There is a reason that older millennials (those of us born in the early 1980's) try to evade the millennial label and instead try to convince ourselves and others the we are part of Gen X. The reason is because none of the older generations have ever had a decent thing to say about us.
If you study Strauss and Howe, you'll see that yes, the millennial generation started in the early 1980's. The timeframe, despite the disagreement of most people born in that time, is correct. If you fall between the ages of 23 and 37 or 38, then you are a millennial whether you like it or not.
But that's okay. It's okay to be a millennial, even if your family members who are older think poorly of the generation.
Boomers and Gen Xers have gotten something very wrong about what defines a generational cohort. It's not the behavior of that cohort the defines it, rather it is the national and global events the shaped our coming of age that defines us. There is a wide range of behaviors and attitudes and ideologies presents in every generation, and these things are more influenced by geography, culture, upbringing, etc. than they are just by age.
The millennial generation is the only generation in history that has it's individuals shouldering the blame for the worst behaviors of our generation without receiving any credit for the achievements. Case in point; I am 33, a millennial, and I have to accept, by default, that my generation apparently eats Tide Pods (it's doesn't). I don't get credit for being part of the most educated generation in history (I'm finishing my B.S.), or for fighting America's wars for the last 18 years (I was in OEF), or for anything else people in my generation have done correctly. But rest assured our grandparents got to pretend like they, through the achievements of their generation, had something to do with the moon landing.
Speaking of education, this is part of why we feel we were sold a false bill of goods. We were all told that we needed to get a 4-year degree and then we would have every Fortune 500 company falling over themselves trying to throw money and corner offices at us just for having that degree. Get your degree and you won't have to do all that back-breaking manual labor. Meanwhile, that degree saddles almost all of it's recipients with crippling debt. If you are reading this and think that debt is the fault of the student, then you are out of touch and you should email me at TheGrayMan314@protonmail.com so I can correct you. College should not be free, but it also should not cost what it does.
Suddenly now the older generations do nothing but make fun of our degrees and chastise us for avoiding the manual labor and skilled trade jobs, while ignoring the fact that most manual labor and skilled trade jobs are now filled by millennials anyway.
Politically, millennials are labeled as "liberal", but this is not the case either. Generation Z is on track to become the most "conservative generation" since WWII, but millennials are the generation that is turning conservative at the fastest rate since that time. And where did American neo-liberalism come from? You guessed it; the boomer generation. They're the ones teaching it in the American university system where we were told by boomers we needed to go to avoid the skilled trade jobs that are now sorely needed in America.
Millennials have been fighting in continuous wars since we turned 18. I see millennials in my town harvesting America's cotton. Our millennials are working the hospitals taking care of people who are mostly boomers. We are working your skilled trades, despite what you think. We didn't invent participation trophies, you did that, and we didn't ask for them. We went and got the degrees you told us we needed, and then some. We didn't import millions of brown-skinned savages from all over the world, you did. We didn't ask you to erase our borders. you did that on your own. We didn't set the country on this path. Hell, I'm only old enough to have voted in four general elections.
Look, if you have a negative view of the generation, then you have one or more of these problems:
1. You raised terrible millennials. If so, that's on you.
2. You are spending too much time around terrible millennials. Do you live in Kalifornia, or something?
3. You believe the media stereotype of what a millennial is, and mistakenly believe that a generational cohort is defined by it's behavior. I already went over that. It's not.
If you suffer from one or more of those problems, fix yourself.
Boomers and Gen Xers, ignore this if you will. The boomers probably will, and their response to it will be nothing new. Boomers as a group haven't had anything new to say since the Reagan Administration anyway. That's fine. Just keep something in mind, though, if you can remember it...
A generation that is unloved by it's nation may need to burn it down so they can finally feel it's warmth.
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