To the Victor goes the spoiled; To the Spoiled goes the Victory?
If you were to ask my grandfather whether or not Generation Y is spoiled or not, you’d probably get a big ole “Hell yes!” – immediately followed by a 30-minute diatribe involving 5 a.m. chicken feedings, walking 30 miles to school, making beds to pay for college and the ever infamous curious two-sided hills that, were always led uphill, etc…
I’m sure you know this, but can we really disagree that in comparison we are over-privileged on a whole? Is this really a bad thing?
Perhaps it’s a more accurate statement to say that we take many of our generations’ privileges for granted. Compared to the generations before us we are entirely spoiled with our cell phones, computers, Facebook, etc. But isn’t this the natural “progression” of things? Isn’t each generation supposed to take further strides and expect more than those that came before?
Consider the alternative.
If a generation had less available resources than that of its predecessors, what would you call this? A step back, or perhaps a call to simpler times? P.S. Andy Griffith was awesome!
Would our older generational peers, parents and professors decry the ‘decline of civilization is upon us’ if Generation Y were to backslide into these “simpler times?” …and who then would be spoiled?
I’m sure this argument is not new to Gen-Y and the Xers and Boomers…I mean, I’m sure in the Middle Ages the upwardly-mobile over-30 crowd considered their younger counterparts spoiled…what with their refrigerated meat and immunity to the plague and lavish fineries of such.
So who’s at fault for each generation of forthcoming brats? Is it our parents who are to blame?
Well Glenn Beck has a very interesting perspective on our generation.
(Writer’s Note: please ignore the irony of a man who named a show after himself referring to others as “me”-centric.)
I’m convinced we are raising a generation of would-be killers: the ‘me generation.’ … A generation that was brought up by parents who wouldn’t spank them because it was too barbaric and were graded in purple pen because red is too frightening. A generation too busy trying to get noticed on YouTube or Facebook or Twitter to accomplish anything of real lasting value.
We never expected it of them. We promised them a land of sunshine rainbows and lollipops.
So it should come as no surprise that the ‘me generation’ enters the workforce demanding high salaries, corner offices and promotions in the first few months — all while wanting to dress down and work less than 40 hours a week
I find it hard to believe that this is a new phenomenon owing only to our generation. Even Socrates complained about the youthful generation of his time saying “The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise…”
Perhaps, in all we can look at this as a for of…(Earmuffs Mike Huckabee & Company!) …Evolution. Social evolution of course…
Tell you what, to appease the political spectrum and palate of our readers, we’ll call it “progress” so that everyone can have a warm and fuzzy feeling inside.
Generation Y being “lazy” is simply the product of Boomers desires to be lazy coming into fruition through the innovation of Generation X and being enjoyed by Gen Y…and I’m sure 30 years from now we’ll look at the 20-year-olds with their crazy virtual cellphone displays and self-driving cars and say, “When I was growing up…”
Is Generation Y Really Lazy?