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| Img source: thepostturtle.com |
The point of the hashtag originally was for members with a few more years’ life experience, let’s say, to point out humorous differences between the ‘Millennial’ lifestyle today and what they had grown up with. A light-hearted sort of ‘then and now’ kind of deal.
For instance, it started off with some harmless ribbing:
#HowToConfuseAMillennial ask them to make a call on this pic.twitter.com/BXUcAPJfs7— adu1tg33k (@adu1tg33k1) September 4, 2016
— SophieDiddles (@sophie_diddles) September 4, 2016
But some of the tweets weren't so tame, and appeared to have a lecturing, bitter edge to them:
Inform them that they're free today because of the exertions of better men than themselves #HowToConfuseAMillennial pic.twitter.com/hgR8xj2qp2— Nick Short (@PoliticalShort) September 4, 2016
While sometimes quite amusing, the pointed criticisms of some of the tweets provoked a confused and then a more angry response.Explain how we used to be social, before media#HowToConfuseAMillennial— Jeff Dwoskin (@bigmacher) September 4, 2016
Some questioned why their generation was being attacked:
#HowToConfuseAMillennial have them wake up Sunday morning to a hashtag like this where you vilify them for no reason— سامر / Samer (@WaladShami) September 4, 2016
#HowToConfuseAMillennial be racist, homophobic, transphobic etc. yet also complain about how this generation is disrespectful— shehzadi (@ellliotaIderson) September 4, 2016
While others hit back with their own fun-poking observations:
Baby boomers will tweet #HowToConfuseAMillennial then call us to fix their internet problems 30s later pic.twitter.com/hLt9KLjoCc— mark (@bringbackjozea) September 4, 2016
#HowToConfuseAMillennial— Chris Melberger 👉 (@chrismelberger) September 4, 2016
"cursive handwriting is super important and you will use it all the time when you are older"
I particularly enjoyed this brutal dig:
#HowToConfuseAMillennial tell us to stop being so reliant on technology while you sit there on life support pic.twitter.com/qxX3i5zeC0— gratuity tucci (@aolanibani) September 4, 2016
The banterous exchange turned a little sour, however, when things got just a little too real:
#HowToConfuseAMillennial— Carl Kinsella (@TVsCarlKinsella) September 4, 2016
Destroy the housing market
Replace grad jobs with unpaid internships
Tell them to buy a house
#HowToConfuseAMillennial Crash their economy and then condescendingly ask why so many of them are living with their parents.— ModernManKevinBacon (@Notintheface1) September 4, 2016
You can be expelled from a university for plagiarism but you'll only get a slap on the wrist for raping someone #HowToConfuseaMillennial— lew. (@Blink1EightyLew) September 4, 2016
Tell them mental health is important while they run between three part-time jobs. #HowToConfuseAMillennial— Asher Wolf (@Asher_Wolf) September 5, 2016
One pointed out an obvious truth about the whole situation:
I like how #HowToConfuseAMillennial is trending right now. Don't the people who hate millennials realize THEY were the ones who raised them?— Cory Williams (@smpfilms) September 4, 2016
This particular Twitter battle seems to have brought out some resentment
which has been bubbling under the surface for a while. Anxiety and
anger from both sides of the widening generational gap began to erupt in
a very public way. Soon there was blood all over the Twittersphere.
#HowToConfuseAMillennial re-enact the contempt for the younger generation that your parents infuriated you by expressing— thomas violence (@thomas_violence) September 5, 2016
It's interesting to see tensions playing themselves out online, in the clipped context of the 140-character posts we know as 'tweets'. Twitter has become a politicised space, and one in which the public is voicing all kinds of highly charged opinions and controversial views.
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