This was published 6 years ago
Backlash after pretentious 'sorry' from millennial travellers from Global Degree goes viral
By Ben Groundwater
A viral travel video, in which a self-proclaimed spokesman for millennials "apologises" to older travellers for his generation's adventurous spirit and refusal to conform, has caused uproar on Facebook this week.
The short clip, produced by an online travellers' collective called Global Degree, has outraged older travellers by claiming that millennials are changing the travel world by seizing the opportunities presented to them by modern society – and that the older generation isn't living, but "merely existing".
"We're sorry," the narrator begins. "Sorry for being unable to sit still in an office. We fail to see the difference between working on a laptop in a cubicle, and or on a beach in Indonesia.
Michael Graziano and Alexander Thomas James Hennessy from Global Degree.Credit: Facebook/Global Degree
"Sorry for not seeing the value in paying $30,000 a year to sit in a century-year-old lecture hall and learn about things that are free online. Even though they're free, we're still not interested in them.
"Sorry if we take photos and videos of everything we do and share with our friends online. It was someone's post and words of encouragement that gave us the strength to follow our passions in the first place."
The video's true descent into pretentiousness, however, comes when the narrator begins accusing older travellers of willfully choosing a boring, conformist life at home when they could all be out shooting viral travel videos on their iPhones and living the dream.
"Sorry if we keep saying we can change the world," the narrator says. "We know you can also see the opportunity, but may feel too old or poor to do something about it. When really you do have a choice. And if you can't see this opportunity… that's a problem in itself."
That should be enough to have every traveller over the age of 30 spraying tea all over their boring, stationary home computers with rage; however, the video's final line is the real kicker: "We believe there is a difference between living and merely existing. But there isn't much difference between merely existing and death. So for that reason, we choose to live."
So there it is. According to Global Degree, if you're not currently travelling the world, footloose and fancy free, without a formal education, but with the belief that you're somehow changing the world by taking photos of stuff for Instagram (#travelinspo), then you might as well be dead.
The reaction on Facebook has been predictably brutal, with some commenters calling the video "arrogant", "pretentious", and "BS". It has also, however, received a frightening amount of support from younger travellers, with some saying "True!", "This literally made my heart full", and "I love this video – perfect explanation".
Ordinarily, I wouldn't want to get into any sort of intergenerational battle. Yes, there are characteristics that people of a certain age tend to display, but grouping all people by their generation and expecting them to conform to that idea is as silly as saying all Americans are boorish, or all French people are rude. It's not true, and anyone who has travelled as much as the Global Degree guys claim to have should know that already.
And yet here they are, unwittingly encapsulating everything people tend to despise about their generation in three and a half minutes of pretentious garbage. Impressive.
Global Degree is a group of three young videographers – Michael Graziano, Alexander Hennessy and Andrew Santos – who are attempting to visit every country on Earth as part of their "real-world education". That's an admirable goal, and I'm sure they're probably great guys to hang out with. However, sometimes the hyper-connected global web-world that the trio love so much also gives people the opportunity to commit something dumb to the permanent record, and that seems to be what has happened here.
"Sorry," the narrator says, "for not buying into the whole society expectation of a mortgage, a family, and kids. Without a doubt these things will be great experiences. But so is swimming with sharks in South Africa, dancing with tribes in PNG, and tobogganing down a volcano in Nicaragua.
"You may call these things selfish, but we believe that being in a relationship, or raising kids while regretting not doing all of those things is also selfish. Why surround the people we love with our own pain and grief?"
Ouch. Let's see their faces when someone makes them watch that again in 10 or 15 years' time.
It's a completely natural and understandable thing, of course, to believe that the first time you do something or visit somewhere is the first time anyone has done or seen it. Who hasn't written excited emails or letters home from somewhere exotic that they've "discovered", only to realise a few months later that just about everyone else has already been there and done the exact same things? And that's OK. It happens.
The problem comes when you start accusing older generations of missing these experiences because they're too scared, or too old, or too poor. Do you really think no one has done this stuff before? Do you really think you're living this life purely due to your own smarts, and not the privilege that being born a white Westerner affords?
"Call us entitled, privileged, or whatever names you want," the narrator says. "But excuse us for ignoring you and proceeding forward."
Ha – by all means, dear millennials, proceed forward. Please. Proceed forward to a point where you come to recognise your own incredible privilege in being able to choose to live the life of a "digital nomad". Proceed forward to a point where you understand that people working two jobs to support their family and lift them above the poverty line are not failing to see an "opportunity", but rather doing what it takes to survive when they haven't been born extremely lucky.
Proceed forward to a point where you realise that many, many people before you, people of all ages and creeds, have taken the chance to travel the world and explore and experience new and amazing things, but have had the self-awareness not to boast about it or claim it as unique. Proceed forward to a point where you can see that this video is a pretentious pile of tripe, and probably should be deleted.
With love, every other traveller.
See also: 11 mistakes first time travellers make
See also: The dumb things we do overseas
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