Today is Wednesday July 24 and tomorrow is my birthday! I will officially be 26, YAY! I wanted to post this specific topic for my blog because being a millennial I will admit there are times when I feel so much pressure for me from society and social media.
For instance when it comes to society I felt that I was pressured by it because the usual age from graduating college is 21 or so and I graduated at 25. Or when a person is usually gets a driver's license at 18 while I got mine when I was 22. Although with time I have learned that age is nothing but a number and as long as I go my pace, everything will be ok. Honestly I was touched and inspired when I see older or elderly people push themselves to finish their education, now that's inspiring and that's what helped me out.
Contrarily, social media and I have a love hate relationship. What I mean by that is as much as I am active on my social media platforms, I swear I do have tough days where I do compare myself too some of these influencers that seem to have "the perfect body" (which is not realistic) or "the perfect lifestyle" where she can buy whatever she wants. It's honestly a constant reminder to myself that that is them and this is me. They have that life and I have mine and at the end of the day I am super blessed and I just have to remind myself that it is a conscious effort.
With that being said, I was able to interview a couple of millennials and ask him or her how they feeling a millennial and if they ever felt pressure from society and/or social media.
25-year-old Los Angeles resident Scott Kelly feels that society does pressures millennials do achieve things at a certain age. Kelly stated, " Many of the pressures that face our generation of students and young adults are based in society constructs that have been in development for generations. If you go to college then you will receive a great career working for a big company, gaining a larger salary as you move up through promotions. This system worked in the past because the world was in the industrial revolution phase. We simply aren't there anymore...actually we are in the beginning in the technological revolution, and as such we are a generation of people who have to figure out what still serves us and what no longer does. Unfortunately this has given our generation a large disadvantage because older generations feels as though since it worked for them it will work for us."
Kelly also expressed that millennials such as himself have not been given the chance to find and create new methods of living because he thinks the world is very much caught in a one size only lifestyle.
"I mean just based off the amount of freedom and information we have access to through the internet, the school system has become obsolete...why pay tens of thousands of dollars for a certificate stating you have "clocked in" enough hours to be considered efficient in a subject when you can learn a concept in 15 minutes for free?"
On the other hand, Ashley Ybarra, a 27-year-old suggest otherwise. "I was raised to do my won thing and do whatever makes me happy. I've never felt pressure of society because I have a strong family support" Ybarra said.
Ybarra expressed that she believed it has nothing to do with being a millennial and her being the first child in her family she was constantly watched by all the adults and peers in her life which is why she disagreed that it is not society that pressures millennials but that it is (for her) a cultural and family dynamic component.
Grester Celis-Acosta, a 24-year-old who is from the LA county, suggested that it's not really society that puts pressure on him but only himself.
"I think I put pressure on myself because I don't want to be a failure. That's always been a big fear of mine because no one in my family has been able to accomplish what I have or done the things that I have. Nobody, no cousins, no uncles, no one has been able to set an example for me and since most of them were high school drop outs or only received a high school diploma, my fear has always been that I would end up like them, so I have always tried strive to achieve more and accomplish more" Acosta stated.
Some may agree or disagree that society does put pressure on millennials, there was research done from the American Psychological Association in which lead author Thomas Curran of the University of Bath and co-author Andrew Hill of York St. John University describe that millennials push for perfectionism more than any other past generations.
Abigail Wonneberger, 30-year-old Boston resident agrees with the statement above.
"Millennials tend to set unrealistically high expectations for themselves and then go through an existential crisis when they inevitably fail to meet them. I used to think that to succeed in life you had to have a car, house a killer job all before 30. But I was wrong. Yes I did get married at 25 but after marring my husband all I wanted was to make sure we had a safe place to live, food on the table. Be able to help him by getting and job that would support us no matter what, to work as a team" Boston resident stated.
Additionally Andrea Javier, 25-year old from the Philippines also agrees. Javier has expressed that she is not getting any younger and she feels pressure from herself to push in achieving her goals in life.
"I think for me it is true and the generation between my mother and I are very different because I think their generation are patient on everything while our generation is aggressive in achieving our goals. It is like we will achieve it and we don't care if it's hard because we take everything as a challenge."
With technology rapidly changing and me being a millennial myself I also agree with that statement above I would say it it depends not only on the generation but also how he or she was brought up. My father was born and raised in the Philippines and even though he is not a millennial is still is one to push himself to be better.
While research stated that, the people that were interviewed did agree that social media does put pressure on them.
Pansy St. Battie, 20 year old pinup model does agree with that, " I think for me, everyone makes it look like they’re always out and busy. It makes me feel like no matter how much work I get, everyones getting more. The funny thing is, looking at my page, people must think the same, but it’s just only seeing peoples best moments makes it easy to forget they're curated."
Kelly also agreed without a shadow of a doubt, "The best way to put it is that it gives each user the opportunity to create their own personal art gallery. Much like when you go to a museum, there is a certain sense of elitism/perfection. Every post has been crafted with an intention to tell a story, unfortunately sense it's suppose to be an extension of our life we tend to erase and not sure the parts of our life that aren't so appealing to the outside world, the parts that drive us crazy internally, and parts that are dark and sinister."
Bostonian resident Wonneberger felt that social media definitely pressures her all the time, "I feel like social media always show you this is how you should look, this is how you should act. Look at teenagers today they know more about makeup than I ever did when I was a teenager the fact that they wear it to make them look older it's crazy. It basically saying don't act your age. People on Facebook post photos all time of there "perfect family". People lie all the time to make the look good. I was watching a buzz feed video and they were making it look like they went to a foreign country while staying where they were it was a very interesting video cuz it was showing you how you can fake stuff on social media.
Wonneberger added that she also felt like social media doesn't help because she would see her high school classmates and they seem to ahem this "perfect life" and she felt she wanted to be either better or even perfect just like them.
When discussing pressure from social media we also think about those posts showing off the good and never the bad or the fake and never the real deal. There are some celebrities out there who are known to be "fake" because they edit so much of their bodies so that they can be perfect.
In actuality we all know that nobody is perfect and it's really upsetting that people do that. We have young people out there who are still trying to figure out who they are and when they see that, they think because one person is doing it and they are liked because of it, they think "oh I should do it too."
During these interviews a name that was brought up for celebrity, negative outlook, and pressure on social media were the notorious Karadashians. As successful as they are, they are just known for altering and editing their body way too much when it comes to posting instagram pictures.
Battie who is known for her creative photos and has a following of 10.4k on her instagram,
stated that when it came to being fake for pictures that result into a lot of pressure on millennials it would have to be the Kardashians.
"They definitely do that and I can’t think of specific examples but a lot of makeup influencers who use facetune on every single image is definitely a big thing as well."
Bostonian Wonneberger also stated the Kardashains, "They have always been a huge influence on people and then they brag about how people are buying millions of dollars on their stuff."
I wanted to share this topic for today's blog not only for myself but for everyone. There will always be pressure; whether you put that on yourself to push yourself to be great. Or it may come from family, friends, professors, and peers, or even social media . But, just remember age does not define where you need to be in life or what you need. What you want in life matters because at the end of the day no one is living your life for you but yourself. Wanting to achieve something may it be big or small is all up to you.
Let's continue to break barriers and not let any pressures bring us down. Let's be that generation that follows the beat to our own drum!.
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