The internet has made our generation suck.

Social media websites and apps have become some of the most influential, powerful platforms in the world. Many great things like information sharing, friendship maintenance and even romantic matchmaking have come from social media.

But this remarkable tool has also brought us to a miserable state of mind, thinking that everyone’s lives should run parallel to each other, especially when it comes to the outside content shared by our online friends.

Lists like “9 Ways Your Birthday Kind of Starts to Suck as You Get Older,” “5 Things You Need to Do for Your Relationship to Last,” and “12 Things You Need to Learn About Love if You Want to Survive Your 20s” have become massively shared blog posts from “Elite Daily,” a blog which fancies itself as “the voice of generation Y.”

As a 25-year-old man and a member of that generation, I say to you, Elite Daily, go away. Forever. The only thing that is similar between different people’s lives is that they are absolutely, inarguably unique.

I’ve earned college credits from four different colleges/universities all over the state. I’ve worked jobs that include journalism, marketing, administrative assistance, coaching, sales, sandwich delivery and janitorial work. While that chaotic past may sound vaguely familiar to some of our diverse NEIU community, it is hardly the norm.

Elite Daily’s website haughtily claims itself as “the premier online news platform for and by millennials, and the leading source for breaking news and entertainment for the future leaders of our generation.” So let me get this straight, these advice articles about how to get through the miserable, scary, awful dog days of our 20s, which fall under no category listed in their philosophy, are written by…people in their 20s?!

When I’ve been through bad breakups in the past, or failed a class — you don’t go to four colleges without your fair share of these — I didn’t get advice from a regurgitated advice column written by a fellow Millennial. I learned from the experience. I let my failures and mistakes teach me something.

You can do better for yourself than reading and relying on these listicles to shape your thoughts about the complexities of life like love, sex, happiness and aging gracefully. Instead of reading these articles about what to avoid, go out and experience everything you can. Don’t let someone else’s mistakes or bad experiences keep you from living as full life as you should.

Instead of seeking counsel from the self-proclaimed “voice of generation Y,” be your own voice. Make your own set of standards. Your birthdays should be fun. You should be able to decide how to make a relationship last with your partner.

You may not learn 12 things about love in your 20s, or you may learn way more, which is just the point. Next time you see one of these links shared across one of your social networks, don’t read them. Instead, go out and experience the subject matter that was written about for yourself. Life is a lot more fun to learn about when you come out from behind your computer screen.