I think that it was very interesting to read about my generation and to view how older generations view us even though i hear it from my parents all the time. I like that the time article included 2 different opinions about millenials. I agree with the Time article that our narcissism rates are higher than other generations and i can personally associate with these since i believe i am able to accomplish hard tasks with little effort. My parents would agree with Joel Stein’s opinions about our standards and entitlement because they always tell me that i feel too entitled. But i also agree with them that it is the parents fault by boosting our self esteem at a young age. Ever since i was a little boy my parents would tell me that, “ You will make it very far in life.” This made me feel that i am able to accomplish whatever i want. I can see how this affects our ability to obtain a job but not keep it for a long period of time. Our social relations are definitely different since we have phones. Stein said, “Now that cell phones allow kids to socialize at every hour–they send and receive an average of 88 texts a day, according to Pew–they’re living under the constant influence of their friends. ‘Peer pressure is anti-intellectual. It is anti-historical. It is anti-eloquence.’ ” I recently read another article stating that our attention spans and critical thinking abilities are inferior to the generations before us with the implementation of internet and technology. This affects our ability to learn and our ability to read and process information. As for the Buzzfeed article, How Millennials Became The Burnout Generation, i agree that we have become more reliant on technology and our parents to do small tasks for us. We spend too much time trying to perfect ourselves (probably because of our desire to always appear lavish on social media) that we are unable to do the small things that are required. I disagree with Anne Helen Petersen when she said that we are worse at managing our money than previous generations. I feel like we have more debt because of the pressure to go to college now and increasing inflation but i think that money management is just as good in our generation as any other. Yes sometimes we can buy items that we don’t always need but that is because of the materialistic society that we live in now. We have people on instagram popularizing such items and constant ads in our face to buy them so we spend our money on these things. But at the end of the day, we spend money on these items because we have the money to afford them. I agree with Peterson when she said, “The photos and videos that induce the most jealousy are those that suggest a perfect equilibrium (work hard, play hard!) has been reached. But of course, for most of us, it hasn’t. Posting on social media, after all, is a means of narrativizing our own lives: What we’re telling ourselves our lives are like. And when we don’t feel the satisfaction that we’ve been told we should receive from a good job that’s “fulfilling,” balanced with a personal life that’s equally so, the best way to convince yourself you’re feeling it is to illustrate it for others.” We tend to use social media to make ourselves happier by boosting our dopamine levels by receiving likes. So if that requires faking our happiness to get that temporary boost of confidence, then we will do it. But there are positives to our generation. We are very selective and approach situation with great amount of thought. We like to take risks but always analyze them well enough to increase our chances of coming out victorious. Since we have a vast amount of information for us to access, it is a lot easier for us to be successful in a task that we attempt to do (as long as we devote ourselves to that task.) The New York times article highlights some of the positives of millennials and i agree with Stein. I consider myself to be a millenial. I was raised in the age of phones and constant information and can relate to a lot of the things that were said in these articles. I believe that we can effect the future in greater ways than the generations before us and we have the power to make great changes. We are obsessed with having fun and being happy and a lot of generations criticize us for that but at the end of the day, we will have the best mark in history.
Jonathan, I really like your response and I agree with the points that you made. I did not think of this or write about it, but you are completely correct about how we are constantly bombarded with ads whether we go and especially on social media. We let these ads influence us on such a level it takes over our lives.
Hi Jonathan. I agree with your claim that our parents think that we are entitled and are at fault for boosting our self-esteem. My parents tell me the same thing all the time about me being entitled and I feel like my self-esteem as a child was higher because they always told me good things about myself.
Jonathan, I can totally agree with you on the fact that our parents have created and raised us to be the self absorbed young adults we are. I also like how you mentioned a different article you read because i think we can all say that our attention span and memory span are much smaller than our parents and older generations. I also liked how you mentioned that these ads we see all the time are the reasons we are spending so much money, but yet still have the capacity and funds to buy all of these things.
Hey Jonathan,
I agree with all your claims. I also grew up feeling like I never put in 100% of my efforts because everything asked of me never really required it. I also would have agreed with Anne Peterson at first, that our generation is worse at managing money because from what i’ve seen, it’s true. However, your argument made me think otherwise, I never would have thought about it that way until I read your post.
Hey Jonathan, I agree with what you said about this generation views having fun as a very important part of our lives, unlike our parents maybe who would have prioritized school work first.