I remember that term being coined to condemn the millennial generation as they developed into their adult workplaces, deeming an entire workforce incompetent in what it took to thrive in the modern capitalist environment. They said the young people had no place in the eat what you kill workplaces that had become the epitome of the American dream. Now that same demographic is scrambling to label the next generation as even more lost in a system that only rewards desperation and complete abandonment of your humanity, a continuation of the same system. Already I see individuals my age referring to the young people following in our footsteps as absent in actual life because they’re forever chasing the gratification existing within social media.

That gratification could exist within their lives, but just imagine the walls their looking up to in their lives. You can no longer just exist as a child, you have to constantly be planning, hustling, and socializing to even have a chance at a better life than the one you currently have. The baseline has been set at the overachieving, no longer do good test scores, extra-curricular activities, and connections put you ahead as an outstanding candidate, they only keep you in stride with the pack. Even when you manage to push through into the onboarding process you’re left feeling entirely lost in a fog of loosely defined responsibilities, malicious company policies, and unsupportive coworkers. That’s the promise of the system, the full dedication of your humanity to a company for glimpses of what is outside of it.

The hate of this system is deemed as laziness by all who it has brought fulfillment too, all the communities left behind are forgotten as the consumers for the money producing machine that dictates their lives. Now those numbers on a chart have the ability to see the unbelievable imbalance in the livelihoods of their peers. The hours of effort that they put in never seem to associate to the effort others have put in. With that exposure the explanation of hard work will always equate in, not an exorbitant life, but a fulfilling life is becoming ever more deteriorated along with the dreams of a large group of the population.