Today I read “Generation Me,” by Jean M. Twenge, which is, as the front cover states, about “Why Today’s Young Americans Are More Confident, Assertive, Entitled—and More Miserable Than Ever Before”. In this book, Twenge explains why young adults are so unprepared for the world they are thrown into after college and high school; although recent generations have been told that they’re special and can do anything because of self-esteem programs, in reality, they have to make difficult choices about having a child when two incomes can barely support a household. Many of the problems with “Generation Me” stem from the fact that they were taught to regard themselves as special and have a high self-esteem even if they did badly, receiving rewards for simply participating. Self-esteem programs have made Gen Me more prone to narcissism, and they expect to get more than a veteran would think is reasonable, since they’ve been raised with high expectations. Generation Me is less polite than previous generation, preferring directness, so members of different generations may not get on as well. However, there are also wonderful qualities in Generation Me’s culture. They’re a lot more accepting of other cultures, since they’ve been raised not to be prejudiced towards people of different races or genders, and being more open and loose about a lot of things isn’t always a bad thing. This book also offers advice for society as a whole as well as specific members of society, such as members of Generation Me and employers. I enjoyed the author’s analysis of Generation Me ad well as her suggestions for dealing with Gen Me. I would rate this book 9.7/10 and recommend it to anyone who’s part of Generation Me, wants to know how to deal with Generation Me or doesn’t know why people who are part of Generation Me behave the way they do.
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