Generation Me

[Ming]

This article caught my attention today, and I found it fascinating to read, so I figured I'd share it. It's about how the recent generation of college students today (and I would assume the general age range around college age) are more self-centered than ever. But I'll let you read it for yourself...

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17349066/?GT1=9033

After reading it, the first thing that came to mind was...

[FawkesFyre]

I'd be interested in taking this test myself.

I never had the "You are special" crap drilled into me. Granted, I'm a bit older than college age at 27, but still.

I never bought into the hype that "you could be anything you set your mind to" or "you can change the world".

You do the best you can do to be the best you that you can be.
Reality is truly self-centered in order to survive in today's world.

Colleges are raising the bar higher and higher to where students are living their lives around making the grades and making out an image that will look good to a college recruiter.

I made good grades in high school: A's and B's, and made an average SAT score. I rank above average in overall intelligence. But, I probably would not be accepted into the college that I graduated from now with those stats.

The really sad part is that I worked my ass off to keep my good grades through high school and college to land a pretty cushy job...but my grades didn't play any factor in my getting this job, my experience in the courses I took did. It doesn't matter if you took a class and failed it...you still got the experience from it, and that's what counts.

I just wish colleges would do a better job in preparing students for the real world, because its a cut-throat kind of place where I had to learn the hard way how to play the game.

[Ming]

Fawkes, I agree with pretty much everything that you said.

Regarding age, the study has been conducted over a few years, so I would think that you would have fit in at some point.

Like you, I worked pretty hard throughout college. I managed to maintain A's and B's throughout high school without breaking too much of sweat, which was and was not a good thing depending on how you look at it, but I digress.

My problem was a lack of any real desire to do anything in particular (that remains a problem today, but that's another topic altogether). That, coupled with other things that were going on in my life, was pretty much the reason that I took my first "real" job at 23...over a year after graduating. And yet, the degree that I worked hard to earn really isn't even relevant to my now "career". But again, I digress....I don't know where I'm going with this.

It used to bother me all the time to observe people at school like the ones mentioned in the article because it's completely opposite of who I am. Often times I question whethere I made the right decision about where I went to school solely for the fact that the people I went to school with were, for the most part, all selfish brats who didn't care about anything but themselves, and would stop at nothing to claw their way to the top, even if it meant cutting people down in the process.

And now, I'm basically just ranting. I think the world would be a much better place if people were brought back down to the reality that life is hard, and we're all just miniscule drops in the ocean of life. And no matter how hard you try, very few people actually do rise up and make a difference.

[FawkesFyre]

I took a semester in grad school to stall from having to get out and get a real job...and I got it via a connection my mom had...sort of.

I got an inital interview w/ this group called PARC...and didn't get it

So, I kept checking their career website and found another sector that caught my interest...and applied to 4 different positions. It caught the attention of the hiring Director to call me in for an interview where I got one of the jobs. I got promoted and stuck w/ that group until a bunch of crap started going on b/c of the merger.

I started looking around again and ended up back where I initailly started, only this time, getting the job.

I work in PARC now and love it.

And it turns out that if I had gotten it the first time, I would have prolly quit b/c of all the travel and been fired during a massive layoff.

But, strangly enough, I managed to at least loosly stay within my degree field...but its pretty broad to begin with:
BS in Technical and Professional Communications - Broad view Engineering

The 1st job was working on an internal knowledge management base. The 2nd, which I have now, I write proposals. Both w/ Cingular.

[Therin]

I disagree with one thing. If you put your mind to it, anyone can change the world. It's just a matter of figuring out how. And being megalomaniacal enough to pull it off.

[Graillik Tur]

But there in turn your trying to shape the world to what YOU think it SHOULD be. Not necisarrily(sp?) what would be best.

[Buda]

Its not in human nature to make the world the best place it can be, its to mold your suroundings to fit you. If that means you have to change the world then meh, you have your work cut out for you.

[Ultrawolf]

[underpants]

What a great article. If you really think about it, going to college is a narcissistic thing in and of itself. The main reason to go to college is to better your life, because going to college, usually, mean getting a better job in the end. So really the study followed people that were already narcissistic to begin with, but aren't we all a bit self loving. Hence my words "a bit," which is totally fine, but taking it to the extreme as it seems most celebrities have is not healthy at all, in my opinion.

[Jillybeans]

I've said this to Graillik before, but I'm pretty upset with my generation. Call me an old soul at age 19, but I can't help, but squirm every time I watch some reality TV show we're the young people that are shown are either self-centered, saying that they deserve something like a car, even though they haven't worked a day in their lives, or just anything that centers around them. I admit my mom(bless her heart) tried to buy me into the whole "I am special" thing. She had a magnet on our fridge that said "Jill is a special kid," she bought me movies and books that seemed to have the similar theme like I can change the world. And honestly when I was 13, I thought I could do everything, and then out of no where my senior year in high school I was like dang, where to go to college (wasn't sure), so I chose the military and that definitely kicked my butt into reality.
Woe to my generation, I just wish the kids these days weren't just handed things, I know I had to work for them, and honestly I've appreciated the things life has given me(as small as they may be) and are humble to the little blessings that seem to pop up when you least expect it.