I am an exercise and diet enthusiast, I love to play golf, I love to run, and I’ve recently come to love reading. As a GenMe’er it is truly amazing to witness the profound complexity of an exponentially growing society. Across the entire spectrum of our civilization, generation after generation, we are becoming more educated and technologically more advanced than ever. Despite our accomplishments, I personally have experienced this vulnerable self-esteem that you talk about in your book, Generation Me. I write to you as a student at San Diego State University, taking Rhetorical Writing Strategies 305, as a requirement for the class. In all honesty, I wasn’t enthralled about taking Professor John Vanderpot’s class, but after being required …show more content…
GenMe’ers are unprepared for what life is really about. They sit in high school class every day; living in a bubble world, believing to expect wealth and fortune to land on their lap after graduation. It has become nightmarish; this younger generation has been led to believe the “be whatever you want to be, do whatever you want to do” mentality (Twenge 130). This has been so far ingrained in the GenMe mind that it has become the problem of a vulnerable self-esteem. As you’ve mentioned, GenMe has had “years of self-esteem instruction, of being told we are special and can do anything, [but] leave us confused and hurt by the harsh realities of many jobs” (Twenge 130). It is hard for GenMe to grasp this idea because it was nurtured by a terrible system built on lies. As you’ve said, it has become increasingly difficult for GenMe to handle their …show more content…
I agree with you that our generation has been brought into this false reality. Although you touched on almost all points concerning a vulnerable self-esteem, have you considered elaborating more upon the faith component of GenMe’ers? For instance, anytime we are confronted with a national crisis, such as the Great Depression, the Pearl Harbor attack, or a horrifying terrorist attack, our people tend to fall back on religion. I did notice you mentioned, “It makes more sense psychologically to believe in fate. If you don’t, your self-esteem will plummet each time you fail” (Twenge 148). However, faith was not specifically talked about anywhere after that, so perhaps you could expand upon this idea of a person’s faith more in chapter five. One suggestion I have is elaborating more on how faith can play a role in combating a vulnerable self-esteem, or analyze how it does not. As a believer in Jesus Christ, it would be beneficial to see more research related in respect to how self-esteem is affected to those who have a belief system and to those who do not. Also, I would suggest making this religious component a subchapter called, “FAITH AND THE SELF-ESTEEM,” and allow readers to explore in your book how their self-esteem is or is not regulated by their
Gen Y is from Mercury depicts the major character traits of people born within this generation as compared to those born in prior generations. It outlines the parts of Generation Y that are both relished and criticized by outsiders and it lays down a generalized glimpse into the lives of the members of Gen Y. Written by Kit Yarrow and Jayne O’Donnell, the article focuses on some of the most controversial sides of Gen Y and why these characteristics came into play during this generation specifically. It is the firsthand knowledge that both authors bring to the table that makes this article so effective in its purpose.
The new greatest generation was written by Joel Stein, and is critical analysis of the new generation in this article Stein states that people that are in the new millennial generation are considered narcissistic, lazy, and highly unmotivated. He is a writer for the world famous time magazine. The author thinks the only thing the new generation cares about is themselves. The author ran some tests on a huge amount of college students to see if they were narcissistic or not, according to those statistics he found that about fifty percent in 2009 are al considered to be narcissistic. The author shows that technology
The way the mind works is through a set of processes, which are steps that must be taken in order for the function it is producing to be accomplished successfully. These processes are related to those that society must be willing to take in order to achieve a desired goal, otherwise known as the ‘struggle’. Younger generations, called Generation Me, develop narcissist views that did not allow for the ‘struggle’ to be considered in their generation. The basis for this mindset is introduced by author Jean Twenge in her essay, “An Army of One: Me”, as she described the gap that occurred between Baby Boomer parents and their GenMe children. This communication was severed because GenMe was taught that their ideas are the best, and therefore not debatable. This translates to differences in opinion and results in individualism. When those individuals do not work together, as demonstrated by Deborah Tannen, author of “The Roots of Debate in Education and The Hope of Dialogue”, they tend to have a weak sense of debate because they stick up for themselves. As a diagnosis to this problem of disconnectedness, Nicholas Carr, author of “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” decides that our society has begun to skip steps in the process of learning and in particular, the ‘struggle’ that produces the desired outcome. The disconnectedness that has developed in society has caused the loss of real learning, and the problem based on the generation gap introduced by Twenge altered the struggle that is necessary to accomplish, which Tannen believes in and where Carr determines real learning can occur.
Feeling good about oneself is an inherently good thing; however when this is intensified so severely that it becomes the focus of everyday life, complications and consequences may occur. Jean Twenge tries to warn today’s “Generation Me” about the dangers of their obsession with the self in her piece, “An Army of One: Me.” This desire to look out for only the individual has dramatic effects on the direction of today’s society. What has also evolved out of this self adoring society is a seemingly endless need for argument, especially in the educational field, an issue addressed by Debora Tannen in her essay, “The Roots of Debate in Education and the Hope of Dialogue.” Of course, no researchers or educational experts expected the negative results such as narcissism and argumentative culture that followed from these teaching methods. These are unintended consequences and displaced risks, just as the types addressed in Edward Tenner’s, “Another Look Back, and A Look Ahead” but applied to a different subject. In effect, one problem causes another as an excess of self-esteem more often than not leads to narcissism. That development of narcissism promotes an argumentative culture in which everyone thinks they are right because confidence in oneself is far too high. Revenge effects may include constant irritability and excessive sensitivity, a lack of obtaining a good education, or in some cases pure laziness. Through a flawed system of education and the development of Generation Me, the attitude of the United States has unintentionally drifted towards narcissism and discontent.
Many are expected to aspire to being a professional football or basketball player, not to being a senator or a college professor. Their sense of self is molded by the social expectations
The Jim Crow system was a post-Reconstruction series of legislation that established legally authorized racial segregation of the African American population of the South soon after the Civil War. The Jim Crow system ended in the 1950s with the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement. As Hewitt and Lawson note, “these new statutes denied African Americans equal access to public facilities and ensured that blacks lived apart from whites.”
Finances play a part in everyone’s lives. According to critics, the generation of Millennials have not been the most accomplished in this area. However, new information is on the rise, and it shows that Millennials are becoming more financially stable. The generation of Millennials is a broad group. The group of Millennials associated in this discussion are from the beginning of the Millennial generation, which are those born between the 1980s and 1990s. The Millennials generation itself ranges from the 1980s to 2004. After the Great Recession, the older generation of Millennials had a massive setback with financial security. Since then, Millennials have always been known for having poor finances by critics. Millennials may not
In the article “It’s Not About You” by David Brooks, Brooks takes a different perspective on this current generation. Many of the past generation huff at the thought of the new age group. Brooks has an incredible, somewhat biased opinion relating to the new generation, which is not unusual since he is from the current generation. Brooks discusses and explores the idea that the current generation is expected to grow up, get educated, get married and then have children. Brooks speculates that the new generation will be less family-orientated and maybe more adventurous and more about just living life and getting to experience things. Overall, Brooks wrote something different from most stories regarding generations.
When most people hear the label Generation –X they think of a hopeless generation of youth that have given into the pressures of the world. I would like you to think of the X as the Greek symbol for “Chi” which is used as a symbol for Christ. In this decade the youth involved in the Christianity has grown significantly. Youth are responding to the church in ways that the past generation did not. Where mom and dad embraced the tumultuous sixties their children have taken hold of Christianity. The youth organizations that promote the Protestant doctrine have seen the youth membership grow by 50% since 1990. Catholic Churches have witnessed their youth involvement double in the last decade. The youth are coming from all walks of life, backgrounds and income levels. Although the majority seems to be whites, the number of young blacks involved in Christianity has become notable.
In Jean Twenge’s novel titled, “Generation Me”, she describes “Generation Me” as a group of self-obsessed, overconfident, assertive, miserable individuals. “Gen-Me” cares about what other people think so much they 'll go to great lengths to “impress” their peers. Self-obsession can be viewed as a sickness of the mind. The average person may be oblivious to the fact that 1 out of 6 people are narcissists. “Narcissism falls along the axis of what psychologists call personality disorders, one of a group that includes antisocial, dependent, histrionic, avoidant and borderline personalities. But by most measures, narcissism is one of the worst, if only because the narcissists themselves are so clueless.” - Jefferey Kluger
In life there are many people, things, or places that we experience that have influenced our lives so unique and powerful there unlike any other. Some women experience such alteration with the birth of a new baby. While for another person this life alteration may be making partner at a law firm. Though everyone experiences life on a different level one thing is for certain, not everything in life is a good experience. Everything in life is balanced, and with every joy comes some form of heartache. For some people it takes an emotional toll so incoherent that it never fades. After World War I many men experienced the let down affiliated with the war, and discovered there fight for admiration and loyalty led to nothing more than a expulsion of lost values, thus leading to the “lost generation.”
The love I have for generation is so beautiful it just amazes me how intelligent and how kind my generation is. It seems to me that we have kept all of the morals that were passed on from generation to generation. The way kids speak to the parents in a manner just amazes me. The respect that they show for others around them. it's incredible how the view of love has been untouched like a virgin.the morals of our generation are very highly appraised.
In his May 2013 editorial for Time Magazine, “Millennials: The Me Me Me Generation,” Joel Stein explains his viewpoint on millennials, defined as people born 1980 through 2000. Using an occasionally humorous tone, Stein summarizes the typical bleak view that older people have for the younger generation, before offering what he believes is closer to the truth. In the end, he decides that while millennials are not without their flaws and vices, a lot of the fears that older people are mostly due to the advanced technology that we are now dealing with. By the end of the article, it is my opinion that Stein makes a very fair summarization and is correct in his idea that to write off the entire generation is unfair towards younger people.
The generation that I was born into can sometimes be easily misunderstood by those in earlier generations. The individuals in my generation get thrown many different labels such as those that Rosie Evans (n.d.) listed in her article, “Millennials, Generation Y, the Lost Generation, boomerang kids, the Peter Pan generation.” and more. This can impact us as a whole because some will begin to live by the labels, in some cases that can be negative but in others it may be beneficial. Many people in this generation believe that they can’t reach their full potential due to labels and prejudice, while there are others who believe nothing can hold them back. When we get labeled all together, that is also what may drive some to try to stand out from the group, and pursue different things in life than the norm.
Generation Z is determined to change the future and is at an advantage over all previous generations to do so. This group is those born between the years 1995 and 2012, whom are currently ages 4 to 21. Statistics show Gen Z is extremely mature for their age with the lowest levels of drug use, alcohol consumption, smoking, and teenage pregnancy in decades, as stated by JWTIntelligence. This demonstrates that they are future orientated. Generation Z is unified, diverse, realistic, and technologically advanced, making them the generation with the power to impact the world.