• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Time magazine Millennials: The Me Me Me Generation

Status
Not open for further replies.
I guess it is American "rugged individualism" at work. Accepting any help at all makes others perceive you as weak, pathetic, or over-entitled.

I believe its more so due to the fact that Americans enjoy their freedom (i.e. not be tied down by their parents). The same reason why Americans believe that they are entitled to a house or a car. To be fair though usually when American life changes the economy changes with it. Just look at how much the standard of living adjusted from one person only working to make ends meet for their families to bother family members. Just look at the East Asian countries.

I doubt there are any boomers. Probably a lot of gen x'ers.

I recall a few boomers in this thread. Fifty-something Gaffers do exist.
 
agent-smith-me-too-ouou2l.gif

Should've been the first post. ;)
 

teh_pwn

"Saturated fat causes heart disease as much as Brawndo is what plants crave."

Seems like cherry picking nonsense. Crisis era starts in 2005? It started in 2001 and it's ending now. Nothing compared to great depression and WWII.

Bring on the High period! High period of fucking Science can do anything. It might be right about the moving into suburbs stuff. When automated cars are the norm in 15 years, it wouldn't make sense to spend hundred thousand more to live in the city when you can just hop in your car do some stuff and get to spacious, clean living for your family.
 

User 406

Banned
I don't see the current young generation playing any active role in politics beside voting for a President. Don't expect repeat of Vietnam style protests or anything.

I don't see why they should bother, considering that when they DID engage in mass protests across the country and managed to shift the national conversation back towards the problem of economic inequality for the first time in thirty fucking years, they were belittled, dismissed, and FORGOTTEN even by a lot of the older people who were ostensibly on their side. It disgusts me how many older progressives gave OWS such a ration of shit for not living up to their armchair quarterbacking, but who now blithely step into the space of political discourse OWS tore open for them.

Millennials, don't listen to our generations' cranky old privileged line of horseshit that was ancient back when Victorians were lamenting the immorality of their dissolute children. You don't owe us a damn thing. Only the first generation who somehow manages to avoid spouting this garbage to their kids in turn will truly be the Greatest Generation.
 

Liberty4all

Banned
Well that's pretty friggin arbitrary. I was born in 84 and I don't identify with the Millennial tag at all.

from my last post:

The term you are looking for is "Cold Y"

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Mardus/Cold_Y_Generation

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Cold Y Generation

http://wikibin.org/articles/cold-generation-y.html

I was born in 76 and relate to this very well.

its a sub generation (similar to generation Jones that the boomers had)


Saunderez, your sub Gen is also known as the MTV generation and Generation Nintendo ...
 

ctothej

Member
I can only speak from my experience, but being born in 1991, people I know are pretty grateful for any jobs/resources/etc they can get. I'm not sure where entitlement comes into play. No generation since the Great Depression has had to deal with an economy this bad (or six figures of student loans...). People I know aren't even complaining per say, they're just adjusting the best they can. Moving back in with parents? Not buying homes? Delaying having kids? These are reasonable consequences after an economic crisis. The fact that most Millennials remain optimistic about their future is actually pretty cool.

EDIT:

Some articles that might be relevant:

http://www.theatlanticwire.com/national/2013/05/me-generation-time/65054/

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs...tein-is-wrong-about-millennials-in-one-chart/

http://www.usatoday.com/story/money...mass-affluent-millennials-retirement/2148469/

http://www.policymic.com/articles/4...ptimistic-because-they-ve-got-nothing-to-lose

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tyler-kingkade/the-real-me-generation-time-millennials_b_3247210.html

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life...one-bashing-a-generation-yet/article11824211/
 

teh_pwn

"Saturated fat causes heart disease as much as Brawndo is what plants crave."
Well that's pretty friggin arbitrary. I was born in 84 and I don't identify with the Millennial tag at all.

Same here. Didn't get my own cell until 16 I think. Different times.
 
You see I always thought "millennials" were those born post 2000. Ya'know, 11, 12, and 13 year old's who truly have never known a world without internet (not including kids in rural areas). I was born in 1988 (25) and clearly remember a world without mass internet. Although my family was partially connected to the internet via dial-up in the late 90's, it wasn't until 2000 that my dad subscribed to Road Runner internet service giving us DSL for the first time.

But yeah, my childhood in the 90's consisted of playing outside with the latest Super Soaker of the Summer, watching Saturday morning and after school cartoons, and of course playing 90's era video game consoles. I really don't consider myself a "millennial" who cannot go a day without social media in the way that older generations would have you think.
 

saunderez

Member
Same here. Didn't get my own cell until 16 I think. Different times.

Yeah would've been around the same for me. I think it was 10th grade I finally convinced my old man that I should have one in case they needed to get in contact with me. I paid for it, like I paid for most things growing up, given the fact I've been working in some capacity since I was about 12.
 

TheSeks

Blinded by the luminous glory that is David Bowie's physical manifestation.
You see I always thought "millennials" were those born post 2000. Ya'know, 11, 12, and 13 year old's who truly have never known a world without internet (not including kids in rural areas). I was born in 1988 (25) and clearly remember a world without mass internet. Although my family was partially connected to the internet via dial-up in the late 90's, it wasn't until 2000 that my dad subscribed to Road Runner internet service giving us DSL for the first time.

But yeah, my childhood in the 90's consisted of playing outside with the latest Super Soaker of the Summer, watching Saturday morning and after school cartoons, and of course playing 90's era video game consoles. I really don't consider myself a "millennial" who cannot go a day without social media in the way that older generations would have you think.

The title isn't meant for ages. It's meant for the kids that grew up when most of the ones that are later generations were being born. Technically, you were growing up at the turn of the century/millennium. Therefore, you're a millennial.
 

ToxicAdam

Member
I was raised by baby boomers and had friends raised by baby boomers. They all let their kids run free and wild (which is why many of those kids grew up to be helicopter parents), had very active social lives, often divorced by the time they were 35 leaving behind broken families. Often with both parents working long hours so they could buy more material things.


They're probably not the ones that should be pointing fingers at narcissistic behavior.
 

FroJay

Banned
Believe me when I say that this is our society and culture on the whole. Entitlement. I work in an ER and you would not believe the fucking entitlement that comes out of the mouths of patients and the family of patients. It's the entire of attitude of, "I want it. I want it now. It better be fantastic. And if it's not I'm going to complain, make myself the center of attention, and try to take as many people as I can down with me." That man came in after me and is deathly ill? Fuck you and this hospital. My child with an insect bite comes fucking first. I want to talk to your manager and where it the nearest tissue box?

Haha, sounds about right. Technology is both good and bad.
 

BocoDragon

or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Realize This Assgrab is Delicious
I think that will be one difference. I don't see the current young generation playing any active role in politics beside voting for a President. Don't expect repeat of Vietnam style protests or anything.
1. Protests of the Iraq War were much larger than protests of Vietnam, and millennials played a large role in that.

2. Vietnam had the draft. Millennials would certainty cause a stink if there were a draft.

3. Did ya miss Occupy Wall Street??
 

FroJay

Banned
Gen X'er here, can't relate to the me me me generation besides the fact that I teach them in sports specific ways. The kids are I work with are all from wealthy family backgrounds, a 10 year old with an IPhone is the norm, as disturbing as it is to me.
 
If Gen Y children are selfish and lazy, is it not the fault of the people who raised them? And if their parents were such shitty parents, do the grandparents not share any blame?

Gen X'er here, can't relate to the me me me generation besides the fact that I teach them in sports specific ways. The kids are I work with are all from wealthy family backgrounds, a 10 year old with an IPhone is the norm, as disturbing as it is to me.

I don't get it. What if the parents gave the kid an IPhone but the kid did not demand it and would have been fine with having nothing or having a crappy cell phone?
 

Liberty4all

Banned
I had my first mobile at 19 in 95 ... Motorola 550 flip. Never looked back.

I think those born between 76 - 84, have a very different mindset than those born after.
 

BocoDragon

or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Realize This Assgrab is Delicious
I had my first mobile at 19 in 95 ... Motorola 550 flip. Never looked back.

I think those born between 76 - 84, have a very different mindset than those born after.

I was born in 84 and in so many ways I am definitely a millennial.... but because I have that early childhood period before the internet and cellphones, I can never truly take this new world for granted. Call me a constantly-amazed-at-my-situation millennial.
 

Liberty4all

Banned
I was born in 84 and in so many ways I am definitely a millennial.... but because I have that early childhood period before the internet and cellphones, I can never truly take this new world for granted. Call me a constantly-amazed-at-my-situation millennial.

Me too man. I thank my lucky stars I just made it for the information age and was still young enough to "get it". Being born in 76 I grew up as a teenager in a world without the net (as we know it today). Hell I didn't even really start using the net until I was 22, on an ex gfs pentium 486.

I remember the internet before there was even a graphical interface.

oh and THANK GOD I took typing in gr 9. It wasn't compulsory back then.
 

SRG01

Member
unless youre keeping a roof over their head this is an empty gesture

I am. I became the breadwinner of the household a few years back when I was in my mid 20s.

Cool. That sounds like a good relationship and I'm sure plenty do help out, but I'm thinking more about the college/post-college crowd that linger at home not because they're helping aging parents, but because it benefits them or is just safer. Unfortunately that has been my general experience, and I don't have a very good impression of it.

My experience here in Canada - even with a fairly okay economy - is that many people stay at home longer because it's mutually beneficial for all parties to do so. It's not the majority, but there's an ever growing population of parents who can't afford to retire and a growing population of new adults who can't afford to move out. I like to joke that a $50 is the new $20, but it accurately describes the plight of many families in this recession.

This has remained consistent with my classmates, students, and other acquaintances.
 

AniHawk

Member
You see I always thought "millennials" were those born post 2000. Ya'know, 11, 12, and 13 year old's who truly have never known a world without internet (not including kids in rural areas).

those are the dotcoms.

i'm more used to the term gen y, since we followed gen x.

i think it goes:

lost generation (wwi)
silent generation (between wwi and wwii)
'greatest' generation (wwii)
baby boomers (mid 1940s-early 1950s)
generation jones (mid-1950s-mid 1960s)
generation x (late 1960s-late 1970s)
generation y/milennials (1980-2000)
generation z/dotcoms (2001-present)

generation jones is one of those weird ones. they're basically kids of the silent generation and had late gen x and gen y kids.
 

BocoDragon

or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Realize This Assgrab is Delicious
Me too man. I thank my lucky stars I just made it for the information age and was still young enough to "get it". Being born in 76 I grew up as a teenager in a world without the net (as we know it today). Hell I didn't even really start using the net until I was 22, on an ex gfs pentium 486.

I remember the internet before there was even a graphical interface.

oh and THANK GOD I took typing in gr 9. It wasn't compulsory back then.

Sounds to me like you had a front row seat to see the whole internet unfold (when it mattered, anyway).

I was on the net as a child in the 90s and I coded my own websites in 97..... but I never saw the pre-WWW internet.
 

Ikael

Member

This is an interesting perspective, but I don't think that the numbers support it either. Yes, narcissism tends to be more prevalent in teenagers - early adults than on any age bracket, but wasn't this article stating that it was actually higher than on previous teenager-early adult popullations? Not to mention that raw numbers are working against it too: if the overall popullation is getting older (that is, if the "narcissism risk group" is shrinking) why is narcissism more prevalent than ever?


This is one of the most interesting things that I have ever read in this topic, thank you for bringing it foward :D
 
These generation wars are completely asinine.

We're all products of our environment. An environment that has been handed down to us by our parents. Our parents whose age seem to coincide with that of the writer of this Time article.

So if these people want to play the blame game then be it, but they're really just pointing the finger right back at themselves.
 

bonercop

Member
1. Protests of the Iraq War were much larger than protests of Vietnam, and millennials played a large role in that.

2. Vietnam had the draft. Millennials would certainty cause a stink if there were a draft.

3. Did ya miss Occupy Wall Street??

'sides, millenials are totally still doing shit. I sure hope the people whinging about this are politically active themselves.
 

DiscoJon

Banned
I've never understood how they sort out each "generation". I'm technically a Gen-Xer ('77) but I feel like I have zero in common with most of "Generation X" which seemed to now be people in their early to mid 40's. if anything a five to seven year limit between grenerations seems more reasonable.
 
i think it goes:

lost generation (wwi)
silent generation (between wwi and wwii)
'greatest' generation (wwii)
baby boomers (mid 1940s-early 1950s)
generation jones (mid-1950s-mid 1960s)
generation x (late 1960s-late 1970s)
generation y/milennials (1980-2000)
generation z/dotcoms (2001-present)

All tags brought to you by the Baby Boomers, including the "greatest generation" (Baby Boomers looking backwards). Baby Boomers are generationally obsessed and America has been caught up in their "let's name them every 10 years!" syndrome. Gen Xers HATED this tagging. What people forget is that during the 90s there were TONS of articles about Gen X and how they were LAZY, APATHETIC, SLACKERS, DON'T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT WARS, REBELS AGAINST THE MAN, and so forth. And who wrote these articles? Ding, ding, ding. BABY BOOMERS!!

We're so caught up in their generational BULLSHIT naming it's sickening.
 

DiscoJon

Banned
All tags brought to you by the Baby Boomers, including the "greatest generation" (Baby Boomers looking backwards). Baby Boomers are generationally obsessed and America has been caught up in their "let's name them every 10 years!" syndrome. Gen Xers HATED this tagging. What people forget is that during the 90s there were TONS of articles about Gen X and how they were LAZY, APATHETIC, SLACKERS, DON'T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT WARS, REBELS AGAINST THE MAN, and so forth. And who wrote these articles? Ding, ding, ding. BABY BOOMERS!!

We're so caught up in their generational BULLSHIT naming it's sickening.


I'm a loser baby, so why don't you kill me.

To be fair, Gen X really did buy into the whole slacker mentality.
 
I'm a loser baby, so why don't you kill me.

To be fair, Gen X really did buy into the whole slacker mentality.

"We're gonna die Young." YOLO!

Yeah, pop music and movies always reflect the generational BS cliche. And who's been funding this drivel? Baby boomers.
 

TrutaS

Member
First came survivability, then the claim for basic needs, now we are at superficial needs and running towards the end of every bit of frustration. It seems to me that this generation is a reflection of Humanity's achievements (whether good or bad).

At the same time, while we feel entitled to not feel frustrations the fact is some basic needs we took for granted growing up are being taken away by the lack of employment and the overall financial crisis.

Therefore, I think our generation is terribly lost between the cultural evolution of what humanity should expect and the actual reality of what the circumstances are imposing on us.
 
First came survivability, then the claim for basic needs, now we are at superficial needs and running towards the end of every bit of frustration. It seems to me that this generation is a reflection of Humanity's achievements (whether good or bad).

At the same time, while we feel entitled to not feel frustrations the fact is some basic needs we took for granted growing up are being taken away by the lack of employment and the overall financial crisis.

Therefore, I think our generation is terribly lost between the cultural evolution of what humanity should expect and the actual reality of what the circumstances are imposing on us.

There are two problems with this:

#1 Is that some basic needs aren't being met. Immediately comes to mind is access to things such as healthcare, education for that qualifies one to rank amongst the average citizen, affordable non-shitty food, etc.

#2 Social mobility in general. The reason why people have stuck and enjoyed this system for so long is because for its been reasonably possible to move from one position in society to the other. This was one of the main reasons for sticking to the Capitalist system.
 

Drek

Member
As a person on the edge of the millennial classification (born in 1982, graduated the 99-00 high school year) I wouldn't say the general point isn't entirely without merit.

But then it's a learned behavior. The children of today's parents were baby boomers and shortly thereafter, raised by parents who had fought their way out of two world wars and the great depression and during the peak of American economic prosperity. Those parents tried to give their children everything "they didn't have" and as a result sheltered their children who got to live within a privileged echo chamber most of their lives. They then did the same with their children. Those children have now had millennials and are wondering why their children act so entitled.

Its because their parents and their grandparents were all over-entitled. The lessons learned from America's dynamic history have been lost. The New Deal couldn't happen today. The Hoover Dam couldn't happen today. We've built a military industrial complex that keeps the threats at bay via overt force and as a result are unwilling to think to the future of our own society.

My background is a bit skewed because my mother was the 3rd youngest of 18 kids, raised by a father born in 1908 and a mother born in 1920 (who was married and had three kids when my grandfather left for a three year tour in WWII), they themselves were extremely poor rural farmers. I once asked my grandmother what the Great Depression was like and her response was "you know, people talk about how bad it was but to me, that was just life". Both her and my grandfather spoke about FDR like he was one step below Jesus (both fervent Catholics). Now people demonize FDR as a "socialist" who was giving away handouts. If they were still alive I think my grandfather would be taking swings at people on a daily basis for that. Hell, after my grandfather came back from the war they lived the rest of their lives as subsistence farmers, the only money they ever made was my grandfather's veteran's benefits and what milk and hay they sold when there was extra.

The attitude of those people was one of pushing forward social reform. Sure they had a ton of problems with social equality for blacks that needed fixing, but we forget that it was effectively a single generation of Americans that gave us the 40 hour work week, child labor laws, social security, medicare, the highway system, a national energy infrastructure, a Mississippi River valley that doesn't wipe out entire towns when it floods, etc. etc.. They built America and expected their children to appreciate the rewards. They didn't and as a result each generation after the next has borrowed from that fund of progress, never repaying what they took.

For all their ills as a "Me Me Me" generation the Millennials I know have a hell of a lot more progressive mindsets than their older siblings and parents however. It's a less dogmatic generation and so while they're entitled 20-somethings today I think when the nation calls on them to be the leaders of this world they'll actually rise up and do the right things. They won't quibble over "conservative" and "liberal" values with shit like "I want gubmint small enough to drown in a bathtub" or "we need wealth redistribution" bullshit. It'll be a generation that governs from the middle based on consensus, not from the extreme fringes as antagonists to one another's agenda.

My biggest concern is that Boomers to Gen Xers won't have left enough of this nation behind to be saved when their time comes. They've been spending what the "Greatest" generation bequeathed them pretty damn fast so far.
 
Hell, after my grandfather came back from the war they lived the rest of their lives as subsistence farmers, the only money they ever made was my grandfather's veteran's benefits and what milk and hay they sold when there was extra.

This is so repulsive.

Why couldn't he have paid attention during school and go to college and get a real job like I did? Talk about a leech on society!!!
 

Dreaver

Member
Like others have stated: we're probably the first generation that has it worse then their previous generation. The house and job markets are horrible, universities are getting more expensive (though it's still really cheap compared to the US here), pretty much all jobs require a high degree, and I bet we won't even have state pension when we hit the age for it.

And guess what? the boomers are whining that the age for state pension is getting up (gradually) with 2 years (65-67) here. We probably won't even have it. If there is one generation that was a 'me me me generation', then it's probably the boomers who fucked over the economy.

Also, shitting on a younger generation, who hasn't even had a chance to prove themselves is so stupid. Like TheAtlantic stated it's a thing that happens EVERY generation, just like some of us will shit on the (z-)generation after us. Perhaps YOUNGER people are more narcissistic but not the 'generation'.

We might 'look' more spoiled and a 'me me me generation' but I doubt we really are. Yes we have phones, internet and can travel way further. But is that because we are more spoiled? No, it's because technology allows us to.
 

andycapps

Member
I don't get people being born in 1980 and people being born in 2001 as being in the same group. 10 year generations makes a lot more sense. And yeah, the current generation is really narcissistic.
 

Liberty4all

Banned
Cold Y is 82-85, not 77.

There are many articles about cold y that state it can go back as far as mid 70's. Which makes sense when you consider the overriding theory of it.

edit: and theories aside it definitely fits me and many in my age group to a T.
 

Chuckie

Member
There are many articles about cold y that state it can go back as far as mid 70's. Which makes sense when you consider the overriding theory of it.

edit: and theories aside it definitely fits me and many in my age group to a T.

Ok, I initially only read the article you quoted. I'll read up some more on it, considering I was born in 77 and when reading about Gen X it didn't really 'click' for me. Some of it did ofcourse, but not all.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top Bottom