Have You Heard about this so-called "Millennial Optimism Era?"
Apparently, Gen-Z is jealous of the times we had in the early 2010s...
Apparently (according to a post fed to me on Instagram), there is a growing romanticization of the early 2010s among members of Gen Z who feel like they missed out on being adults in an era when Obama was in office, The Office was brand new every Thursday on NBC, and hipster-indie aesthetic dominated the culture.
As a 41-year-old man, I have to say that I did have a lot of fun during this specific era, but I don’t know how much “optimism” had to do with it. Yes, there was a time when we were all trapped in a “Yes We Can, Change We Can Believe In” fever dream for a minute, but the reason why we got caught up in that was that we needed change, we needed to hear that we could do…anything at all. Because shit was bleak.
Of course, shit is bleak now, in a very different way. I certainly don’t envy young adults who are forced to have their salad days during a time of doomscrolling and fascism.1 Each generation of youth rebels against the dominant vibes of the era in its own specific way. I literally stopped writing a piece about sad-ass Millennial nostalgia2 to react to learning about “Millennial Optimism Era.” The ‘90s were a time of American Economic prosperity (propped up on a house of cards of deregulation that we continue to be buried by its collapse today, but still), and the youth of the day rebelled with angst-filled grunge. Millennials in the late 2000s/early 2010s were reacting to post 9/11, Bush-era America, Patriot-Act Politics, and an economic collapse just as we were exiting college and entering the job market. Maybe everything is different when viewed from outside3, but my “fun-times” in the “era of Millennial Optimism” were kind of specifically tied to a decision to lean into the fact that everything was fucked. I didn’t drink Nyquil every single night for a while because of “optimism,” I’ll tell you that.
What I think might be actually happening here is that Gen Z is having nostalgic feelings for a time of their own youth, when they did not have any adult responsibilities. Then, when they are hit with early-2010s-core music, style, fashion, or design, it activates their longing for a time they remember as good (because, again, no adult responsibilities) and then they wish they were adults with more “freedom” during this time in history (but again, then they’d have adult responsibilities!) I don’t blame them; it’s a trick we all kind of play on ourselves at times.
I graduated from college in 2007, got my first “full-time” job in 20084, and got “laid off”5 in the summer of 2009, after which I was unemployed for approximately three full years. Thankfully, there was an unemployment extension safety-net that provided me with about $300/week in benefits for a period of over two years6. What’s fucked up is that the job market was so screwed at the time, it literally didn’t make sense to pursue a $10/hour job that would make me the same amount of money as not having a job would give me (so I did a ton of comedy and lost a ton of weight; thanks, Obama, for real.)
With the benefit of hindsight, I can probably say that our “fuck it, at least things under Obama are better than they were under Bush” approach to life probably wasn’t the best. The “everything is hunky dory” neoliberal-ignorance politics of the day, directly leading to Hillary Clinton’s “America is already great” approach to the 2016 election really turned a blind eye to a lot of the dread a lot of people felt deep down in their souls. And now we’re paying the price for all of that, and Gen Z is looking at it with envy. But I’m not going to wade too far into those waters because I’d be out of my depth.
What I will do is continue to tread water in a territory in which I can say that maybe, yeah, in a lot of ways things were better for Millennials in our early 20s than things are for Gen Zers now. And Millennials can look at Gen Xers of the early ‘90s and be jealous that they had freedoms we didn’t have. And we can all look at Boomers who paid nothing for college and hummed a little tune to buy their first home and say “fuck you!” And then we can collectively come to our senses and say “what did they do to us” and instead of looking back at previous generations with anger that they had it slightly better than us in some ways we can look ahead and figure out how to make things better going forward for everybody.7
How’s that for some actual Millennial optimism?
Did I bury the fascism? I did not mean to bury the fascism.
Which I will return to and post in the future at a time that is not too close in proximity to this piece, as to avoid being perceived as some kind of “Millennial blogger.”
And maybe this points to a bigger issue where things for people in America have been getting worse and worse for each generation - oh no!
I worked 40 hours/week, but I put “full-time” in quotes because I worked as a salesperson in a cell phone store. My employment had no relation to the fact that I graduated from college.
Is it considered “laid off” if they let you go from your cell phone salesperson job because you are bad at selling cell phones?
And my rent was a very-affordable $500 per month.
How? HA! I DON’T KNOW EXACTLY (but it probably starts with eliminating the billionaire class that controlls every aspect of our society).
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