“Maybe if you didn’t have a filter on your life you’d see what’s right in front of you.” Millennials have unfortunately become used to hearing lines like that directed to them. Some have been told as such to their faces, but mostly the media is the biggest perpetrator of these offensive generalized statements.
This “filter” line comes from the viral video “Millennials: The Musical” from Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Lin-Manuel Miranda. And yup, you guessed it, the agonizing 15-minute long video is rife with dialogue, songs, and characters that reinforce the dim-witted, technology-obsessed, self-centered stereotype of the Millennial. While the “musical” is described as a “loving satire” its portrayal of the “Millennial” does nothing to combat the insulting stereotype but rather reinforces it. (On a humorous side note, it is actually quite a Millennial thing to do to make a musical about Millennials.) Let’s just recap on this.
“Millennials: The Musical” isn’t the only piece of entertainment that banks on the Millennial stereotype for the purpose of humor. There’s even a new sitcom on CBS whose entire premise centers around the Millennial versus the “old school”; the show is called The Great Indoors.
WATCH: Glimpse of “Millennials: The Musical”
As a Millennial myself, I was truly offended when I saw a promo for this sitcom. I was not only annoyed that the entertainment industry continues to breathe life into the unfounded portrayal of the Millennial but also angry that the show was perpetrating the notion that the Millennial is laughable–rather, the butt of the joke. It is clear from every trailer of the show that the “older” character is the wiser one, the one who has to suffer putting up with his younger, unknowledgeable, goofy, and entitled Millennial co-workers. The overall effect of these trailers is to compel the audience to just laugh and exclaim “Poor him!”
Our portrayal both in media and entertainment, including in “Millennials: The Musical,” works against the real Millennials in the world; undermining our accomplishments, our drive, and even our lifestyles. Either Millennials are a joke or a nuisance. Either we’re hilariously obsessed with phone apps or we expect the world to be laid at our feet without doing an ounce of work. I have never met a single person who behaves like the entertainment world wants you to believe a Millennial behaves. I’ve never sat around a group of friends who had their faces in their phones and never made eye contact only to confirm I received their DM of an internet meme. And I’ve certainly never met anyone who didn’t know what a map was or how to read one–yeah, that was a focal point of “Millennials: The Musical.” In reality, I know Millennials who are dedicated to achieving their dreams and determined not to settle for anything less; I know Millennials who embrace emerging technologies and use it to enrich their lives as well as communicate and collaborate with people who they otherwise never would without it.
I do believe that we have a responsibility to play a part in changing the way we’re portrayed as Millennials. We can either change people’s minds or we can change the conversation. But in the meantime, we’ll just have to settle for being reduced to a #hashtag and a #musical.
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