Another Reason To Stop Watching The Hills?

The other night, I was listening to the radio (yeah, I heard I was the last one on earth who still does this) and the DJ was discussing a new ailment claiming pretty much anyone under the age of 25. This new disease: The Hills Syndrome.

No, it’s not what you would think, not an obsession with trashy TV, trying to keep up on the latest fashions, or incestuous dating, but instead a nearly non-existent work ethic. That’s right, watching The Hills is making you a bad employee.

Initially, I scoffed at the woman’s assertions (I will give her the Spencer points though, since he has no job – unless he considers being Heidi’s boyfriend/ “manager” a full time gig.) I have been known to watch The Hills from time to time, and am still capable of holding down a job. And, for whatever points it’s worth, I’ve even commented to my friends during a Hills viewing about the amazing yet easy seeming jobs the cast snags. How the hell they manage to get them with no degrees or really any intelligence, and how they hold on to them considering the better part of their day is spent out around town, texting, partying , chatting, or twirling their hair, is beyond me. I think it is safe to assume if it wasn’t for MTV, LC and the gals would be living solely off their Laguna Beach allowances.

But I digress. After taking a moment to ponder the work ethic of early twenty-somethings such as myself, I have to admit I don’t think I have the same desire to “get my hands dirty” as say, my parents or grandparents did in their early twenties. Rather than it being a result of “The Hills” though, I think it has a little something to do with a sense of entitlement from being what I like to call, a Millennial. (Millennial is great word huh? I wish I could take credit for that little catch phrase, but it was actually a friend of mine who mentioned it.)

The word Millennial stems from the idea that we — being a generation who came to age in the new millennium — have had a serious amount of information and technology at our disposal since we were old enough to sit up at a computer screen. We’ve never really had to look that far for information, whether it be for writing a paper on censorship or how to make a killer margarita, information in any form on anything has always been literally at our fingertips.

With all this information and technology, we as a generation were able to bypass many of the horrors of school our parents and older generations had to deal with, such as actually searching through piles of books for research, using a typewriter (with no delete button) or worse, hand writing papers.

Also, as I plug my iPod into my computer for a quick re-charge, I am also reminded of the massive amounts of distraction we are surrounded by which allows us to half-ass most things and multi-task virtually always. Think iPod, cell phone, TV’s in every room, internet, etc. Distractions much?

As for the feeling of entitlement in our generation, (i.e. I know how to do everything, I went to college, and my mom said I am smart) we have gotten so used to having everything that no one is willing to just suck it up and start at the bottom. And why would we want to, when our whole lives we have been made to feel that going to college automatically gives us an upper-hand? I admit I left college thinking, “well, now that I have this degree I don’t need to worry about applying for those silly entry level jobs, I clearly have what it takes — I went to college, remember?” Well, the truth sure did hurt, and I found myself planted nicely in an entry level job.

But how many of us are excited to take that entry level job when there are so many better jobs out there? Out of everyone I’ve talked to, not many were psyched at the chance to do data entry or work the front desk or in the mail room or the midnight shift. Actually, scratch that, no one was psyched.

So, back on the question of the work ethic, I have to admit, I am definitely that girl who checks her personal email when no one is looking. I’ll send text messages to my friends when I have a spare second. And when I get bored and no one is watching, I cruise TMZ. If I could get away with it, I’d nap and paint my nails, but I think the fumes and my head down on the desk would give me away. That admitted, I still think I have a pretty good work ethic. I show up on time, every day (hung-over or not) do what I am supposed to do and do a pretty damn good job.

So, I’ve decided: maybe the definition of work ethic has been altered thanks to us multi-tasking, technologically savvy, reality TV obsessed Millennials, but please, oh please don’t give that much credit to The Hills!