Millenial Angst

Millennials – the generation of the future, the generation born between 1980-1995, the generation which defies easy stereotypes, the generation which ‘invented’ a whole new lexicon and vocabulary of cool. The Side Effects of Being Effortlessly Cool swept effortlessly under the carpet, millennials also consist of a generation which is going all out to leave a mark in the sands of shifting times and tides.

The craving to do something beyond the ordinary consumes Millennials. We invented Facebook, remember? We were the ones who brought social media into existence, with its plethora of multi-layered significance. We brought this whole new social currency into power, which is postmodernism. Nothing has meaning, and yet everything has meaning. It depends only on us, what we choose to ascribe meaning to. The structures of world domination be damned! We couldn’t care less.

We brought words like ‘bae’ and ‘FOMO’ into existence, and put side-by-aide, these explain a lot of things. ‘Bae’ meaning lover and the way love has been brought down from the pedestal, only to be replaced by fun as the new buzzword and by ‘fun’, Millennials don’t have any homogenous definition. Everyone has a unique definition of fun. The extroverts love partying and clubbing, whereas the introverts prefer to Netflix and chill, and the ambiverts love to read, visit cafes, and have long chat sessions with friends. Dating is now an item to be consumed, an entity which is commodifiable, and swamped by its own set of problems like ghosting and bread crumbing. These words don’t just exist in a void. They have meaning, again as and when we choose to load them with necessary connotations.

For my generation, travelling has become the catalyst that we believe will magically propel us toward enlightenment. It’s essentially the millennial version of the tree Siddhartha sat under to become Gautam Buddha. We quit our jobs, and travel, firmly believing it’ll give us answers. We visit countries, and spend most of our time documenting every single moment in our bid to provide regular #wanderlust updates to social media. We travel because we determinedly want to outdo our friends, and their updates. Travelling decides our self-worth, doesn’t it? So what if we don’t actually see the world? After the fourth day or so of watching Netflix in Sikkim, I realised this seemed to be a wholly stupid way of travelling. But, who doesn’t want to be an explorer of the finer things of life? If nothing else, it leads to an aesthetic Instagram account! BTW,you didn’t hear that here, OK?

Work has never been so ambiguously layered as in the millennial dictionary. The regular 9-to-5 was embraced by all, and then ditched for a more meaningful way of life, or put on the backburner as millennials choose to become entrepreneurs by the droves. There is nothing cooler than following your passion, and becoming the best, most authentic version of yourself serving that passion like a commodity to the world! Who wouldn’t want to be a Gen Y level expert at creating the good stuff and serving it to the world! Everyone believes, with utterly magnificent self-confidence, that they are the best at whatever they do. Nobody wants to be mediocre, mediocrity is shunned like veg biryani, and yet talent and hard work are locked in an ever mutating battle. If you believe in yourself, you can achieve anything – is the new credo. That might be problematic, but what the heck! It’s democratic, it’s safe, and it’s politically correct. Impossible just became the invisible #dinosaur in the room, which has lost its meaning, lost its currency, and lost its tenor.

Love is the new buzzword. It’s synonymous with war, for the present generation. No-one believes that love isn’t a battle, a war to be fought on the surfboard whilst skimming the waves of infatuation, obsession, and lust. Love itself has become the shape of a beast, cavorting to its own tune, helplessly involved in a smear campaign where its ravaging contours has been forced into duplicating meaning. It is stuck at the rear-view stage, hopelessly watching its brave soldiers fighting a war of no return or a war of diminishing marginal utility. Girls have irises tinged with sadness by 25, and boys are more broken at 30 than any other generation. There is chaos. There is depletion, there is emotionally drained souls who fight for love despite having their hearts broken and played with at a tender age, and hearts which have lost their capacity to generate meaning ( more true of the early Gen Y members). The latter are simply floundering in a sea of dating apps and easy hook-ups, with more entrance and exit signs than could possible lead to anything meaningful.

Welcome to the millennial dream. You can enter at your own risk, but you can’t ever leave.