UK Edition
Millennials don't check their bank accounts. Here are 6 other things we're too anxious to do now
The times they are a changin' - and they're now damn tough for us millennials, the generation born between 1980 and 1995, with millennial men in particular financially worse off, having earned £12,500 less than the generation before them by the time they hit 30.
This is adding to our general unease and it may be no coincidence that our age group are now more likely to be targeted by fraudsters than any other. With everything else rising, apart from the money coming in, no wonder we don't want to ruin our day by seeing red on one of our bank statements. UK millennials have the second worse mental well-being rate in the world, with money being our top cause of anxiety and stress.
So, in our technologically driven world, where human interaction is likely to bring out a tsunami of emotion, there are many things to make millennials anxious - but what else do millennials not do?
Pick up the phone
Three quarters of UK adults now own a smartphone, but 25 per cent don't use them to make phone calls. Millennials are the main owners of smartphones, with a whopping 91 per cent of us carrying around a smartphone in our back pockets - but only if we accidentally pocket-dial someone do we actually make a call.
Instead, all general chit-chat takes place on Snapchat, Facebook, Whatsapp and the like, meaning that when somebody does ring us we usually assume they're in trouble.
Ring the doorbell
Social media went a bit mad recently - why don't millennials use doorbells? The general consensus was: "doorbells are scary weird". Instead, young adults claim they just stand on the doorstep and text the person inside to let them in. I mean, anyone could be behind the door. It could be Amazon.
Cook
A survey by Morgan Stanley showed that 53 per cent of millennials say they eat at restaurants at least once a week, compared with 43 per cent of the baby boomers, with those aged 15 to 24 spending an average of between just 11 to 17 minutes daily on food preparation and clean-up activities. This figure makes a whole lot of sense when you consider that 43 per cent of millennials consider themselves 'work martyrs' who regularly stay late at the office and won't take holidays. By contrast, only 29 per cent of everyone else considers themselves a 'work martyr,' so maybe millennials are just too worn out to make themselves a three-course meal when they get home.
On a side note, 19 per cent of 25 to 34 year olds think you can hard-boil an egg in less than two minutes. Look, don't shoot the messenger. I know it takes...umm... I'll get back to you, ok? Via Whatsapp, obviously.
DIY
While our thumbs have more muscles than Hercules - yes, texting is our life - millennials have no idea when it comes to basic DIY. Instead we just get our parents to do it, while we teach them how to use the printer. According to a study in March, 77 per cent of under 35s can't fix a bike puncture, 68 per cent wouldn't know how to wire a plug and, arguably most comical of all, 23 per cent admitted they can’t use a washing machine. Which leads nicely onto our next point...
Use fabric conditioner
U.S. liquid softener sales fell 15% overall between 2007 and 2015, according to the Wall Street Journal. Shailesh Jejurikar, P&G’s head of global fabric care, said that most millennials “don’t know what the product is for". Which is obviously daft, we know it's something to put in that washing machine we can't use. However, when it comes to deciding between soft clothes and being able to pay our rent for the month - well, we're sorry Mr. P&G but we choose rent.
Go to the doctor
As previously suggested, millennials would fall on their sword for their workplace. Unfortunately, they are unlikely to see the doctor if such sabre-wielding accidents were to come to fruition, much preferring to go online and look up their symptoms.
In the UK, more than 54 per cent of millennials said they search online for health information before seeing a clinician, whereas the global average for all patients when it comes to this corner-cutting is 39 per cent. You see, constantly being in front of a screen has meant we're far more likely to use that as our main resource when it comes to something like our health. (I found that out by Googling it.)