If you were born between roughly 1985 and 2005, you’ve probably heard the accusations: Millennials were coddled too much as children; millennials are lazy; millennials have unrealistic expectations of adult life; millennials are too focused on their smartphones; millennials don’t go outside.
It seems there is yet another criticism to add to the laundry list of qualms about millennial.
Apparently, millennials are so apathetic, we eat less cereal than past generations because we don’t feel like cleaning the bowl when we’re done.
In a piece regarding the state of cereal today, The New York Times published statistics detailing millennial cereal consumption from market research firm Mintel. “Almost 40 percent of the millennials surveyed by Mintel for its 2015 report said cereal was an inconvenient breakfast choice because they had to clean up after eating it,” The Times wrote.
As a millennial who loves cereal and hates doing dishes, this study seemed like some sort of breakfast-oriented personal attack. It would be easy to point out that my generation doesn’t make a great showing at the polls, yet we’re always the first in line to buy the newest iPhone. But to say we avoid one of the greatest breakfast gifts just because we don’t feel like scrubbing a bowl for two minutes? That’s playing dirty.
Maybe millennials are just technology-obsessed sloths who don’t know the difference between dish soap and laundry detergent. Maybe we’re all just paying thousands of dollars for college each year so someone else will clean our cereal bowls after we’re done eating in the dining halls. Maybe all the anger we have toward baby boomers and the horrid economic conditions they left us in is being redirected towards cereal, an undeserving victim of our rage.
I wasn’t sure what to do with all of my millennial-related cereal pondering. I took to a dining hall to find answers.
“This is actually my first time getting cereal [at the dining hall],” freshman public health science major Erin Murphy said, gesturing toward a bowl filled with remnants of Special K.
When I told her about the study, Murphy chuckled.
“I think [the cereal study] is pretty inaccurate,” she said. “I don’t understand where [the results] even come from.”
Others weren’t as quick to dismiss Mintel’s study results. Ashley Hoare, a sophomore public health science major, agreed with what Mintel had found.
“[The study probably gives] an accurate description,” she said. “I do think we’re probably pretty lazy.”
The Times did note that younger generations have shirked cereal in favor of “hot grains, smoothies, yogurt or breakfast sandwiches.” So maybe millennials aren’t lazy; maybe we’re really smart. I would like to think the turn from cereal isn’t because we’re too tired to clean the bowl, but because we know that somewhere on the horizon lies a bacon, egg and cheese sandwich that’s three times as filling and involves little to no cleanup.
So what is the solution to the serial cereal ignorance? Invent a new cereal made up of only shredded breakfast sandwiches? Start a trend that involves simply pouring milk directly into the box? Invent a self-cleaning cereal bowl?
Whatever the solution is, cereal companies better come up with something quick. As far as many millennials are concerned, cereal isn’t the most important meal of the day; it’s just a semi-important snack for when you have time to clean a bowl.
