Why Everything Feels So Millennial Coded

When did everything become so Millennial coded? Every movie now is rife with millennial humor, you know the type: snarky, self-referential banter, a machine gun rip of one-liners, pop-culture drops, and heroes who trauma-dump via sarcasm. It’s become so common that it’s become the norm, it makes you wonder if we’ve ever known any other way? And don’t forget about the economic dependance the consumerist beast has on non-stop nostalgia baiting. So fine of an art nostalgia baiting has become, interwoven through each interconnected metaverse of collectable IPs feeding the ever growing Disney empire. Quirky Disney adults marching with their baby Yodas, in neat lines, the mouse’s ears atop a head filled with all the dopamine one could ask for and it’s all just one tap of the card away. And it’s not normal, but rather the result of a particular set of circumstances. Once upon a time things were very different, they weren’t so meta, not so self aware. Companies merchandised the simple old fashioned way: with sugar and kid’s TV shows that were made to sell toys, to kids, like the good Lord intended. The reality is that we are very far away from such an innocent time, we live in the age of the millennial, and we have for quite a while now. But, why? Why is everything 80’s and 90’s, plus a dash of early 2000s instead of say… the 50’s or 20’s? And will there come a time when we are nostalgic for the 2010s? No, don’t be silly. The simple answer is that Millennials are loud, you could say they’re cultural heavyweights, and the reasons go far deeper than memes or social media algorithms, or even population size and wealth.