Why Israel's millennials refuse to leave home
Israeli parents accuse their 30- and 40-year-old children of being spoiled and uncommitted to work hard as they did, while children blame them for handing over a country in a dire economic and security situation.
The new book by sociologist Oz Almog and educator Tamar Almog, titled "Generation Y: Like there’s no tomorrow," and a series of viral articles by journalist Tzlil Avraham that disputes the book’s conclusions — the first of which is titled “Why Tamar and Oz Almog got everything wrong about millennials" — present two opposing views of the millennials (called Generation Y in Israel), the generation born in the 1980s and 1990s, and their parents.
Avraham and Oz and Tamar Almog actually agree on many points. The main disagreement between them is that the book's authors wish to focus on describing the millennials as reflected in the study they conducted, while Avraham believes that the focus should be on the factors that led to her generation’s behavior, as depicted in the book.
According to the book, the millennials are alienated, egocentric, spoiled, late to mature, dependent on their parents, even exploiting them financially, and shirk responsibility. In an interview with Al-Monitor, Oz Almog emphasized that the book also points to positive characteristics. “It’s a feminist, practical generation, with an attitude of ‘cut the bullshit.’ They are more accepting and open,” he said. “This generation gives negligible weight to ethnic divides and openly accepts the LGBT community. They are exceptionally social and really know how to have a good time.”
Avraham said that she decided to respond to the book, because "if we don't talk about the topic, our parents will, and they will say we are lazy and spoiled." She added that following her series of articles, readers wrote to her things like, “Finally someone wrote what I feel” or “This article is about me.”
