Due to advanced technology nowadays, current generation or what is known to be the Millennials (people with 1980s as starting birth years and the mid-1990s to early 2000s as ending birth years) could voice out publicly their thoughts and opinions to any situation, issues about the current happenings, and things in just a few clicks to thousands of people and could possibly be shared to millions in just a couple of tap. Before this advancement, you would have to walk down to corners where newsstands is located when it opens in early mornings and purchase a local or even international edition of newspapers, reporting the happenings that have happened the day before which differs from today that a click or even a couple to any platforms from any news source anywhere around the globe to keep updated is enough.

Most people from Generation-x and Boomers are the one who’s frequently claiming that the latest generation is the most easily-offended among the rest in the records. From cultural-appropriation, LGBTQ rights, to political views, everything, and you name it, slips any word that contradicts the perspective of another and it will spread to the point that it will become a trend, following the answers of millions that are against those words.

The latest generation is called Generation Snowflake for a reason for the previous ones because according to studies, they have been trained to seek out a reason to be offended or taking more offense, and having less psychological resilience than the previous ones. Although this is considered a derogatory term, some Gen-x and boomers agree to this since they think that Millennials are being too emotionally vulnerable to cope with views that challenge their own.

What Psychologists Say About It

People have been offended since the dawn of time according to Jon Quil, it’s just that the only thing that has changed is the thing that they get offended about. Hideous crimes has always been there even during Before Christ (B.C.) and The year of Christ (A.D.) it is just that, today, these crimes are just more televised due to the current technological advancements that’s why news about these crimes could reach people and inform them about it around the globe in a minute. The same things go to the issue about millennials being too easily offended. Given that these millennials have an easier way and bigger platform to complain about served on the table, if you would compare it before, it is just a modern way of like these gen-x and boomers complaining about being in the same room with black Americans and Jews with their protest signs. In other words, if anyone would have a platform like today such as Facebook, Twitter or even YouTube, where they could whine and complain about a thing as such mention above, some of them would probably do, even as much as we can. Take this, isn’t funny that those generations before the Millennials are mad, describing Millennials as both best at insulting everything and getting easily offended, and getting offended that millennials are offended by these things that they think are offensive.

According to clinical studies about how Millennials are described as being too sensitive or too self-entitled, for some, these words might be true and an absolute language, however you should also go further about where this is coming from, for instance, let us say that you sure are impossible to offend, but you can proudly say this because you are in a privileged place since there are plenty of legitimately offensive stuff in the world but you could only identify some of it because it depends on one’s perspective. In other words, it is valid to understand where it is coming from, that being offended doesn’t just mean one reaction to one instigation.

About 20 percent of the population is genetically predisposed to empathy — they have highly sensitive brains that respond intensely to both negative and positive stimuli. Their emotional reactions are such that things are a bigger deal to them than the rest of the population, whether it’s a sensitivity to the feelings of others, themselves, or overall perception of injustice. (Brook, 2003) On the other side people who think the world is in a good state and dandy tend to have a diminished sense of moral outrage. Those who want to feel better about the status quo adopt beliefs that justify the way things are — and huff at the people who try to pull them away from that line of thinking. (UN, 2007) People often engage in cognitive adjustments that preserve a distorted image of reality in which existing institutions are seen as more equitable and just than they are.

Verdict

As someone that comes from the latest generation who have been accused of being easily offended, I can guarantee that it is not all of us. Being offended is a matter of choice that it is up to the person whether he will be or won’t get offended and whether what generation he comes from. Both parties should learn more about acceptance of people.