Literature Review #2: Generation Me

Generation Me  Jean M. Twenge, PhD.

Citation: Twenge, Jean M.  Generation Me- Revised and Updates:  Why Today's Young Americans Are More Confident, Assertive, Entitled--and More Miserable Than Ever Before.  New York, NY: Atria Books, 2014.  Print.


Key Terms and Ideas:  Generation Me (Millennials), individualism, self-esteem (being taught in schools), narcissism, egalitarianism, cynicism, external locus-of-control, victim mentality


Summary:  Twenge's book is a thorough analysis of the Millennial/Me Generation, born between 1982 and 1999, in which she draws on empirical data from more than 30 studies that survey more than 11 million Americans.  Her analysis is unique in that she utilizes comparisons of people at the same age in the preceding generations.  She also shows how the preceding generations have influenced the development of these particular traits in Generation Me.  Throughout the book, Twenge pulls in anecdotal evidence and isolated incidents to illustrate the raw data through real life examples.
  
Perhaps the most important defining trait of Generation Me is individualism.  Twenge describes how individualism began to take hold of American culture during the Baby Boomer Generation.  However, for Boomers, the discovery of the self and the pursuit of self-fulfillment was still achieved in a group setting-whether it was protesting or attending seminars.  Today, Millennials don't desire the approval of others, whether the others are the generations preceding them or our own peers.  Millennials are the ultimate anti-conformists.  We tend to disregard authority, live by the mantra "different is good," and even practice "moral individualism"- a phenomenon where the individual makes up their own, internal moral compass rather than relying on societal or another external set of moral rules.  In addition, Millennials have been taught by parents and the educational institutions in place that we are "important" and "special," and should follow our dreams, regardless of our actual performance.  In fact, schools have made a conscious attempt to shift the focus away from performance for fear of damaging students' self-esteem.  There has been an emphasis on promoting self-esteem that has backfired into the development of a generation with high rates of narcissism.  At the same time, our generation is seeing high rates of cynicism as we reach adulthood and come to realize that the real world does not give us success for just showing up and gracing the world with our presence.  This also leads into the development of victim mentality, as individuals externalize blame when they do not achieve success or things do not go their way.

There are some positive aspects to individualism that Twenge covers in her book.  Twenge definitely provides a balanced analysis by also recognizing the positive aspects of a shift toward individualism, such as a more egalitarian society where minorities and women have equal rights and the opportunity to pursue roles and careers that at one time were almost exclusively and systemically reserved for white males.  Twenge says that, "the feminist message for women is inextricably linked to the individualist message," (241).


Quotes:
"Generation Me had no need to reincarnate themselves; they were born into a world that already celebrated the individual (63)."

"By the mid-1990's, the average college man had higher self-esteem than 86% of college men in 1968 (67)."

"By 2008, the most frequent self-esteem score for college students was 40-the highest possible score and thus 'perfect' self-esteem (68)."

"Many school districts across the country have specific programs designed to increase children's self esteem, most of which seem to promote self-importance and narcissism (72)."

"As education professor Maureen Stout notes, many educational psychologists believe that schools should be 'places in which children are insulated from the outside world and emotionally-not intellectually-nourished...my colleagues always referred to the importance of making kids feel good about themselves but rarely, if ever spoke of achievement, ideals, goals, character, or decency' (83)."

"Egalitarianism and empathy are two different things (103)."

"The perception that 'the rich just get richer while the poor get poorer' jumped from 65% in 2002 to 76% in 2012 (184)."

"First, there's the declining belief in personal responsibility and the efficacy of hard work and sacrifice... (185)."

"Gen Me'ers were significantly less likely to say they did anything to help the environment than Boomers and GenX'ers, across a wide variety of questions, even those asking about specific behaviors (188)."

"[voter turnout] has stayed about the same from one generation to the next (189)."

"People who believe that outside sources determine their fate are more likely to be depressed, anxious, and cope poorly with stress.  As we saw in the last chapter, GenMe displays record high levels of anxiety and depression. (202)."

"Having an internal feeling of control... is especially important for underprivileged children (202)."

"In fact, blacks' self-esteem is higher than that of any other racial or ethnic group (233)."

"Recall that Asian Americans have the lowest self-esteem but the best academic performance.  The lesson there is not that low self-esteem leads to success-it's that hard work and self-control, heavily emphasized in Asian culture, do. (314)"