Different Morals, Attitudes, and Goals with Changing Generations

As generations go by, our predecessors assume we are skipping out on important aspects of life just to get a few extra minutes on our devices. In Catherine Rampell’s “A Generation of Slackers? Not So Much”, it is said the older generations believe Generation Y is “coddled, disrespectful, narcissistic, and impatient” (Rampell 388). In all reality our generation is just doing what it has to in order to thrive in the world we live in, where technology is one of the largest parts of our everyday lives. If the older generations that criticize Generation Y had grown up in Generation Y they would realize the world we live in requires the use of technology. The advancement of society with technology has shaped Generation Y to be the people that they are, relying on technology; however, older generations believe Generation Y is lazy.

In the book, Generation Me: Why today's young Americans are more confident, assertive, entitled and more miserable than ever before, author-researcher Jean Twenge explores the nature of the Generation Y, people who were born in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. The phenomenon that Twenge sought to explore in detail was how the Generation Y became the "Entitlement Generation" or, as she eventually coined the term, the "Generation Me." From the title itself, she described the Generation Me as a group of individuals who are "confident, assertive, entitled" but "miserable." Indeed, the book's thesis highlights how the youth of Generation Me are highly individualist and primarily centers on the "self." As in the words of Twenge, ""¦GenMe doesn't just question authority we disrespect it entirely" (28). This statement ultimately sums up the GenMe's attitude and viewpoint about respecting institutions, traditions, beliefs and values that held previous generations and societies together.

This generational gap was what altered the development of real learning, for it allowed Generation Me children to assume that hard work was not needed to succeed and to learn. Due to the different mindset that was developed through the gap, self-esteem was not lacking in GenMe. So, it is understandable why Boomers felt that an individual should be more important than society. They had to go through life fighting for what they believed in, causing what Tannen calls the “human spirit” to take the blow (Tannen, 419). She states, “contentious public discourse becomes a model for behavior and sets the tone for how individuals experience their relationship to others and the society we live in” (Tannen, 419). Baby Boomers did not have self-esteem so they enforced it on their children, keeping them from ever feeling that way. The cause of them feeling this way is that “the human brain is almost infinitely malleable” (Carr, 70). That malleability was used by Baby Boomer parents in order for them to set a sense of self-esteem and individualism in their children. This alteration of their children’s minds was Boomer parents’ first mistake, for it did not allow children to discover their own worth. Rather, it supplied them with false encouragement, and prevented the possibility of engaging themselves in a society where everyone works together and is confident, but not individualistic.

There are currently six living generations in the United States, each with different characteristics, beliefs, and values. The things that define each generation’s culture are derived from their history, upbringing, and the lifestyle of their time. Our generation was born between 1980 and 2000. We are called Millennials. More specifically, we grew up in the South, which typically lends itself to being more conservative and religious. These characteristics, along with our instant gratification attitude, define who we are, what we believe, and how we view other generations. For example, we might have differing views with the Silent Generation. Some Millennials may feel the Silent Generation’s social, religious, and economic conservatism is outdated.

My mother would often say of my brother and I have it easier than when she was younger. She says that this generation is a lot lazier and more entitled than hers was. With the newest and latest devices and gadgets coming out every year, she says that the youth feels entitled to have them, but don’t want to do the work to get them. Both of my mom and dad had jobs when they were younger as well as most of their friends, making it her generation's American identity. She explained that there was not as many working laws for teenagers back then for after school jobs. With this came more responsibility, she also said that there was a lot more respect for adults as well as others in general. Things like Facebook allow youth to make rude comments on other’s posts without much thought of what they’re actually

To start, this shift towards a shared economy is giving Millennials a bad reputation. Instead of focusing on their spending habits, Huffington Post blogger, Tim Urban, targets the work ethics of the younger generations in his article, “Why Generation Y Yuppies Are Unhappy.” In fact, Urban believes that younger generations were too spoiled in their childhood, so by the time adulthood hit they were destined to be failures. In addition to

In the show the newsroom, Will McAvoy states that our generation is the “worst-period-generation-period-ever-period.” He is absolutely correct. We sit around hoping that the world around us will change to suit our needs without us ever needing to lift a finger.

You've got it so easy! I mean, Compared to my childhood, you live in a damn Utopia!

Life today is very fast paced and more difficult than when I was in my early twenties. For example, back then you didn’t have to worry about job security that much because manufacturing in the United States was big back then and if you went to college, there was a job guaranteed for you. Now you must worry about job security and the type of major you obtain in college to get an interview or foot in the door. Also, everything was done face to face, if you wanted a job, you could have walked in and be hired on the spot, now you must get interviewed, file paperwork, drug tests, and a lot of other things. Finally, one thing I noticed is my generation like to work, we don’t like to sit down. However, the “kids” today are lazy and want everything handed to them.

Consequently, there is good reason for Millennials' pessimism and they are delaying the trappings of adulthood in light of poor prospects. Typical Baby Boomer adult milestones, like moving out of parents' homes, buying a house, getting married, and having children are all on hold until Millennials can find a brighter outlook. Millennials have the same goals as Boomers, though the path is not as clear or easy; Generation Y is still looking for the American dream. The question arises: does America

The next generation to be examined is the Baby Boomers, the Baby Boomers were born in the early 1940’s to early 1960’s. This generation occupies a lot of top executive roles in the workforce and are not retiring as they were expected to (Levonius, 2015). The Baby Boomers were taught to grow up questioning authority and standing up for themselves when they needed to. Around the time this generation was in school there was a grade inflation in the educational system, and the Boomer’s strived to achieve these high-grade marks. Baby Boomers were taught in a linear fashion, they were taught by lecture, and the technology they had included overhead projectors and some videos (Warren, 2012). Since this generation was accustomed to trying to achieve high grades they became achievement oriented adults. Education was quite a bit different from earlier generations in this era (Olson, 2011). There was more emphasis placed on students to finish high school, and for the first time in history more students were attending college. “From both the size of the generation as well as their impact to society, Baby Boomers have strong sense of self and a desire for involvement in their world, particularly at work” (Olson, 2011). “They have a strong work ethic, and a desire to receive rewards

Each generation has certain characteristics and values with which the members of it can identify. Members of Generation X highly value their job and family time; so they try to find a balance between these two aspects of their lives. Generation X are hardworking people, but they are

In Simon Sinek speech “Millennials in the workplace interview” Simon humorously explains using past and personal experiences that millennials are a great and fantastic generation. They have become an addictive generation because of bad parenting, technology, impatience, and the environment and the only way to change this generation is if they are given help to balance physical and social lives. I would agree with this because I too suffer from an unbalanced physical and social life. At the start of his speech, Simon states that the generation of the millennials is everyone born from approximately 1984 and after. Then he describes the millennials as being entitled, narcissistic, self-interested, unfocused and lazy. Then he explains that

Across the nation, people are talking about the Millennial generation and how different they are compared to others, but are they really that different? Millennials are lazy, entitled, and selfish, or as you may have heard may be essential to the modern workplace, either way, they are being talked about whether it is good or bad. To put it in other words, past generations are concerned for what the future will look like with this technology-dependent generation, but is that a bad thing if the technology is only going to advance from here on out? The older generation is being too harsh or are they just genuinely concerned about the future? Joel Stein (2013) has written an article about the Millennials, it is titled Millennials: The Me Me Me Generation he argues for them being a selfish generation but by saying that it is not a bad thing. The second article is by Liz Zarka (2017) Generation Me: The Millennial Generation’s obsession with being unique, she argues that they are the generation that needs to be concerned for. After reading both of these articles I agree with some of the points that both of these authors make, however, there are also some sections that I disagree with. My perception of the situation is that millennials may have all these negative characteristics but use them to an advantage that no other generation can has; along with the advancement of technology and the use of social media may have increased the narcissistic trait in them, but they use these traits to get what they want, however, being narcissistic isn’t always good there can certainly be some disadvantages.

The most recent generations have been labeled as having an entitlement mentality, because these young adults have a tendency of being self focused and absorbed.