In every generation young people get attacked by more mature and experienced individuals. The accusations vary and focus on such traits as laziness, lack of knowledge, bad education, being too spoiled or too childish and unwilling to deal with responsibilities. The current young generation did not become an exception. In the world of nowadays, young people are widely criticized for various behaviors and features.
Sociologists and psychologists research the special traits of the modern youth also known as the Milennials, Generation Y and the Facebook Generation, writers and philosophers theorize about the differences between the modern youth and the young people of the past. The society is divided into the individuals that oppose young generation and its special traits and the people that support the youth and try to justify and explain their behavioral patterns.
Among some of the main viewpoints used to describe the contemporary young generation there is the young people’s attachment towards their digital devices and computers. The Facebook Generation is widely attacked for being dependant on the internet and various social platforms, for taking pictures of themselves looking in the mirrors and perceiving all the social interactions through the online chatting, blogs and social networks.
This truly is a new phenomenon for the human society, yet it does not mean that this behavior is bad. When telephone and mail were invented and the society started to use them widely, no one saw them as harmful influences. The young people’s eagerness to study technologies and widely apply them should be seen as a useful and modern desire to adjust to the social changes and embrace the influences that are going to prevail in the future.
Another important trait pointed out by the researchers studying the Milennials is their narcissism. According to the research, the young people of nowadays are three times more narcissistic than their predecessors (Reeve, par. 5). The scholars conducting such researches collect their data properly, yet they tend to compare younger generations to the older ones without taking into consideration the age factor. Basically, young people tend to be more self –absorbed, but they grow out of this stage and evolve emotionally, so this accusation is groundless.
Young people of all generations hear criticism from their parents and older people stating that the youth is useless, light-minded, inconsiderate and selfish. This phenomenon is referred to as “juvenoia”, or the anxiety about the impacts social changes have on children (Thierer, par. 2). The current young generation is also widely called the laziest and the dumbest generation due to the easy life they live because of all the technologies making everything ten times simpler and more accessible (Rampell, par. 4). Young people themselves admit that the levels of ethics and morality used to be higher in the times of their parents and grandparents.
The life truly changed, and the society has been influenced by the process of globalization and technological progress immensely. Social interactions and behaviors are different, yet this does not make young people of nowadays less hard working and productive. Some aspects of their lives might be easier than in the times of their parents’ youth, yet there are new complex sides of life they have to face. Being different and possessing the new character traits typical just for them makes them evolutionarily more prepared for the world of the future.
Works Cited
Rampell, Catherine. A Generation of Slackers? Not So Much. 2011. Web.
Reeve, Elspeth. Every Every Every Generation Has Been the Me Me Me Generation. 2013. Web.
Thierer, Adam.Why Do We Always Sell the Next Generation Short?2012. Web.