Millennials Have Finally Reached The Stage Where These 11 Things Are Simply Exhausting
RollingCamera / Shutterstock Millennials are no longer in the phase of life where everything feels novel or worth the effort. After years of juggling economic uncertainty, career pressure, and constant digital noise, many have reached a point of collective fatigue. Things that once felt manageable now register as unnecessarily draining, as millennials have now reached a stage where things they could once let slide are now simply exhausting.
With age and self-awareness comes a sharper sense of what actually deserves our time and energy. Millennials are increasingly unwilling to pour themselves into expectations that offer little return. What once felt like it was just the way life works now feels far too inefficient, performative, or emotionally costly.
Millennials have finally reached the stage where these 11 things are simply exhausting
1. How expensive everything has become
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Millennials have finally reached the stage where the high cost of living has become simply exhausting. They’re more than just tired: They’re completely exhausted and depleted. Many millennials entered the workforce at the height of the Great Recession. They were highly educated but unable to find steady work. This economic “slow start” rippled outward. Many millennials are still trying to make up for lost time in a workforce with stagnating wages as the cost of living rises.
Millennials have been hit especially hard by the high cost of living. Their quality of life is nowhere near what their Boomer parents had at the same age. Most are just trying to stay afloat and pay their rent, let alone save for a home. The overarching narrative from boomers has maintained that millennials could buy houses if they stopped buying avocado toast and oat milk lattes, but millennials’ reality is much starker than that. Not buying their special little treats wouldn’t dent their practically non-existent savings.
Millennials are tired of barely being able to afford a roof over their heads, and they’re especially tired of being told that not owning property is somehow their fault rather than due to factors entirely out of their control.
2. Chasing a traditional career path
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Millennials are tired of being told that following a traditional career path will bring security and success, even though their lived experience has proven otherwise. Millennials went to college like they were told, only to discover that a degree didn’t guarantee steady work. While their Gen X and boomer parents likely stayed at one company for the entirety of their working lives, millennials entered a workforce with significantly less stability.
As of 2011, millennials didn’t feel as financially secure as boomers. While 54% of older adults rated their financial situation as “good” or “excellent,” only 33% of younger adults did the same. The idea that you should have one job throughout a lifetime no longer applies. Millennials have had to redefine and reimagine what success means, and they’re tired of hearing that success is based on the longevity of your career.
3. Pressure to have a side hustle pressure
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Along with losing the desire for a traditional career path, millennials faced intense pressure to pursue a side hustle, as though monetizing their hobbies would provide economic stability. The rise of influencers coincided with the rise of the gig economy, which is a fancy way of saying millennials must work multiple jobs to make ends meet.
Millennials entered adulthood in the era of the girl boss. Hustle culture was highly celebrated rather than being seen for what it is: a glorified demand that people work themselves to the bone. Millennials were told to equate their productivity with their self-worth, which is no way to find fulfillment. The grind mentality is so pervasive that many millennials feel deep unease when they’re not working.
Defining their identities through the jobs they hold has kept them trapped in a cycle of stress, making them feel inadequate, as if nothing they do will ever be enough. Millennials are now questioning this mindset, and even outright rejecting it. They’re learning their jobs will never love them back, no matter how many overtime hours they work. They’re separating their hobbies from the pressure of the side hustle. Millennials are discovering that having fun for fun's sake will lift their spirits and nourish their souls, and at this stage, they are exhausted from their side hustles.
4. The lack of work-life balance
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Another thing millennials now find simply exhausting is their lack of work-life balance. Being part of the gig economy means many employers don’t offer basic benefits, like healthcare or a living wage, which are necessary for survival. To deal with this, millennials are fighting the good fight against burnout, a byproduct of their ingrained hustle culture mentality.
As life coach Ronald Legge reveals, “Our chaotic culture makes it hard to separate work and business in our lives. Because of smartphones, computers, and social media, beating burnout becomes a lifelong process."
"Organizations pressure employees to produce, over-praise those who don't exercise healthy work boundaries,” he continued, noting that many people reject the idea that overworking is a badge of honor.
To combat the fatigue of the grind, Legge suggests setting boundaries and putting yourself first. He advises setting aside time for family and friends, making time for mindfulness, having fun, and moving your body.
“You deserve a joyful, meaningful life,” he concluded.
5. The high cost of childcare
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Millennials who have kids are tired of the astronomical cost of childcare. The U.S. Department of Labor analyzed five years of childcare costs and found that those expenses are close to one-fifth of a family’s yearly income for just one child. They noted that many mothers leave the workforce to care for their children, as childcare costs more than college tuition in over half of the country.
The cost of raising kids is almost untenable for many families, and those costs are even affecting millennials who don’t have kids. Many people decide against having children because they can’t afford it. Rising economic pressures shouldn’t so profoundly influence the future of someone’s family, yet it seems like there’s no clear solution.
At this stage in their lives, millennials are simply exhausted from being gaslit about how much it costs to raise kids, as though the future didn’t depend on them.
6. Everything relying on technology
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Millennials were the first generation to come of age in the digital era. They were the last generation to experience life with and without the internet. This means they know both the extreme boredom of lying on the kitchen floor and staring up at the ceiling and the intensity of being instantly connected to all the world’s information and everyone they’ve ever met.
At this stage, millennials are tired of feeling too dependent on technology. They’re reachable no matter what and overwhelmed by the constant stream of news alerts, texts, and notifications. The ability to separate their work life from their home life is more complex than ever since they hear the swoosh of a work email arriving, whether they want to.
Many millennials long for what they had in their childhoods: endless time to daydream, walk in nature, and be with friends without their phones buzzing. Technology and its constant demands have become simply exhausting.
7. Needing to use dating apps
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At this stage, millennials find the need for dating apps and everything that goes along with them to be simply exhausting. They’re over the cycle of swiping, chatting, and getting their hopes up, only to be ghosted. Millennials aren’t the only ones to see how toxic dating apps are, as evidenced by a lawsuit against Match Group, the dating app parent company, in which the plaintiff’s lawyers argued that the purpose of dating apps is “to transform users into gamblers locked in a search for psychological rewards that Match makes elusive on purpose.”
“Harnessing powerful technologies and hidden algorithms, Match intentionally designs the platforms with addictive, game-like design features, which lock users into a perpetually pay-to-play loop,” the lawyers claimed. “Users with unlimited swipes will chase the elusive high of matching, match more often, and fall victim to ghosting and breadcrumbing at higher rates.”
Millennials now find shallow conversations that lead nowhere overwhelming. They want real love and genuine connection, which doesn't have to come from apps.
8. Putting off milestones
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Millennials are tired of having to put off life milestones and being held to standards that feel impossible to them. They've experienced political and social events that completely shifted how the world works. They've lived through 9/11 and the subsequent Iraq and Afghanistan wars. They've lived through a major economic collapse and a global pandemic. Their lives haven’t unfolded as expected, affecting their ability to hit specific markers of adulthood.
In 2020, the Pew Research Center reported that millennials were less likely to live with their own family, defined as having a spouse or children than past generations. Additionally, 14% of millennials still lived with their parents, and another 14% lived with other family members.
The old indicators of what was seen as successful adulthood no longer hold. Many millennials can’t afford to buy a home, pay for a wedding, or raise children. Now they're tired of their lives being measured by milestones so far from their reality that they’re nearly impossible to reach.
9. The pervasiveness of comparison culture
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Millennials are tired of the innate comparison that comes with being chronically online. Comparison culture can be quiet and insidious, and it’s easy to fall into the trap of measuring your life against some internet stranger’s, only to feel like you fall short.
In a YourTango survey on comparison culture, 62% of respondents said it is problematic or somewhat problematic, and 73% said they noticed a connection between comparison culture and depression or other mental health challenges. Comparing yourselves to others takes focus away from what you have, and millennials are tired of being caught in the constant cycle of feeling bad about themselves at this stage.
10. Having to sit through an endless stream of outdated advice
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Millennials are tired of getting outdated advice from older people who lack an understanding of how drastically times have changed. Boomers built their adult lives in a wildly different cultural context, yet they still expect their millennial children to reach the same goalposts, offering well-meaning but misguided advice.
Millennials are tired of receiving impractical advice and of being expected to be grateful for it. They are doing their best with what they have, which is all they can do now and in the future.
11. Toxic positivity
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Toxic positivity is exhausting for millennials because it turns real emotions into problems that need to be fixed instead of understood. Being told to just stay positive, look on the bright side, or know that everything happens for a reason might sound supportive, but it often shuts down honest conversation. After navigating recessions, student debt, burnout culture, and constant uncertainty, millennials are acutely aware that optimism without acknowledgment can feel dismissive. What they want is permission to be real about what’s hard.
Psychologists have noted that suppressing negative emotions in favor of forced positivity can actually increase stress and emotional fatigue. Avoiding or minimizing difficult emotions often leads to greater psychological distress over time, not less. That’s why many millennials are done with feel-good platitudes that bypass reality. They’re choosing emotional honesty over empty reassurance because they know that acknowledging the truth is often the first step toward actually feeling better.
Alexandra Blogier, MFA, is a writer who covers psychology, social issues, relationships, self-help topics, and human interest stories.
