“The sloth is the spirit animal of the Millennial generation”- that’s the title of a Buzzfeed article from July, 2013. They weren’t wrong. Millennials (born between 1980 and 2000) take immense pleasure in thrilling mid-afternoon naps; sometimes a serious amount of crumbs fall off of them when they get up, and when asked a question their immediate instinct is to flee incredibly slowly. Time Magazine issued some broad descriptions: “…They’re lazy. They’re coddled. They’re even a bit delusional.” But they don’t always drag around their three-toes. Generation Y is a better generation than what it’s perceived to be. Politics, economics and technology have all been trees that every Millennial has climbed once or twice. Of course, some were faster than others.

You know you’re a sloth when, at least 80 percent of the time, people aren’t being chill enough and have to stop being so weird and stressy. Politics are more laid back to Millennials who are active participants in government both at the local and national level. In fact, a Hamilton College study calculated that eighty eight percent of young adults (age 18-24) are registered voters and have voted consistently in previous elections. They can definitely use their video-game playing thumbs for ballot button pushing yet they’re still viewed as the ultimate couch potatoes. The fact is, Millennials are just more likely to let go of personal liberties for the security of their “me me me” generation. These viewpoints came from defining moments in their lives: the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, 9/11, and the Columbine and Virginia Tech shootings. Events alone can make them a generation of awareness, even though sloths have chronically bad eyesight.

You know you’re a sloth when one of your favorite summer activities is sitting outside (preferably in a tree) and eating fruit real slow like. That’s only after a hard day’s work of climbing some branches. After frequent job hopping and low retention rates, employers have long been frustrated by the “boomerangs.” They literally leave home, go to college and end up right back in their parents’ basements. It’s no fault of their own though. Marketing research firm, Pace Communications, proposed that most have endured crushing student loans, high unemployment rates and other unknown variables that leave them without much choice in the matter. Delayed adulthood is only occurring because, as a nation, Americans have suffered the worst economic market since the Great Depression. Matt Bors, Pulitzer Prize winner for editorial cartooning, says that Millennials were invited to the party last and served up crumbs, which they’ll proudly Instagram before they eat. #SavorItLikeASloth

You know you’re a sloth when you get personally and deeply offended after people tell you that being on the computer all day doesn’t count as an activityMillennials cannot be torn from their devices like sloths can’t be woken up from a long nap. Scary thing is, over fifty percent of this generation would rather lose their sense of smell than their phone according to Rosetta Research, and global technology is radically changing because of high demand for an even faster connection. Attracted to corporations who embrace the digital world, author Ryan Gibson of Generation Y, defined Millennials as the most significant faction leading the Technological Revolution of the Twenty-First Century. This group has been a part of the creation of what we now know as commonplace social media: Napster, Myspace, Twitter and Facebook. Their emojis really are worth a thousand words at this point.

Sleepily munching on their leaves, our Millennial sloths have left quite a mark on our jungle-like world- from politics to the economy and technology. Perception has been increasingly more negative in recent years, portraying every kid taking an innocent selfie as a vapid narcissist. Maybe the critics are the ones who should loosen up their skinny jeans a bit more. You know you’re a Millennial when you can watch a good forty five minutes of sloth videos on YouTube and fantasize when one day you’ll just be accepted. Sloths can be our spirit animal if we let them. Buzzfeed continues, “We are the Millennial Generation. We are sloths. And we’re going nowhere fast.”