So, is today’s generation more apathetic then their predecessors? Heck yeah they are! Everywhere I look, I see teenagers more worried about the latest fashions than they are at the state of our planet. It's not that the youth of today have no passion, it’s just that their passion seems to have a whole lot to do with self. Jean Twenge, author of the book Generation Me, helped lead a study that found the rate of narcissism in youth today has almost doubled since the study began some twenty years ago. Everybody needs a cause to fight for. Whether it be for the better of the planet or for your own personal triumph. And the youth of today seem to be choosing the latter. So, in the eyes of the world they are labeled as apathetic: Apathetic to political issues, apathetic to worldly concerns and apathetic when it comes to their future. They are being labeled as the “Entitlement Generation.”
The youth of today have been given many nicknames that seem to hint at their apathetic ways and “Entitlement Generation” is the one that seems to have stuck. The world seems to be full of youth who feel entitled to fortune and fame yet don’t want to put in the work to get there. Too many children are growing up being given far more than they need to get through life. The generations of struggling youth are no longer here and the stories of overcoming obstacles have been buried and forgotten. Children are growing up in what can be argued to be a more turbulent and historic time than ever, yet they choose to simply sit back and watch it all happen. Has the over exposure to the issues made them desensitized? The stories of getting stuff done and rising up are now the tales of grandparents and the words seem to have been getting lost. There are no stories of uprisings or falling in love with your future husband in jail after being arrested for trespassing during a protest to end nuclear energy. That sense of voice and empowerment seem to have been lost.
I remember growing up listening to my mom tell me stories of protests she participated in during her teens and can recall the day she took me to a street corner in town and we held up signs demanding an end to the Gulf War. Those days seem to be over for the moment and that saddens me. I live in a house with four teenagers and spend my summers working at a children’s camp. And let me tell you, there is no sense of fighting the struggle in the youth I know. There is no sense of wonderment in what they can do to make a change.
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1 comment:
I completely agree and I'm saddened that our children are turning out the way they are. with the new technological advances; our children are truly being brain washed into digital culture. In fact technology is making everyone lazy and apathetic. Our children are suffering, and they have no aware of it. We need to turn it around and use this technology for the better instead of for the worse. make technology the tool we use for our children to learn and progress instead of dumbing down to digress. I completely agree, and we must take action to turn our children's life around.
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