Why Gen Y Yuppies Are Frightened: A Sequel to “Why Gen Y Yuppies Are Unhappy”
A little while back, Tim Urban of Wait But Why published a highly relatable piece about the fact that Generation Y yuppies are unhappy. The piece, which has since re-appeared monthly on my Facebook newsfeed, argued that the 20-something children of middle-class Western baby boomers are dissatisfied because their expectations for success in life are widely out of line with reality.
Urban terms Gen Y yuppies, “GYPSYs,” short for Gen Y Protagonists & Special Yuppies, “a unique brand of yuppie… who thinks they are the main character of a very special story.” Whether or not you like the term “GYPSY”, Urban’s argument is sound. Many of my GYPSY friends identified with the piece, which has three main points:
1. GYPSYs are wildly ambitious in the career goals they set for themselves
2. GYPSYs are delusional about how easy it will be to achieve them
3. GYPSYs are taunted by friends on social media making it look like they’ve made it
All this leaves Gen Y feeling frustrated and unhappy, because the gap between their expectations and reality is impossibly wide to bridge. But Urban fails to consider a fourth critical point — one that deserves more attention in our ongoing quest to understand Millennials.
4. GYPSYs live in fear
Besides having massive expectations for their careers and lifestyles, GYPSYs also have a massive sense of responsibility. The world they’ve grown up in, with the looming threats of resource scarcity, ecological destruction and climate change, is desperately in need of heroes like the ones they’ve been told they should be. This means, if a GYPSY fails to reach their full potential, they’re not just letting themselves down, they are letting down their children, their planet, the whole world.
From the day we arrived on it, we knew that Earth was in trouble. The 80s, when most Millennials were born, saw the first concerted efforts to do something about climate change, acid rain, ozone depletion and nuclear fallout. Our parents, thanks to Silent Spring, the moon landing, and tragedies like Love Canal and Chernobyl, had a newfound respect for nature and the danger humans posed to it. They passed it on to Gen Y every way they could, via Earth Day, nature tables, animal documentaries and Captain Planet.
But as we aged, things kept getting worse. By the time we reached adulthood, we understood that everything from extreme poverty to war in the Middle East to the Great Recession and climate change were all symptoms of the same broken system. In 2015, GYPSYs know that they have to do something about it, or bear the consequences. But the enormity of the task is terrifying.
Urban says that GYPSYs see themselves as protagonists in “a very special story” because their parents and culture have constantly told them so. The problem is that story is not a trip from rags to riches like Cinderella or David Copperfield, it’s like Star Wars or Lord of the Rings; a quest to slay the monster. We accept that we are the chosen ones, meaning that if we screw up, there’s more on the line than just our personal happiness. The whole world is at stake. The GYPSYs’ inflated sense of self isn’t just making them sad, it’s making them feel guilty. Unable to live up to Frodo, Luke or Harry, our generation is paralyzed by fear of the destruction headed our way, and our potential inadequacy to stop it.
Of course, other generations have lived with fear, but the ecological breakdown promised by climate change, peak oil and resource scarcity is not the same as the threat of nuclear war faced by Baby Boomers. Our parents didn’t build the bomb, and their daily actions like shopping, driving and eating didn’t make the bomb grow bigger. Protesting nukes was easy, because you didn’t have to change anything about your own life to do it. You were blameless, and the solution was relatively simple. But fighting climate change requires vast and complex changes to how we power, fund, transport, clothe, and feed our society.
In other words, Gen Y has grown up with two narratives in direct competition with one another. The first is that we can and must achieve fame and riches while travelling, shopping and founding a tech startup. The second is that if we do any of those things, we’ll doom our species to destruction. We have to choose a story, knowing that being the hero of one automatically makes us the villain of the other.
Urban points out that Gen Y is obsessed with ‘career satisfaction’ and it’s true; in the years since we’ve entered the workforce, half the articles written by and for Millennials have been about finding work with purpose. In other words, we’re trying to unify the two competing narratives in our minds, by finding a way to do well and do good. The question is, can it be done?
At the end of his piece, Urban gives some sound advice for overcoming GYPSY angst; don’t assume that you’re special before you’ve worked hard to earn it, and don’t compare yourself to the carefully curated Facebook personas of others. In short, he makes the wise, if difficult, suggestion to reject the first rags-to-riches story.
But Urban also suggests that the GYPSY stay wildly ambitious; “The current world is bubbling with opportunity for an ambitious person to find flowery, fulfilling success. The specific direction may be unclear, but it’ll work itself out — just dive in somewhere.”
And that’s where my advice for dealing with GYPSY fear comes in. Why not direct your energy into slaying the monster? Gen Y has the chance to channel all of our heroic sense of specialness, our wild ambition, into fixing inequality, climate change, and all the other problems the rags-to-riches story creates.
But we’ve been over this. The monsters are too big, no one can slay them on their own.
And that is what’s always missing from all of the narratives our society tells — no story ever just has one character. You don’t need to do it alone, just like your grandpa didn’t personally shoot Hitler during WWII. You are one of many GYPSYs — all of whom face the same great challenges, and all of whom can work together to solve them.
Because the worst thing about our fear and super-specialness is that it distracts us from the fear and super-specialness of others. You’re not alone — in being special, or in being responsible for fixing the world. Gen Y is in this together. And once you accept that, it’s going to be easier to apply your ambition to the talents you have to offer the world, rather than taking it all on yourself. Not only that, but once you start to see other GYPSYs as allies, you might even be able to celebrate their successes, rather than envy them.
Our generation has been told that they are the heroes of a very special story. The secret to ending it happily might be to remember that Frodo was part of a Fellowship, and that Harry was part of Dumbledore’s Army. The next couple of decades are going to be rough, and we’re going to need all our super-specialness put together to get through them.
Using our talents for good and doing it alongside others; two things that will make us GYPSYs a little less frightened, and a lot happier.
About the Author
Harriet Riley is a climate specialist, TV producer and award-winning writer bringing the voice of the planet to non-profits, government, and entertainment. As a Senior Strategist at Purpose she has worked with a range of exciting clients including EDF, Unilever, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
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