MILLENNIALS: THE GENTLE GENERATION(?)

◼ ...My generation is also a creative one, because we’ve been encouraged to try things, and the word “failure” is foreign to us. - Teresa Mull/Human Events

◼ CODGERS FREAKING OUT - John Stossel/Human Events

Crotchety old geezers always complain about “the kids.” The Boston Globe frets about “Idle Trophy Kids.” The New York Post asks if millennials are “The Worst Generation?” Older folks (my age) complain that young people spend so much time texting each other that they can’t communicate. And because they spend hours playing violent video games, violence is up.

Bunk.

It’s true that kids today play incredibly violent games like “Halo” and “Grand Theft Auto,” but as the games’ popularity increased (over the past 20 years), youth violence dropped 55 percent. In Japan, kids spend more time playing violent games, and there’s even less violence. And in America, despite media hype, there are fewer school shootings now, not more.

Kids “can’t communicate” because they text all the time? Recently, kids invented Facebook, YouTube, Firefox, Groupon, Instagram, Tumblr, Pinterest and so on. They communicate something.

Inevitably, we older people misunderstand new ways young people do things — we are frightened by the risks and oblivious to the benefits.