Snowflakes

[Davey Do]

Three snows already this season. I needed a snowflake character.

Snowflake as a slang term involves the derogatory usage of the word snowflake to refer to a person... perceived by others to have an inflated sense of uniqueness or an unwarranted sense of entitlement, or to be over-emotional, easily offended, and unable to deal with opposing opinions. Wikipedia

Hence, the Snowflake Song cartoon.

Not directed at anyone in particular.

Just having fun with a concept.

​

[Ruby Vee, BSN]

Agreed wholeheartedly with this. Same goes for mocking people who need "safe spaces." Just because someone is not personally dealing with an issue, doesn't mean it's necessarily not a real problem for someone else.

While it is true that just because someone is not personally dealing with an issue doesn't mean it's not a real problem for someone else, I have difficulty with "safe spaces" at college. It was my understanding that one went to college to get an education, to encounter new ideas and to learn about how other people think. I can understand the safe space to protect a student from racism, say, or sexual assault. But my college professor friends tell me that they have to create safe spaces so students aren't confronted with any new IDEAS. That baffles me.

[Ruby Vee, BSN]

Maybe "COB" will kill off "NETY"!!! Any mention of "biter nurses"?

I think that one started on the first COB thread.

[guest1054874]

In my experience living in and working with radical and left leaning communities is that often people who are bothered by the needs for safe spaces also tend to be white, straight, cisgender people who are entitled to safety in most situations and places the enter. Not everyone is wrongfully targeted and harassed by police for the color of their skin, at risk of being sexually assaulted or accused of "asking for" sexual harassment for the clothes they are wearing, at risk of being threatened or harassed for their sexual orientation, at risk for being murdered for not disclosing assigned gender at birth on a first date, accused of stealing for being a POC nurse in a white patients room looking for treatment supplies to name a few examples. Just because you experience the world one way doesn't mean that is everyone's truth. I don't think the problem is people are too soft or too sensitive, on the contrary I think marginalized and oppressed people have to be more strong and resilient out in the world navigating more obstacles and setbacks than many of our peers. So yah it's nice to have our own spaces where we can live and breathe without hyper vigilantly navigating the systemic oppression, threats of danger, micro aggressions, and threats to our bodies and psyche navigating a white man's world.

[Bonstemps, EMT-P]

But my college professor friends tell me that they have to create safe spaces so students aren't confronted with any new IDEAS. That baffles me.

Really? Can you tell me more? I have been in academia a while now, in a very red state and in a very blue state, and have never encountered this. I know that doesn't mean it doesn't happen, but, if that is true, they are ... doing it wrong. That is not what a safe space is, or supposed to be.

[Davey Do]

I think you mean for the heart to display instead of dispay?

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Davey, you little drama queen.

[Davey Do]

I work with someone who I guess could also be considered a snowflake, based on the definition that Davey provided. He is kind of pushing the millennial age range bracket, though...he's in his 60s.(

So are you saying this guy is a POS (pompous old snowflake) LOL

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[Daisy4RN]

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Uh Oh DaveyDo, did we hit a nerve there....if the snow shoe fits...

[Davey Do]

...if the snow shoe fits...

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[JBMmom, MSN, NP]

I think that the young people leaving the education world and entering the workforce are largely a product of the environment created by a generation of parents that were, for some reason, rejecting the upbringing they experienced- where they were not lead to believe they were the center of the universe. I remember being teased quite a bit when I was younger (as an overweight, hair permed, freckle faced youngster with braces and thick glasses I was sort of asking for it), and no one ever referred to it as bullying. I had to get over it (and answer one particularly mean girl for the thousandth time that I did not get my clothes out of a dumpster), and in many ways it made me stronger when I realized that her mean words didn't actually cause me any harm. My parents did not attend every single event I ever participated in, nor did they make my meager attempts at athletics sound like I was worthy of Olympic medals. When you're never presented with an accurate perspective about your existence, how can you develop an appropriate sense of how to fit in when you enter a workplace? I only hope when this generation starts to raise their own children, they can see where things went astray and come back. But then again, without an example in their own lives, that will be hard.

[Davey Do]

I doff my proverbial hat to your post, JBMmom!

[Bonstemps, EMT-P]

I think that the young people leaving the education world and entering the workforce are largely a product of the environment created by a generation of parents that were, for some reason, rejecting the upbringing they experienced- where they were not lead to believe they were the center of the universe. I remember being teased quite a bit when I was younger (as an overweight, hair permed, freckle faced youngster with braces and thick glasses I was sort of asking for it), and no one ever referred to it as bullying. I had to get over it (and answer one particularly mean girl for the thousandth time that I did not get my clothes out of a dumpster), and in many ways it made me stronger when I realized that her mean words didn't actually cause me any harm. My parents did not attend every single event I ever participated in, nor did they make my meager attempts at athletics sound like I was worthy of Olympic medals. When you're never presented with an accurate perspective about your existence, how can you develop an appropriate sense of how to fit in when you enter a workplace? I only hope when this generation starts to raise their own children, they can see where things went astray and come back. But then again, without an example in their own lives, that will be hard.

There is no landing place this generation needs to "come back to". Every generation looks at the one that comes after and has something to say, yearns for a return to the "right" or "better" way. A lot of your examples are widely used in order to discuss millennial "disorder" but are actually not as uncommon, nuanced or based in one generational reality as formerly believed.

The trophy generation concept is actually widely discussed and many are coming to see it as a partial "myth"; Most social groups did not adhere to this behavior. I can source plenty of studies and articles, but I am sure you could come back with definite "proof" that states otherwise. That is why I say it is debated. Unless you were in a highly privileged area, you weren't seeing handouts of cheap medallions and trophies.

I find it interesting that you reference bullying, and its lack of being so named, and use it as a way to illustrate a point of strength. There is NO correlation between bullying and character development; there is however a correlation between bullying and depressions anxiety and suicide. It does not matter if it is named.

A lot of the issues the generation faces are low wages and high student debt, low wages regardless of the presence of debt, a work force that won't retire, outdated workplaces, less 'vacation' time as compared with the previous generation, and more. These all contribute to wellness. I have plenty of sources on that, too, and they make for great discussion.

It is strange to claim that the generation does not have an accurate sense of existence. Of course, any generation does and does not to some extent. I would say the millennial generation is hyper aware of its position and understands very well how little they fit in as it relates to the standards of the former generations.

This will be the same for every generation that comes next; this thread has inspired me not to question, ad nauseam, the worth and experiences of those who come next, but to listen.

(I am an "older" millennial and never experienced the trophy-age, was bullied with no repercussions, etc., the millennial narrative is broken and has been by the reiterative attention of misinformed media.)

[Bonstemps, EMT-P]

Also, I thought you all would find this interesting: BBC - Capital - People have always whinged about young adults. Here's proof