It makes me angry when old people say, "When I was your age, the sky was bluer, babies were cuter, and you could sleep with your doors unlocked."

Uh, when you were a child, crime and infant mortality rates were higher, and people still died of smallpox. You just didn't notice because you were a child.

Great article.

you know, i'm sick to death of hearing about how apathetic and self involved my generation is too. i work at social organization and even my bosses are always saying how unusual and nice it is to see a young person concerned about *insert important issue here*. and in my experience as a young person, i don't know what the hell they're talking about.
most young people i know follow politics and world affairs and are active in their communities. just because someone isn't working on a campaign staff of our *cough* two party *cough* system, doesn't mean they aren't politically active or involved in our world. in our complex and information gorged era i think that it is normal and common for young people to know a lot about many issues, and be active on some of them. sure some people's myspace pages are all about them and their camera a foot from their face, but many are touch stones for communicating about political /social /environmental issues.
and speaking of the internet, another thing i'm tired of is a lack of understanding from an older activist generation about the importance of internet based activist organizing/communities as a viable and proactive way of communicating information and, to use a throw back term, consciousness raising. ok. thats my 2 cents for the day.
sorry for the rantishness. i just had one of the "your so unusual for your generation comments" the other day just cause i read that gloria steinman article. wow. my generation reads? no way.

ugh i'm so over it. i read this piece this morning, as part of my usual times-and-toast breakfast ritual (ok, so maybe i checked facebook too, but come on!) and it left a bad taste in my mouth.

i'm happy that the piece at least mentioned some scholars with conflicting study results. every generation has its unique quirks and flaws and ours is no exception. i'm not going to say that kids today aren't narcissistic, but with so much shit to figure out about oneself in adolescence/young adulthood, it's expected and i tend to think, hardly exclusive to whatever-the-fuck generation we are. just because we have better communications technology doesn't mean we're more self-absorbed. i'll point to the ways in which networking brings us together for causes we care about, apart from fabulous hair (e.g., this website! , the obama campaign, etc).

typical old folks pointing the finger. *yawn*

I wonder if some of the reason that older generations always want to label the youth at the reason for "society's downfall" is that they weren't able to acheive the level of change they'd hoped to when they were young. So instead of accepting that they want to blame the group of people that seem to be the most different from them.

Every older generation thinks the younger one is more narcisstic, less informed and less intelligent than theirs. It's practically a function of humanity similar to how older generations always think the younger generation invented promiscuity. While the older generations might think the current generation is more narcisstic, I think they should also look at how much stiffer competition for higher-paying jobs or entrance into professional schools is before they bawk at how narcisstic we all are. Ack. I hate these studies. It's like the one that blamed Mr. Rogers for the "entitlement issue" of our generation because he told children that they're special. Gah.

Every older generation thinks the younger one is more narcisstic, less informed and less intelligent than theirs. It's practically a function of humanity similar to how older generations always think the younger generation invented promiscuity. While the older generations might think the current generation is more narcisstic, I think they should also look at how much stiffer competition for higher-paying jobs or entrance into professional schools is before they bawk at how narcisstic we all are. Ack. I hate these studies. It's like the one that blamed Mr. Rogers for the "entitlement issue" of our generation because he told children that they're special. Gah.

I am 59 and, most of the time, work with women under 30. I am ofen asked ,by women over 70, what is going on with young people.
I find it is one simple factor = speed. The women's movement today is electronic, fast, diverse, maybe even impatient. Most older women, who do not travel at that speed, make the very uninformed conclusion that their movement has been discarded. Don't stop for a minute, don't let these idiotic judgments slow you down!

I guess I'm an old fart but I don't think twentysomethings as a whole are any more or less apathetic than they were we I was that age. I rather think those who are engaged politically are doing more useful public service work now than 30-40 years ago. The only real difference is the noise. Institute a draft with the Iraq war going on and see how much more noise there is from the twentysomethings.

Remember the media is helping to wage a "generational war." A generation is a huge number of people who have been put into a social category-socially constructed. The baby boomers number 76 million. Not all of the boomers are me-oriented, ex-hippie, self-absorbed and weathly waiting to retire and suck the blood out of the younger generation. (This is what the media has constructed.)

The media sets up generations to oppose and oppress each other. If we are kept busy hating each other, then we never get together to work on living together and redesigning our society so it works better for all of us.

Each generation has been labeled and set-up to fight the "constructed enemy" in the "other" generation.

It didn't start with the "Y" generation. For reference read Margaret Morganroth Gullette's "Aged by Culture." She talks about the contrived war between the generations.

I would suggest hanging out with some "real people" from another generation to hear what they think of themselves and others, before making judgements about what "old people" or the "older generation" thinks. I have been happily surprised.

I think the "kids today are so self-centered" attitude depends on a lot on who is doing the observing. My Sig O's parents were raised middle class in the 50s, and became radical activists in the 60s and 70s. They are very educated, and did a lot of activist work when they were younger. Now, they seem to lecture the younger generation constantly on their laziness, lack of convictions, etc. Honestly, everytime anyone mentions politics, my mother-in-law will make some kind of comment about how when she was my age, she was protesting in the streets, etc.

My parents are working class. My mom's an eastern European immigrant, and they got married very young. My dad didn't go to college until my brothers and I were older. Although they've both become more active in their community in the past ten years or so, they weren't particularly engaged in social/political issues for most of their lives. Their kids, however, ended up working in social services, alternative media, and education, and are politically engaged. My parents are really impressed by this; they're very proud of us, and see it as part of a larger trend.

But it's not my parents who have the ear of the media. It's the more priviledged, politcally informed boomers, and so they're the ones constantly talking about how lazy and disengaged we are.

Ever since I discovered in college that "second wave" and "third wave" feminists were supposed to be at insuperable odds, I've been lobbying for a truly radical bit of feminist subverting-the-mainstream: ditching the generational antagonism altogether and instead assuming that people with similar passions and goals can work together for social change, regardless of age.

Huh. What a concept.

I get tired of hearing this kind of thing. While I'm sure there are pleanty of people my age who are brain dead, entitled, brats, this is nothing new; there have always been narcists and there always will be.

My friends and I may not be out protesting in the streets, but we always talk about politics, about feminism, about the war and the economy, and universal healthcare. We talk about what we are going to do to care for our parents as they age, because you just can't count on social security anymore. We vote. We all worked in college and most people I know have loans. We are all working at whatever job we could get, and none of us feel we are above any task that crosses our desk.

And I think that most people of all ages understand that. When I find someone who's drank the Kool-Aide concerning the self-centered younger generation, they tend to be someone who believes most of the alarmist things brought up in the media, or it's someone who doesn't actually know many younger people very well so they don't really understand them.

I don't doubt that we have different expectations and values, but again that's hardly novel. It's really as 44aces said...this is just another psuedoconflict to distract people from real issues and prevent people from working together to accomplish anything.

Thank God us Gen Xers (b. 1965-1980) can sit this one out. After all, we give nary a fuck about you cob-nobblers.

"Is it really us, people, or might it just be a little bit about you? Are older folks projecting their own unmet needs on an entire generation? Now that's narcissism."

"typical old folks pointing the finger. *yawn*"

While I think the scope of the article was poorly articulated, I also think that dismissing the concept of a narcissistic generation is irresponsible and short-sighted. There has to be a certain amount of recognition that younger people are searching for self-definition today in a way that was unavailable to the older generation. Today, in the era of blogging, youtube, myspace, and the many other ways one can "create" their identity and image in a public scope, and in ways that ultimately grant self-centered ideology the possibility of becoming one's worldview, it has to be acknowledged that there is significant generational difference.

I know that the article in question was a bit off-putting, but the basic concept of cultural narcissism should not be projected back onto the older generation, on claims that they are "pointing the finger" (which really conjures up images of parent-adolescent relationships), but instead critically examined and practically analyzed.. thoughts?

Do you think maybe when they refer to "kids" they really are referring to actual kids? Not 21-30 year olds but 10-18 year olds.

Those kids really are terrible, IMO.

My mom, who's in her late fifties, buys into this idea bigtime. She loves to talk about how my generation is disconnected, never involved in politics, and won't ever learn how to converse or connect because we talk through computers and not to people. Also, to her, talking to people on websites (like this) or trying to have discussion is met with "Why do you even care? It's words on a page." The worst part is that she works with young people and half her job description is trying to figure out what they want/like to do.

Then, when I bring up a point elaborated on in a blog comment, or give an opinion backed by research given on a blog, or get constant letters from my state representative because of my online activism, she looks at me crosseyed and wonders where I get my information from or where I get the time to do these things. It's enough to make me scream, I tell you.

"Why do you even care? It's words on a page."

I hate that sentiment! As though A REAL PERSON didn't type them. They are words on a page that were written by an actual person. That it's read online doesn't make it less meaningful.

I'll second the others who've said that every younger generation gets inappropriately labelled. See, I'm a formerly much-dreaded Gen X-er. In the 90's we were the angry, apathetic ones (how we could be both at the same time always baffled me) who listened to Nirvana. Yes, didn't you know? EVERYONE born between, like 1969 and 1980, LOVED Nirvana? We had whole spreads in magazines like "Time" devoted to how disenfranchised and apathetic we were.

I found this immensely interesting considering that I did my Sophomore World History term paper on the horrors of South African apartheid. Also, I dreamed of my 18th birthday so I could vote! I dragged my Mom to the polls in 1992 for my first national election. Then, there were the friendly debates with my young Republican best friend in high school. My other best friend was an active member of PETA and a vegetarian.

Needless to say, the media never reflects the reality on this. I also second the people who've said this is manufactured for our distraction. We'll just keep working together and proving them wrong.

I'm with you, youngsters!! Now, where's my cane? ;0)

I remember reading this comment (not here) which really surprised me, this is a paraphrase; "The young people of today have obscure haircuts, unusual dress and are lazy and indifferent to the body politic" - it went something like that, anyway, turns out it was written by a 16th century english monk. So it looks like things have really changed since then....

Andrew--it goes back even further. The article has this amusing quote:

“The children now love luxury,� Plato wrote 2,400 years ago. “They have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise.�

Amen Courtney and I'm 53.
I'm as sick of this crap as anyone.

My kids (19,22,24) and their friends are fabulous people with a kind of global awareness and drive to help the disenfranchised than Baby Boomers have never known.

Culturally the collective we seems to have become obsessed with touting a sense of superiority. It's disgusting.

I have nothing to say that wasn't said thousands of years ago, apparently. Everyone seems to forget what it's like to be a certain age once they're a bit past it. I'll admit I do it too, seeing younger people.

Jean Twenge is ridiculous. I recently listened to a couple interviews with her--she's got one song to sing, and no idea how to resolve the melody. Basically, she comes across as some hyped up academic who's pissed because her students don't respect her, and felt compelled to write a book rife with bitching and generalizations.

If you can, track down her website and blog. She's got a survey out for her new book, and it's hilariously biased. Research, my ass.

If any "young person" here has an "older person" pull that crap on them that "in my day we were more involved", ask them (politely) what they have done in an activist or community service way lately. Their "day" isn't over unless they are so physically disabled they can't get out of the house. The people who gripe about younger folks not being involved are not involved themselves. If they were they would know better than to gripe, 'cause most community service organizations do have younger folks involved.

Ah, Cedar, thats right! This is a bit OT but didn't he also say that writing would make people lazy, as they wouldn't have to memorise information! Tsk, kids and their new fads. Come to think of it plato gave out about the younger generation a bit in The Republic too. Didn't he point out that when elderly people behave like the young, they would not be revered. Also, one of the negative signs of a society was that the young did not obey the elderly?

Also 21st century mom, I've been thinking about that stuff alot latley and thanks, you helped me phrase it, our society is obsessed touting a sense of superiority. In every way possible.

I do think this is an issue, but an issue of new technology, not new generations, and are only related insofar as younger people tend to pick up new technology faster.

We now have unlimited access to mirrors of ourselves. With Facebook and MySpace, we are hypnotized by "existing" in a public world, an area where others can see and react to us. Anyone might fall for that.

I do get concerned that this causes people who get addicted to that rush (regardless of what generation they're in) to work harder on their image than their actual selves. I know people who photoshop their profile pics to look slimmer or list cool bands as their faves when they only know a song or two. They spend loads of time staging virtual photoshoots and faux memorable experiences as part of their identity, which is increasingly and exclusively defined online. Aside from being a natural phase of growing up, how does that help promote individualism, intimacy or sincerity?

So I know my response is not cool and dismissive, but this issue does worry me. Not because the new kids are inherently lazy and narcissistic, but because we are validating, facilitating, and prolonging self-obsession in an unprecedented way.

Meh. As a gen x-er, I heard the same crapola when I was in college in the early '90s from the boomers. You're so apathetic, self-centered, blah, blah, blah.
That said, I weirdly look forward to yelling "get off my lawn, you damn kids!" In a few years. And yes, I plan to wave my cane at them.

I was thinking about this the other day when I saw an article complaining about how student loan debt is the result of extravagent lifestyles and not the fact that tuition costs more than the median family earns, in a year, before taxes.

(Shrug.) "In my day," high school kids did a lot. They volunteer. College kids volunteer, go on service trips to third-world countries to build homes, start campus groups to help raise awareness for a variety of causes, and initiate changes in policies and curricula to help other students.

When I go to a California Coastal Clean-Up, the 20-somethings and teenagers are not too hungover or too obsessed with MySpace to go; in fact, the whole enterprise seems to be people our age who voluntarily give up a Saturday morning to pick up other people's cigarette butts out of the sand.

We've used the leisure time and educational opportunities that our parents give us to do great things in the world. If we then spend 10 minutes amid our public service to post a joke on Facebook, suddenly it wipes out everything we've done?

I recently saw a segment from 60 Minutes about Generation Y and how corporations are totally shocked that we do things like negotiate for a better salary if we think we deserve it. This is apparently the narcissistic behavior that has people up in arms.

I'm going to submit a grant for research into why those damn kids won't get off my lawn. Because if that Twenge lady can get funding, so can I.

I like the idea of the "generation war." It hadn't occured to me but is very obviously a factor now that I've had it explained.

Also, I tend to think that my/our generation is often angry and alienated from constructed consumer culture because they recognize it for the crap it is, not to mention prone to seeking out the occasional extralegal and/or aggressive opportunity to fight the man, so to speak, out of frustration with the fact that our parents' methods haven't been too terribly effective at ending oppression in the long run.

Corporate-controlled America hates this. We aren't all buying into their plans (which include us spending our whole lives buying their useless shit for no reason), and we aren't all keeping our heads down (because keeping your head down is a sort of sucky way of getting people to take you seriously). Therefore we must be neutralized.

We're told we feel the way we do because we are thoughtless self-centered assholes until some of us start to believe it. Our parents are prevented from being convinced by us to see the light by marketing which depicts us as ineffectual apathetic narcissistic kids who just can't grasp the signifigance of their world-shifting decision to vote for a centrist Democrat.

Meh. Yunnguns. Heared they strug a wire up t'the Johnson house, say voices come through clear from Washington just like they was in the next room. Ain't right, talkin' t'someone without y'can see their eyes. All the kids r'doin it though; not a one of em settin on the porch come evenintime.

Them wires is gonna destroy proper society, is what they's gonna do. An' Mabel down to the post office said they got rays in 'em that mess with yer crops.

Ignore these maroons.

abi di carlo:

Today, in the era of blogging, youtube, myspace, and the many other ways one can "create" their identity and image in a public scope, and in ways that ultimately grant self-centered ideology the possibility of becoming one's worldview, it has to be acknowledged that there is significant generational difference.

Crap. Every moment, in every time, allowed the possibility of being self-centered. Or do you think that pre-Internet culture somehow made it impossible to be selfish? If so, I would be interested in an argument. Similarly, if you think that today's TV/Internet culture promotes self-centered behavior, I would like to hear an argument as well.

As it stands, you make a highly questionable claim about media and culture (I mean, what Web site is this?), and you make it using a manufactured 'generational' framework that has almost no social scientific credibility (in support of which I cite the study that was the subject of the post).

Buying into this crap detaches us from people who could teach us a lot. Believe me, the talibabgelicals and the neocons on the wingnut welfare dole do not banish their old or eat their young.

I am a 35 year old woman. which means I am a member of "generation X". We were the "narcissistic slackers," even though many gen xers are self sufficient. Maybe just not as obsessed with money. Sigh. So every generation has its critics.

People have been bitching about how their generation was better and reminiscing about "The good old days" since the beginning of time. Literally. The ancient Greek and Roman politicians had the exact same complaints and that was 2000 years ago. They reminisced about how the generations before were "The good old days." People will always romanticize the past as the "good old days", even though those "good old days" never existed.

And it seems everybody goes through a feeling of invincibility when they are in their 20s. This may or may not go as far as narcissism but I think varying degrees of it are just part of being in your 20s. Nothing new.

I'm hearing a lot of distain for older folks here too. Those *$/?%#@ boomers. This cuts both ways.
I would like to see less assumptions made on both sides. We're individuals first.
It is in Corporate America's best interest to divide the population and they try at every turn.
In some ways it sucks to be young, in others to be older, even in the middle.
The divisivness doesn't help with anything. Down with all Ageism.

I'm a Gen Xer, and I got this same crap 10-15 years ago.

First we were slackers who didn't want to work.

Then when we created countless new internet companies, suddenly we were money-obsessed and did nothing but work and were so self-aggrandizing we actually wanted to be the heads of our the companies we started from scratch. The nerve!

Then the economy crashed and we were called foolhardy and uppity.

And we certainly had our own alternative media in the form of zines, which were viewed as narcissistic, shallow and pop-culture-obsessed and of no import to anyone but ourselves.

Just like the teen and 20-somethings' websites are viewed today.

Same shit, different decade.

Which makes me feel kind of old, now that I'm no longer in the supposedly-too-young-to-be-important demographic, but I can't say I miss that bullshit.

this issue does worry me. Not because the new kids are inherently lazy and narcissistic, but because we are validating, facilitating, and prolonging self-obsession in an unprecedented way.

I tend to agree.

Some of the 21-24 year olds in my office treat the place like a sorority house. I try to keep my distance from them because their attitudes are embarassing and I don't want to be associated with them when push comes to shove. They roll their eyes or sigh when you ask them to do something. But they all feel entitled to raises & promotions just for showing up on time.

Every time I catch a glimpse of their computers, they are on Facebook, posting pictures. Come on. This is the real world. They get a real kick out of playing pranks on one another while everyone else works hard.

I have talked with friends who confirm that things are the same way at their offices. I know anecdotes =/= data, but recent college grads just don't seem to get it.

I have a few friends who work in academia, and all are frustrated by how entitled and immature their students are. I think *entitlement* is the big issue - whether it's high schoolers, college kids or recent grads. They think they're entitled to an A+ or the corner office just for being the special snowflakes they are.
One of my friends says that she gets phonecalls from PARENTS when kids have roommate conflicts. Parents have not taught their kids how to handle their own problems. They also call to demand that their child be given an A in class "because we pay a lot for tuition."

I guess it's the enabling parents I'm frustrated with more than the kids themselves. But 21 year olds are not exactly kids.

I just turned 23 last month. I graduated with a BS in Biology (and minors in chem and philosophy) in May 2007.

I've been supporting myself for almost a year and a half now. I have a full time job since October and am renting an apartment, paying off loans, paying bills, and caring for two cats with the money I make at my job.

I work when I'm at work, and I do my part to bring issues I see as important to the eyes and ears of anyone I encounter in my scarce free time.

I take great offense to the sweeping generalization of laziness and apathy attributed to people my age.

I'm reminded of the day I brought cupcakes to work for my coworker's birthday. My boss asked if I made them myself, and I said I'm not quite crazy enough to make any kind of cake from scratch at the moment - they were from a box. He was impressed - said it's rare to see "young people" who actually do things in the kitchen.

I was pretty surprised. Cupcakes from a box aren't anything all that intense, after all...

Nevertheless, I agree that there are massive amounts of lazy, irresponsible, misguided, self-centered slobs polluting this earth - and they're pretty evenly divided amongst all generations.

jfaustus—

you make a good point. No, I definitely don’t think that pre-internet culture made it impossible to be selfish. But I do think that post-internet, post-myspace, post-you-tube culture has resulted in a phenomenon in which the younger generation utilizes these spaces in their search for identity and definition… I don’t know if I would go as far as to say that TV/internet culture promotes self-centered behavior. But I do think that it allows a sense of self-importance and entitlement that older generations did not have. I see a generation so overwhelmed by the information age – by the sheer amount of information that bombards us daily, and I see some struggling to define themselves in spite of it all. And we have the ability to carve out our own niches, in the blogosphere, on youtube, wherever, that older generations did not have. This can be very positive, but it can also result negatively, with some obsessed with celebrity culture, vapid self-images, and narcissistic mentalities.

You’re right I do not offer social scientific credibility (that either of us knows of). I’m just offering my own theory, based on my own experience, observations, and limited research. I don’t think that generational difference has to be divisive. I think *that* is at the very heart of this issue. On this board, I see people becoming upset that an article makes claims about generational difference. I’m saying – so what? Yes. I do see difference. But that doesn’t make us the evil, apathetic generation – uninvolved and self-obsessed. It just means that the world has changed – the information-age, post-9/11, postmodern world is very different from the older generations’ world. I don’t like to see this take the form of “youth-bashing� or pointing fingers at the older-generation, because this makes each argument irrelevant and doesn’t seem very productive. I think it might be better to recognize this difference, acknowledge where we are and what we have become, and utilize that space positively.

This kind of thing goes back to the beginning of civilization. As long as the term "generation" existed, the phrase "generation gap" followed quickly behind. I'm not entirely sure why it happens, but the truth is it's not worth worrying about. With our ability to multi-task, use critical new technology, and sift through knowledge better than any previous generation thanks to the advent of the internet we'll be running the show soon enough anyway.

Honestly, how do I get labeled self-centered for working hard to get a scholarship in an increasingly competitive and pricey college market? I only hope that the future generations are even more successful than mine. In general we're getting better. Slowly in some areas, quickly in others, and it's kind of hard to predict where and how it will happen, but progress is the name of the game.

Wow. I almost don't even know where to begin with this one.

I absolutely acknowledge and agree with the consistent sentiment on this thread. I, too, know many brilliant, involved, hard-working 20-somethings (myself included).

I absolutely agree that not all baby boomers buy into the mainstream attitude about us Gen Y. But let's at least realize that this attitude didn't materialize out of nowhere. I mean, what generation controls the mainstream if not the baby boomers?

I am reminded of agism often, but this post also reminded me of the movie Jesus Camp. In that movie, the leaders (always boomers) would emphasize that the children were a "key generation" to "bringing our nation back to Christ." Talk about pressure, huh? But it made me wonder why these leaders felt entitled to project their own insecurities onto children who, I believe, don't know what is happening to them. It's like they just gave up trying and thought they should tell younger kids how to "improve" the country. Ummmm, you're not dead yet, you can still get off your ass and "contribute." That, to me, seems more lazy than the average 20 year old.

I guess we do have to keep in mind that there aren't very many positive portrayls of twentysomething females or males in the mainstream. So it is understandable how peoples' perceptions become skewed. I do wonder, though, why boomers often emulate us 20 year olds (plastic surgery to look younger, getting myspage pages, etc.), when there is so much negativity surrounding the Gen Y-ers.

I used to think that the kids I go to school with were nothing but entitled brats too, SarahMC.

But one day, they started talking about their scholarships. They were all talking about how hard it was to do their schoolwork, be involved in clubs and/or volunteer, work, hang out with their friends, and still manage to keep their grades at a level acceptable to their multiple scholarships. On top of that, they are just learning how to be adults - how to manage their finances, make long-lasting decisions for themselves, and even just manage their own time. And all this usually comes after a high school career that was crammed just as full of activities so that they could get these scholarships and get into this school in the first place. That is a lot of pressure on a person, especially a person who is fresh from childhood.

I know I couldn't take it when I was 19; I dropped out, and will finally be getting my Bachelors at 28 years old. But I also didn't have parents to back me up, to try to help me out when I was having a hard time with any one of these new responsibilities that had been laid in my lap. I felt I was entitled to a lot of things back then, since I was still in that child's mindset, but some caring-but-firm people helped me see that I couldn't just expect things to fall in my lap. We shouldn't treat these kids like they're just stupid - you've dismissed their very real concerns as "entitlement" and we all know what it's like to have our legitimate concerns dismissed. It's like everyone else has said: we have to engage each other in order to break down the walls between us that prevent us from fighting against our real enemies. One of the ways of breaking down those walls is considering why they do what they do in the context of their lives, not ours.

I can't get over the disconnect on this issue. We live in a mainstream media and political culture that consistently ignores grassroots activism and civic-mindedness. Then in the next breath its: "Why are the young so apathetic?" I'm often amazed that people -young and old- are involved in as much great stuff as they are given that status quo institutions by and large frown upon active participation and encourage spectacle and consumerism.
Anyone not watching the Super Bowl, CNN, or buying the latest gadget is just sooo below the radar of the NYT and these so-called researchers.

As several people pointed out, this is little more than the endless old folks' longing for the 'good old days' as they always have (makes me wonder what I'll be like when I'm a senior).
Working in an office with several twentysomethings, it's much easier to see them as individuals and not as a group. The only thing I've found as a generational divide is our childhood memories--we're nostalgic for very different things.

I keep thinking they must be watching MTV as their resource.

I'm hardcore Gen X and let me assure you, we were told we were lazy, unfocused, and self-centered all the time. Even when we all self-published 'zines, wrote and performed poetry, and formed fairly radical alternative communities both on-line (in the heady, early days of the internet) and off. Our lives didn't look like yuppie lives and so people freaked out.

I think there's a heavy 'Wah! Kids today suck! And I'm jealous of their youth!' element to stories like this that will keep them coming out every time a defineable new group of people comes of age and doesn't do things exactly like everyone before them.

I don't this this (perceived) narcissism was created in a vacuum. Though I'm on the cusp of the Gen X/Millenial split, I've always thought the Boomers were among the most selfish of generations. All this talk about "We protested Vietnam" seems shallow when you consider they only protested because they risked being drafted. It wasn't necessarily for any sort of ideological or moral reasons, though I'm not so pessimistic as to assume that some of the folks protesting didn't genuinely object to the war itself. If a whole generation has become selfish and narcissistic, I'd say you look no further than their parents for the source. All of these folks who raised their children in McMansions while driving Yukons and giving their children everything they wanted didn't exactly set the best example for thinking globally, now did they?

Here's an article saying how involved and civic minded Gen y people are: http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2006-10-23-gen-next-cover_x.htm

So what changed in the year since this article? Or maybe we shouldn't stereotype any large group of people? I still can't figure out why that's such a hard concept to grasp.

A lot of the businuiss world's literature on Gen Y and Z talk about how younger people "place less priority on their career and are instead searching for flexibility that allows balance between work, family and personal time." http://www.smartmanager.us/eprise/main/web/us/hr_manager/articles_sept07_generation

Wow, they sound like a bunch of jerks! How dare they be so selfish, especially after seeing how well working themselves to death served older generations!

I think some in the older generations feel bad that they bought in to the things they said they were fighting against (hippies became yuppies, punks became middle managers,) and probably fear the younger generation will look down on them for abandoning their youthful causes, when in reality many younger people are more concerned for the now and the future.

(For the record, I am also in that between Gen x/y no-mans-land.)

Complaint literature about how the world is going to hell and it's all the damned kids' fault dates back at least to ancient Egypt. And lo, 3000 years later we're all still here. I think society will survive yet another narcissistic generation.

Ohhh, this has always irked me. When I was a freshman in high school I wrote in my online journal about abortion, gay rights, the death penalty, and the usual run-of-the-mill hot topics. As a senior in HS, I got very into politics, reading tons of books, articles, listening to radio shows focused on politics and the Bush/Kerry election. My English teacher senior year gave me books to read and even invited me to come protest in Washington with him at Bush's inauguration (which I couldn't attend). I talked politics all the time, and urged my guitar teacher to vote since I could not. I wrote letters to the local newspaper about the election. (I'm 20 now and my obsession with politics has waned quite a bit).

Some of my friends care about some issues, and some do not. I think that's how it's always been. I also hear a lot from older people (I would say 60+) that we're rude and lazy. It's unfair to lump such a large and diverse group of people into the category of "narcissists". I know a lot of people who could care less about environmental issues, feminism, politics, etc, and I know a lot of people who care deeply. What it comes down to is ignorance on the part of older generations, and an unwillingness to understand the new forms that activism can take on.