One sec, I have to check my texts, Facebook notifications, favorite blogs, 12 snapchats, and read the latest 500 pages of my favorite webcomic. Should just be five more minutes… What? Okay, okay, I’m ready now.

While completing my mandated 3 hours and 34 minutes of daily web browsing (the millennial average according to the Pew Research Center), I found a quiz that asked, “How Millennial Are You?”.  I took it and only scored a 78 out of 100. Realizing that I may be less than a perfect example of a narcissistic, lazy, and entitled stereotype, I made an effort to be generally more egotistical, demanding, and unsympathetic…but then I decided that was too hard.  But I did do some research and put in a lot of work to make…just kidding, I’m a millennial. I don’t do work.

The stereotype of a millennial is of a lazy, entitled, and narcissistic teenager.  As with every new generation, millennials threaten the pre-existing way of life.  Every time this happens, the threatened generations find a way to cope, whether it’s compromising with a Half-Way Covenant like the Puritans in the 1700s, or creating a harsh and relentless stereotype that pits society against the emerging generation, like today. Millennials are a threat, the largest generation living, outnumbering even the Baby Boomers by four million, and because we received plastic trophies that said “AYSA Penguins 2007 Participant”, we are now convinced that we deserve everything there is to be had (or so our elders seem to believe.) We are the most racially diverse generation, the most environmentally conscious, and thanks to modern technology, the most connected.

Everyone is addicted to their phone, not only “young kids these days.” Millennials spend so much time on their phones and browsing the internet to kill time because, obviously, they can trust the older generations to feed them, let them live in their basement, pay for their car and gas, and fight for causes that Millennials believe in (according to the Pew Research Center), such as feminism, climate conservation, environmental protection, strong government, and equal rights.

Or not.  We’re on our phones, yes, to watch that clip of a cat rescuing a baby (who isn’t?), but also to check our Facebook groups and tumblr tags centered around political and social activism. And though our methods may be odd, like dumping ice water onto yourself in front of a camera, they are effective, and can result in as much as $115 million in donations towards one cause.

If most millennials actually uphold the stereotype of being lazy, that means that we will look for the easiest way to complete a task, and create new innovations to save us time and energy, like having your sister help you think of a funny example of something that saves time and energy. A belly button lint vacuum. An anti-wet-dog-smell scented candle. (I wish I owned both and not just one of those things.)

My generation is one of promise, a group of people who, for the most part, understand that global warming has to stop, that all people deserve equal rights, and that pictures of cats sleeping on top of people’s keyboards are indeed hilarious. Millennials aren’t lazy, evil, or entitled.  They’re just new.