10 April 2016

Millennial Entitlement?

Recently, there seems to be a series of events that went viral, which provoked introspective examination among millennials, as to whether we have a blown-up sense of entitlement. Just Google and search for Talia Jane and her viral open letter. Anyway, around the same time I came across her letter, I also came across a Yelp review of one of the airports here in Berlin. The review was complaining about how the airport is a rip-off when it comes to amenities, and about how the people aren't warm. And to be honest, I laughed. I wondered, who the hell does this woman think she is?

I mean, do you really think the airport is the right place to seek warmth?

Sure, Berlin doesn't have the greatest airports out there. There are way fancier airports in the Middle East and Asia. What baffles me is this attitude of entitlement and complaint, but when you look at it, these are all first-world problems. Is it really a problem when the airport doesn't have a branch of your favorite L'Occitane beauty products, when there are millions of people our there starving, and who don't even know what L'Occitane is? You're complaining about lack of amenities in an airport, you, who have enough money to fly from London to Berlin for a weekend!

So I wonder, what is the environment that creates this culture of complaint? Is it because we're all connected now, and we all have our blogs and our Yelp accounts, and we can easily get our voice heard simply by writing a review or a blog entry? I am guilty on both, I review things in Yelp, and I have this blog which I still write regularly. And yes, I complain too. I rant, like I am doing right now. After all, come to think of it, I am a millennial too.

So what is it then? Complaining isn't necessarily a bad thing per se, but I suppose it must be put into perspective. Before you whine and bawl and be overly melodramatic about the fact that the burger you ordered rare was delivered slightly more than medium, take a moment and remember that there are plenty of people out there who don't even know what a burger tastes like.