I think you're on to something here. Also, I love that you've drawn the explicit connection between this generation's attitude towards work and their attitude towards marriage (and also home ownership). You're one of the first people I've seen on Medium who's focused on connecting all of the dots into a unified explanation about modern attitudes. But also, there are two sides to that set of attitudes, and in this artile you emphasize one at the expense of the other.
Other commenters have pointed this out as well but I wanted to echo it and offer an extra thought at the end.
It seems like this generation is losing faith in long-term commitment because they have had an opportunity to see how it plays out, and even in the best-case scenario it seems like a coin toss.
In terms of marriages, a great many of them end in divorce--and a great many of the ones who stay together inflict misery on each other. I'm not all negative about marriage because I know that in many cases it works out and can be beautiful, but a lot of misery from marital conflict and divorce has trickled down to this generation and I think a lot of people are rightly skeptical at the thought of saying "yes" to someone forever unless they've spent a lot of time getting to know their character. Especially if they’re part of that very large group that got to watch their parents rip each other apart in divorce court — or before it.
Jobs are just... man. C'mon.
I love work. And I love the chance to do something meaningful for a bigger organization. It doesn’t have to be exciting; I love to do a good job, so even if you give me a boring task like stuffing envelopes I'd do it with enthusiasm, becuase I just enjoy doing things well and feeling like I'm contributing. It doesn't take much to keep me happy.
The thing is, I think a lot of people feel that way. And in spite of that, the experience of many people in 9-to-5 jobs is that the part of them that wants to contribute meaningfully to a larger community or organization is exploited in a largely abusive one-sided relationship with their employer — one in which they are completely expendable the moment the profits start dropping.
Society has largely shrugged its shoulders when that emotional sucker punch happens and says ridiculous things like “Welp, that’s just the sacrifice you have to make if you want to pay the bills, cuz the landlords exploiting you gotta keep hiking the rent to keep up with inflation, y’know?”
Again, that's not true of all employers. But again, it happens a lot and has now worked its way into our national dialogue. People have been talking about the soullessness of work at least since the 1970’s. Why would anyone, trying to explain the behavior of the Boomers’ children, ignore the fact that they were raised by an entire generation that talked about the horror of getting caught up in the machine? This whole generation is rightly skeptical about work too.
Anyhow, I don't want to drag this on beyond this except to close with this point: you've done a really good job pointing out the FOMO and novelty-chasing reasons that people don't commit. Really; I don't want you to think that I'm arguing against what you're saying here. Everything you've said is right, but also, there's a whole other side to it that you've left out, and it does matter. If you only address the "chasing adventure" side of the picture you do a really great disservice to an entire generation of people by making them out to seem like selfish thrill-seekers. They're more than that.
You're more than that. We're more than that. We also feel pain and fear and uncertainty and doubt and skepticism and those also are reasons for our actions, and often they're the ones that make the whole situation make sense. You can’t have an objective view of an entire generation’s motives if you're willing to overlook all that.
