[kevinh]

15 years ago this exact comment would have been written swapping out millennials for gen x and gen z for millennials.

[GMoromisato]

Hey there, early Gen X here. We lived with the existential dread of nuclear war (The Day After traumatized a whole generation), our parents left us on our own with just 3 channels of TV for company because they both had to work, and our sexual awakening turned into a horror movie because of fear of AIDS (a death sentence at the time).

Also, there were no jobs.

[renewiltord]

Well, then, as a Millennial it seems like I had it the best. The ‘90s were fantastic. Then 9/11 and those wars weren’t great but didn’t affect life except in those countries. Started uni just before the GFC, only to finish grad school just as startups were picking up in the early 2010s and then when 2020 hit had lots of money already that work wasn’t critical. Then modern generative AI showed up and I have so much experience it just accelerated me.

My life rules hahaha. Only problem is that the older generations are going to parasitize my kids for disability money and shit but I’ll just move them to where humanity is growing if it comes to that.

Bizarrely my parents also feel like their generation had a great time. So who can tell. Maybe I’ll make it so that Gen Beta says the same story.

[esseph]

And our every moments weren't being tracked by flock cameras or a cell phones. If something embarrassing happened at school, it didn't end up on tiktok. We still thought if we got to college we could get out of that shitty town and have a real grown up job and get a house. That is increasingly out of reach. I haven't even touched on something like 25y of constant combat deployments, or politics yet. Or the environment.

[carlosjobim]

There is some difference between real struggles, and uncomfortable fear for things which didn't happen. Were you unable to afford a home because of fear of nuclear war? Or for fear of AIDS?

[spoiler]

As a late millennial: yep. We're in the same boat. Nihilistic optimism isn't the worst coping mechanism, though!

[llmslave2]

Perhaps. And if it was true back then, it's even more true today.

[nabnob]

Everything is noticeably more expensive than it was 15 years ago, though.

[scruple]

Sure, but I also make ~6x as much as I did 15 years ago. Despite that I still think everything is too fucking expensive.

[johnnyanmac]

Sure, 2010 wasn't great, but it wasn't this bad in terms of career aspects, or rather: it did improve.

I'm not as confident it's bouncing back as fast this time. College debt wasn't as bad in 2010. You didn't need to compete against thousands of people around the globe in 2010. There were still human interviews in 2010.

[tayo42]

Kind of but 15 years ago if you met online it was an embarrassing thing or something only old people did.

[johnnyanmac]

real shame because dating apps were meant to actually optimize matches 15 years ago. Now it's normalized and maximized for "engagement".

[mkoubaa]

This is a such a cop-out. We millennials had it easy compared to zoomers.

[McAtNite]

That’s true, graduating into my “once in a lifetime” economic meltdown made the second one barely even register.

[lovich]

I only felt the empathy someone can have when they have also lived through the same events, for all the zoomers graduating into the post Covid job market.

Millennials and younger are all fucked for the same reasons and are going to continue getting fucked over unless some revolutionary change happens.

We’ll also be in this together as we watch our boomer/genx parents burn up the last of any existing generational wealth sitting comatose in a nursing home because they refused to accept that they will actually die some day, and so made no plans for it