Millennials Suck At This Basic Part of Adulthood

According to a lot of crusty old journalists, Millennials don't know anything about life. We're destined to ruin the world with our anti-marriage, anti-credit, anti-American belief systems and our pro-choice, pro-feminist bullshit. Another reason we'll be the end of the nuclear family or whatever it is that conservatives are so worried about? Millennials don't know how to care for clothing. Okay, Science — I'm listening.

A new study published in Family and Consumer Sciences Research Journal has revealed that Millennials are basically fumbling babies lacking opposable thumbs when it comes to caring for their clothing. According to Science Daily, Pamela Norum, professor in the Department of Textile and Apparel Management in the MU College of Human Environmental Sciences, surveyed over 500 Americans of the Baby Boomer and Millennial generations. She found that,

While baby boomers generally had much more knowledge of clothes repair and laundry than millennials, millennials who reported to have taken sewing classes or who had been taught to sew by a family member had more overall clothes repair skills than those that had no education on the subject. Norum says this indicates the need for increased education on what once was considered common clothing maintenance knowledge.

By that logic, a lack of home economics offerings in high schools is going to be the downfall of society. GOD, THANKS HIGH SCHOOL. What a load of help you were.

That might be an exaggeration. After all, there are some upsides to knowing how to fix a hole in your favorite t-shirt or hem your jeans the real way, sans hem tape. Less waste, for one thing. According to Norum, a large percentage of the 14.3 million tons of textile waste Americans produced in 2012 was the result of lightly damaged clothing being tossed because the owner didn't know how to make a few simple repairs.

"If we, as a nation, want to move toward more sustainable practices in all aspects, we need to evaluate not only how we take care of our clothes, but how we educate younger generations to do so as well," she told Science Daily. I definitely agree that needless waste is a bad thing, but I'm not confident we have a generation-wide crisis on our hands. This does feel a bit like yet another person accusing Millennials of "not knowing" or "not understanding" certain things when it may not be the case.

That said, it might not hurt to brush up on those sewing skills — or at least learn how to effectively hand wash lingerie.