Generation Me: Why Americas young are confident n miserable

[Winston]

http://books.google.com/books?id=tV4M1h ... &q&f=false

Generation Me: Why Today's Young Americans Are More Confident, Assertive, Entitled--and More Miserable Than Ever Before

The Associated Press calls them "The Entitlement Generation," and they are storming into schools, colleges, and businesses all over the country. They are a generation with sky-high expectations and a need for constant praise and fulfillment. Psychologist and social commentator Twenge documents the self-focus of what she calls "Generation Me"--people born in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s--and explores why her generation is tolerant, confident, open-minded, and ambitious but also cynical, depressed, lonely, and anxious. Using findings from the largest intergenerational study ever conducted, Twenge reveals how profoundly different today's young adults are, and makes controversial predictions about what the future holds for them and society as a whole. But Dr. Twenge doesn't just talk statistics--she highlights real-life people and stories and vividly brings to life the hopes and dreams, disappointments and challenges of Generation Me.--From publisher description.

[globetrotter]

Managing people like this is a hoot.

The first time they get told 'No' their eyes tear up.

[Enishi]

It has been my observation that people's personalities are generally set in place while they are young and don't change much, unless they have a very high degree of willpower and awareness. Even as economic conditions continue to worsen, the current generation of young women in US probably won't improve much.

[Winston]

Here's a similar book I found:



The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future(Or, Don't Trust Anyone Under 30) [Paperback]

From Booklist
It’s an irony so commonplace it’s become almost trite: despite the information superhighway, despite a world of knowledge at their fingertips, the younger generation today is less informed, less literate, and more self-absorbed than any that has preceded it. But why? According to the author, an English professor at Emory University, there are plenty of reasons. The immediacy and intimacy of social-networking sites have focused young people’s Internet use on themselves and their friends. The material they’re studying in school (such as the Civil War or The Great Gatsby) seems boring because it isn’t happening right this second and isn’t about them. They’re using the Internet not as a learning tool but as a communications tool: instant messaging, e-mail, chat, blogs. And the language of Internet communication, with its peculiar spelling, grammar, and punctuation, actually encourages illiteracy by making it socially acceptable. It wouldn’t be going too far to call this book the Why Johnny Can’t Read for the digital age. Some will disagree vehemently; others will nod sagely, muttering that they knew it all along. --David Pitt --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Review
"If you're the parent of someone under 20 and read only one non-fiction book this fall, make it this one. Bauerlein's simple but jarring thesis is that technology and the digital culture it has created are not broadening the horizon of the younger generation; they are narrowing it to a self-absorbed social universe that blocks out virtually everything else."
-Don Campbell, USA Today

"An urgent and pragmatic book on the very dark topic of the virtual end of reading among the young."
-Harold Bloom

"Never have American students had it so easy, and never have they achieved less. . . . Mr. Bauerlein delivers this bad news in a surprisingly brisk and engaging fashion, blowing holes in a lot of conventional educational wisdom."
-Charles McGrath, The New York Times

"It wouldn't be going too far to call this book the Why Johnny Can't Read for the digital age."
-Booklist

"Throughout The Dumbest Generation, there are . . . keen insights into how the new digital world really is changing the way young people engage with information and the obstacles they face in integrating any of it meaningfully. These are insights that educators, parents, and other adults ignore at their peril."
-Lee Drutman, Los Angeles Times

[tradcom]

As a member of this generation, I must say that most of this stuff is only too true.

[globetrotter]

I had a conversation with a great guy last weekend.

23, going to grad school next year, head full of this non-hierarchical bullshit that ends the second you step outside of a college campus.

Reality, meet your useless education.

[ladislav]

The idea of American confidence is good- positive thinking, you can achieve anything you desire, etc, is a good thing if applied properly. However, why is the author referring to 'this' generation as confident and miserable? The ones before them were the same, pretty much. The 1980ies kids looked cocky and confident, too.
However, this attitude is only good if:
1) you have a good understanding of the job market. If you are a cocky philosophy major, you will not land a 100K a year job with a BA. You will have to cockily and confidently get a PhD so that you could teach. Or go to law school or something. In other words, you will need to to study the job markets and see where those jobs are that pay you and allow you live the lifestyle you want.
2) The confidence is again good if you include GLOBAL job markets. For example, I know with certainly that given enough time and patience I can land jobs in ESL that pay VERY big money- these are not easy to get and take months of submitting applications. Once it took me 3.5 months to get a job with a big villa- 6 rooms near the beach and some 50K tax free salary ( including overtime) and 70 day vacations. But it was not in the USA- it was in Oman. Those jobs are not easy to get. Yes, I also think I am "entitled" to those jobs because I have the qualifications and I apply cockily and confidently. But I also inject the realistic expectations into my search- there is a big competition for those jobs- other people are applying, too. So, I need to confidently give myself time and apply for some 10-15 such jobs- stay online many hours daily- looking for a job is a full time job, and get ready to take the rejections.
But given enough time ( within reason) and by applying for some 20-30 jobs within 2-3 months, having 5-6 interviews, eventually you will land a good job. My confidence is based on experience and on statistics/ probabilities.
But I do not stick my chin up and walk with a swagger. That is not confidence. That is a##holism

[Winston]

Probably cause the confidence that people have today is fake and BS confidence, and does not emanate from a true wholesome sense of self.

The book is about the generation born after 1970, so the 80's kids are included in it.

[NorthAmericanguy]

Probably cause the confidence that people have today is fake and BS confidence, and does not emanate from a true wholesome sense of self

And if you think about it, the way people carry themselves is a mirror to Amercian society today. The music, the food, and even the way homes are built today is all fake and overly processed. It's rare to find home made, hand built quality anything that came from the heart.

[Winston]

Here are some links about the narcissism of today's young generation and lack of connectedness.

http://gbgm-umc.org/global_news/pr.cfm? ... N=61059374

http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/artic ... 4/12qa.htm

http://www.narcissismepidemic.com/

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/artic ... sness.html

[Repatriate]

Probably cause the confidence that people have today is fake and BS confidence, and does not emanate from a true wholesome sense of self.

The book is about the generation born after 1970, so the 80's kids are included in it.

Define fake

BS confidence

and "wholesome sense of self"

[Winston]

Such things are self-explanatory. If I have to define them for you, then you are lost and beyond help dude. No one on our frequency would need a specific definition to understand such things, unless you are looking for a straw man to attack or obfuscate.

[globetrotter]

Such things are self-explanatory. If I have to define them for you, then you are lost and beyond help dude. No one on our frequency would need a specific definition to understand such things, unless you are looking for a straw man to attack or obfuscate.

No they aren't, Winston.

If you use words but you cannot define them to someone else, then you don't know what they mean or you are stonewalling.

Your assumptions are not others assumptions.

You obsess about how you are not normal and that you are special and different than everyone else.

If this is the case then it is reasonable to assume that you experience reality differently than most other people.

In fact you have claimed this repeatedly.

So, if you experience reality differently than most of us then it makes sense that what YOU THINK 'a wholesome sense of self' is, may very likely be entirely different from what everyone else on the planet refers to. You experience reality differently than the rest of us, remember?

For all we know, you are an anxiety prone mess in the USA and this disappears outside the USA and you refer to this lack of anxiety as a 'wholesome sense of self'.

Or you could refer to getting a date as 'a wholesome sense of self'.

Words mean things.

So, what do those words you use mean TO YOU?

[Winston]

Globetrotter, we are all supposed to be on the same wavelength here. None of us here fit into the mainstream. That's the point of this forum.

That's like me asking you to explain the color red to me and define it. If one is not smart enough to tell a fake act from a genuine act, then your intelligence is shit and you should not even be here. I'm not here to educate idiots. End of story.

Please stop the smart alec shit.

I'm not going to go there, because you could ask me to define every single thing I say, ad infinitum, and create an endless loop that becomes pointless bickering. Anyone can obfuscate a discussion by questioning the meaning of every word you use. That is a disinfo tactic. And nothing good comes out of it. So I'm going to end it right there.