Analysis Of Joel Stein's The New Greatest Generation

Joel Stein’s 2013 Time article “The New Greatest Generation,” is a modern-day critic of millennials. Millennials are the most recently classified generation ranging from people born in 1980 to 2000. Stein conducts a deep analysis of this newest generation strategically highlighting their flaws. He opens his article conveying the notion that millennials are narcissistic and lazy. However, Stein concludes his argument assuring his audience that millennials are not merely societal eyesores but rather a superior generation that might just end up saving us all. Joel Stein’s article “The New Greatest Generation” reveals his purpose of writing this article is not to provide a fresh perspective to the controversial topic of millennials, but rather

Stein meticulously presents his data regarding the decline of independence amongst millennials in a way that would convince his audience that millennials are lazy. Stein claims his criticism is based on absolute statistical facts. Amongst Stein’s cluster of facts, he claims millennials “development is stunted” referring to the fact that now more young adults ranging from “18-29 are still live with their parents” (28). He’s attempting to use this statistic as a way of showing the deterioration of millennial independence. Stein is very conscious of the fact that the most common reader of Time is the elderly. Consequently, he uses a bunch of “cold hard data” that fits the stereotypical complaints of the older generations to intrigue his audience (28). He uses a

After several pages of degrading the newest generation, he assures the future is looking bright. Stein calls millennials “earnest and optimist” as a desperate final attempt to appease millennials (34). As soon as he does this his entire argument falls apart. This leaves the reader to wonder what was the point of the last six pages they read. Stein struggles to mend together his contrasting opinions of millennials, for his lacks a smooth transition from bashing to complimenting Generation Y. The contradictive nature of his argument makes his whole article feel pointless. The sloppy structure exposes how uninterested Stein is in his own argument. He attempts to add a positive opinion of millennials to prevent his younger audience from shunning his future work. He talks about how “this generation will save us all” in a very unconvincing last-ditch effort (30). This comes off very tasteless and reflects how terrible of a journalist he is. It would have been more respectable if Stein would have stood firm in his stance throughout the article rather than have an abrupt change of opinion at the end. Clearly, he is writing articles for the views and the buzz rather than producing work of actual