Jean M. Twenge 's Generation Me

Lastly, in “Personality Processes and Individuality Differences” Twenge use three studies to help strengthen her case. In each of the studies they give logistical facts as to why this is the real “Generation Me.” The genre for this article is scholarly research. This genre appeals to professors or students studying psychology and sociology. In this case this is a

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.

To support her claim, Twenge presents the outcome of her research depicting the older generation as much more active and the new generation has adopted an introverted lifestyle with only their phone and social media as entertainment and possible validation in their lives. Some, such as “Athena” tend to validate themselves on how many likes they receive on a photo and measure their self-worth based on social standing.

In the article, Jean M. Twenge talks about the problems of the iGen generation with iphones. Twenge calls the generation born between 1995 and 2012 “iGen”. Twenge postulates that the iGen teens are less independent and have completely different behaviors than the millennials. Twenge has also discovered that “iGen” generation is psychologically more vulnerable to teen depression and suicide.

Technology has advanced a lot more in the past century than it has over a million years. There is millions of new advancements found every day, however, this is making the younger generation a lot less knowledgeable. In the book The Dumbest Generation by Mark Bauerkein, it states that the teens today are the dumbest generation to live on the planet. It is commonly believed that the young generation is the least knowledgeable generation because of their great reliability on technology, constant distraction by technology, and negative media influences. Although technology helps to make one’s everyday life a lot easier, it is taking away one’s intelligence.

Nowadays, some people have strong opinions on the increasingly problems caused by the Generation Me because of their high self-esteem. Jean Twenge analyzes the self-esteem in her essay “An Army of One: Me”, and she sheds light on the difference between baby boomers and the generation me, making us to rethink why self-esteem is such a severe problem to the generation me, but benefit the boomers. Though it may sounds hard to understand what causes the difference, but by viewing Maggie Nelson’s essay “Great to Watch”, we can get some new ideas. Nelson points out the importance of making “slow thinking”, which means thinking carefully before rush into taking actions. The reason behind slow thinking is that people are too easy to be distracted from

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

In addition to revealing to people what the true "self" of others was, Jean Twenge explains in "An Army of One: Me" that the "self" is changing with generation after another specifically in the twentieth century. Twenge argues that over the second half of the twentieth century, American's have become more about individual celebration rather than the being worried about other. This new change in individualism had a direct correlation how the "self" is now viewed, "[f]or the Boomers, who grew up in the 1950s and 1960s, self-focus was a new concept, individualism an uncharted territory... which is why many Boomers talk about the "self" using language full of abstraction,

In the short piece, “An Army of One: Me,” written by Jean Twenge, there is an issue that is not only evident in today’s society, but in one that started well before the contemporary times. We relate these matters to the generation of baby boomers and also currently labeled, Generation Me. Generation Me is often criticized in having little to no self-esteem. Because of the prior generations, the word self-esteem seems to be brought up quite often in this passage. There has been a strong focus on mental health of a child growing through school and seems to be affecting their outcome as well as ability to learn. We live in a world where there is a push for the better of people, more so the consiouness of idividuality. Twenge inserts a lyric by Whitney Houton stating, “learning to love yourself is the greatest love of all time (756).” Twenge inserts this quote because of the issue brught up in the world today, the lack of Self esteem. What does it mean to have self and how does self-impact students today and beyond? To have self, it simply means how that person builds self-growth, an education and in real life realtionships. This certainly has a direct correlation and impact on how students experience in school and in real world living.

Westerhof, have “migrated in time” and experienced it all, each event shaping, molding, and changing them into who they are today (12). Gerben J. Westerhof wrote an article in the Journal of Aging Studies titled, “‘During My Life So Much Has Changed That It Looks Like A New World To Me’ A Narrative Perspective On Migrating In Time.” In this article, Westerhof organizes a study of the Silent Generation to analyze their views about cultural change and about how they identify with today’s culture. The Silent Generation refers to those born in the late 1920s to early 1940s. They are those aged sixty-nine to eighty-six and are typically referred to by Millennials as grandparents. The Silent Generation lived during world wars, great economic depression, and a time of social and religious conservatism. In his article, Westerhof concludes that not all members of the Silent Generation choose to identify with their past culture. In fact, his research concludes that some members of the Silent Generation choose to identify with Millennials, one interviewee simply stating, “It is better nowadays than it used to be in the past” (15). Through the use of ethos and sufficient

This book is a sequel to the Generations book by the same authors. It is very optimistic about the potential and qualities of the Millennial generation. For instance, they are born in an era when children were viewed more positively, they are more optimistic, cooperative, accepting of authority, rule followers, are the most watched over generation, smart, and believe they can change the future.

Arlie Russel Hochschild adheres to a variety of assertions in his article, “Gen Fill in the Blank” concerning what he thinks a generation means. It was proposed that generations are solely branded by the pivotal impact they undergo as a cohort during historical events; hence, sharing a common response to those events. Hochschild furthers this idea by introducing generational identity and how that’s defined by the conceptions that society invokes upon a generation. Furthermore, he includes that an important factor making up modern day’s generation is the external burden of American Individualism; this universal pressure has robbed us of our ability to care and resulted in a profound deficiency of “cultural expression”.

Chapter 4 of “Generation Me” by Jean M Twenge; a professor of psychology at San Diego State University. Twenge explains that Generation Me is going through depression at a higher rate than the previous generations, causing loneliness and isolation. Twenge does a fantastic job showing all the statics from Americans born before 1915, compared with Americans born in Generation Me. Twenge describes how college students are stressed after college trying to find a job. Twenge says that student’s loans used to be payed off with a part time job in college thing have now changed. Twenge also states on how the economic system is changing. Twenge shows that things are changing for Generation Me, chapter 4 is a true warning sign for Generations to come.

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.

Media such as the internet, broadcasting, and publishing is a way to express opinions and keep up to date with the latest fashion trends. While these trends continue to go on, new trends are thought of, the trends may be a little tricky to keep up with even for celebrities. While the thought of being perfect for society, cause many adolescents to breakdown for following the false beliefs of society. Some people may use the media to be updated on important news. On the other hand, others believe the media is a horrible setting, resulting in adolescent to do whatever it takes to become just like them, poisoning their minds to become something they are not. The media produces bad influences for body image and messes with adolescents’ minds.