Generation Me: Why Today’s Young Americans Are More Confident, Assertive, Entitled — and More Miserable Than Ever Before by Jean M. Twenge, Ph.D. Hmmmm. The subtitle pretty much says it all, doesn’t it?
Surprisingly, I found this book to be more interesting than many others I’ve read on the topic. What I liked was that it was written by someone who is barely older than her subjects. For me, that gave it validity. I don’t want a book that tells me what Boomers think about Gen Y; I want to know what Gen Y thinks.
Some of the takeaways I had involved the mixed messages we send this younger generation:
- Somehow “Free to be you and me” turned into “I am the way I am and if you don’t like it, I’ll tell my parents who think I’m perfect.”
- It is really hard on a generation when you tell them “they can do anything they want” and then as soon as they get into the workforce, you tell them “they can’t have it all.”
- It’s also hard on both Gen X and Gen Y when the generation before them (i.e., the Boomer generation) is the first generation to break the generational contract: that those in power should be acting in the interest of those yet to come.
- Over-inflated self-esteem can be worse than lack of self-esteem. Just watch the auditions for American Idol. My guess is that all those kids got gold stars and trophies just for showing up, and not in recognition of any special talents.
- Sometimes too much choice is not a good thing.
But, it’s not all bad. Gen Y is more color and gender blind than any group ever coming through in the past. They’re tolerant on gay marriage; and with women outnumbering men in college, they’ll have the ability to change the demographics of an office, simply by showing up for work.
Unfortunately, they’ve been so focused on the “me” that they aren’t motivated to make changes as a “we.” This might explain why they are less proactive about social change than most preceding generations. This may also have to do with a feeling that their vote doesn’t count. But, if that’s the case, why do they vote for American Idol? Clearly someone’s vote must count, or how else could one explain Sanjaya?
At the end, Twenge does provide some advice and recommendations for all generations. Whether they’re actually feasible is questionable; but at least she sets forth some great inter-generational topics for discussion.
The Bottom Line: Recommended for anyone whose business involves managing, working with, or marketing to Generation Y (especially if you happen to have a Generation Y’er in your family!). Remember, you have just as much of a chance of understanding what motivates them as your parents had trying to understand what motivates you!
This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 31st, 2007 at 9:10 pm and is filed under Nonfiction. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.2 Responses to “Generation Me”
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July 31st, 2007 at 10:23 pm
Great review, Diane! I agree with many of Twenge’s theories. I do think her premise is slightly flawed; the “me” school of thought isn’t generational, it is cultural.
It would be impossible for an entire generation to adopt a value system if society didn’t support it. When American individualism met the self esteem movement of the 1980s some of the negative results that Twenge touches on came forth.
I’m looking forward to reading the book!
August 1st, 2007 at 5:50 am
Hi Bunmi – I agree with you that the “me” thing is cultural. In fact, I was a bit confused at the title because the Boomers have notoriously been labelled the “Me Generation.” But, I think you hit the nail on the head. The “Me” culture affects everyone. The difference is that the Boomers’ parents didn’t care about their children’s self-esteem; and then, when those children grew up and become parents of Gen Y’ers, they overcompensated by pumping up their children’s self-esteem a bit too much – hence, the slightly different results.
Another confusing bit was that she was mixing in Gen X with Gen Y, and lumping them together as Generation “Me.” I understand why she did this as the real divide between the generations seems to be the adoption of the home computer. Older Gen x’ers (like me) didn’t have a computer until grad school or our first jobs, which makes us “digital immigrants” as opposed to the younger “digital natives” who had them in high school (or earlier).