable wanderer
james the deplorable wanderer
  Card802
June 12, 2017 8:51 pm

I read the HuffPo article. It is written by a black liberal Democrat, mostly seeming to accuse the white liberal Democrats of hypocrisy, not helping ENOUGH African-Americans to get ahead, practicing White Privilege and financial segregation (white kids go to rich private schools the blacks can’t afford) and so forth.
It felt like I was reading a description of Cloud-Cuckoo Land written by a Martian anthropologist. MY kids are white, did not go to private schools and don’t have an inside track to the good life. If they do achieve, it will be THEIR achievements and not due to my (lack of) wealth, being white or anything else.
This land is an insane land, an asylum for those who cannot think but parrot victimism in every argument.

Dutchman
Dutchman
June 12, 2017 6:51 pm

Here in Minneapolis, you can’t go two blocks without restaurant / cafe / coffee house.

These people are spending most all their money on eating out.