That Viral Piece About Millennials "Killing" Mayonnaise Isn't Even Real

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That Viral Piece About Millennials "Killing" Mayonnaise Isn't Even Real

Diginpix/Tenor

Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, let's just get that straight right off the bat. But just because you have an opinion, doesn't mean you're right.

The thing about opinions though, is that people have some pretty strange ones, and it's hard to tell when they're being sarcastic. For example, Sandy Hingston published a piece in Philadelphia about millennials "murdering" mayonnaise, and it went completely viral.

Along about a decade ago, though, I began to notice I was toting home as much of my offerings as I'd concocted.

My contributions were being overlooked "” or shunned. Why should this be? Mom's extraordinary potato salad "” fragrant with dill, spiced by celery seed "” went untouched on the picnic table.

So did her macaroni salad, and her chicken salad, and her deviled eggs. ... When I carted home a good three pounds of painstakingly prepared Waldorf salad "” all that peeling and coring and slicing! "” I was forced to face facts: The family's tastes had changed.

When I first read the article, I was honestly shocked. I couldn't believe someone could be so upset about a condiment.

"I guess it never occurred to Sandy that perhaps other people had upped their game and started bringing new foods to family events and not the same potato salad for decades," I thought to myself.

It then got even more interesting.

My son Jake, who's 25, eats mayo. He's a practical young man who works in computers and adores macaroni salad. He's a good son. I also have a daughter. She was a women's and gender studies major in college. Naturally, she loathes mayonnaise.

Tenor

This part threw me for a loop. "Naturally?" What on earth is Sandy going on about?

Sandy goes on to talk about the history of mayonnaise, and how the reason millennials don't like it is because it's "a boring white food." She claims that people are trying to diversify themselves by abandoning her "mother's favorite condiment."

"Just because something is old and white doesn't mean it's obsolete," Sandy wrote. "Look at Shakespeare. Look at me."

Diginpix

This is when I knew something was up. How could someone compare themselves to Shakespeare based solely on the fact that they still like mayonnaise? But again, everyone can have an opinion, and most people truly thought this was Sandy's, even me.

It wasn't until someone called out Sandy on Twitter for implying that white people are a minority in their own country because people dislike mayonnaise that Sandy clarified her piece.

It's satire. Sandy doesn't really think millennials killed her "mother's favorite condiment." It was al very tongue in cheek. Once you read it again knowing she was kidding, I guess it's kind of funny.

But here's the thing, articles like this are written ALL THE TIME that aren't tongue-in-cheek.

What Else Have Millennials Ruined?

Metro UK
Bloomberg
Business Insider
CNBC
Twitter
Business Insider

Every time something goes wrong, a business or industry starts to fall, it's somehow the millennial generation who gets blamed.

It's sad to think that something which should have been so blatantly obvious to have been satire was taken seriously, not necessarily because the satire was poorly written, but because so many similar articles that aren't satire are produced constantly, that it made total sense.

But it's not all bad. Sandy was kind enough to share her macaroni salad recipe with the world.

Do you think millennials are getting blamed for too much?

[H/T: Philadelphia]

Meagan has an intense love for Netflix, napping, and carbs.