4 ms·

The Times and friends seem to write a whole lot of "kids these days" articles about the so-called Millennials. Usually about how self-centred or lazy or entitle

The Times and friends seem to write a whole lot of "kids these days" articles about the so-called Millennials. Usually about how self-centred or lazy or entitled they are but sometimes as lazy as "they use the internet more" and "they take a lot of selfies and make so many twitters". Does every generation do this about its youngers? I've only lived through a few "named" generations but I feel like I didn't see nearly this much judgemental coverage about other ones. I know every generation thinks that they're the best and the others are all just old fogeys or youngin twerps but most editoral outlets don't seem to cover much else lately.

vinceguidry 13y ago
> Does every generation do this about its youngers? This sort of journalistic sophistry has been popular since the end of World War Two and catered to the need for the Baby Boomers (the only group to which this sort of generalization can really be accurate) to justify their feelings of self-importance, as they knew they couldn't match the heroics of their warrior parentage. If you think this is bad, you should have seen what they wrote about Gen X. Nobody but the Boomers really gives a shit about it, and once they're all gone, I predict this naming-and-shaming nonsense will go with them.
- devindotcom 13y ago
  I really don't think so. Being perplexed/disgusted by the iniquities of the younger generation has been going on for a long time and will in all likelihood continue. I do agree that there's a lot of boomer-focused "get off my lawn" stuff in the NYT, though. That's their audience.
  - vinceguidry 13y ago
    > Being perplexed/disgusted by the iniquities of the younger generation has been going on for a long time Well, sure, but there's a difference between the normal run-of-the-mill "kids think they invented sex"-type bitching and this naming-of-the-generations claptrap. Google up some of the old articles, they're the height of verbose, narcissistic inanity. It took a special kind of self-involvement to generate this crap.
devindotcom 13y ago
Pretty sure it's common to older generations throughout history. The famous one (possibly apocryphal, I can't remember) is Socrates lamenting the fact that kids these days were writing things down instead of memorizing and preserving the oral tradition. Edit to add also that Horace wrote (in latin of course): "And yet with crimes to us unknown, Our sons shall mark the coming age their own."
nl 13y ago
Oh yes!! I remember a circa 1993 article about Gen-X (or whatever): about how they were lazy, grunge was just wanna-be 70's rock, they never did anything new and were just copying the Boomers. I wish (WISH!) I'd kept it so I could have emailed the author to ask if they got in on the Netscape IPO.

vinceguidry 13y ago

> Does every generation do this about its youngers? This sort of journalistic sophistry has been popular since the end of World War Two and catered to the need for the Baby Boomers (the only group to which this sort of generalization can really be accurate) to justify their feelings of self-importance, as they knew they couldn't match the heroics of their warrior parentage. If you think this is bad, you should have seen what they wrote about Gen X. Nobody but the Boomers really gives a shit about it, and once they're all gone, I predict this naming-and-shaming nonsense will go with them.

devindotcom 13y ago
I really don't think so. Being perplexed/disgusted by the iniquities of the younger generation has been going on for a long time and will in all likelihood continue. I do agree that there's a lot of boomer-focused "get off my lawn" stuff in the NYT, though. That's their audience.
- vinceguidry 13y ago
  > Being perplexed/disgusted by the iniquities of the younger generation has been going on for a long time Well, sure, but there's a difference between the normal run-of-the-mill "kids think they invented sex"-type bitching and this naming-of-the-generations claptrap. Google up some of the old articles, they're the height of verbose, narcissistic inanity. It took a special kind of self-involvement to generate this crap.

devindotcom 13y ago

Pretty sure it's common to older generations throughout history. The famous one (possibly apocryphal, I can't remember) is Socrates lamenting the fact that kids these days were writing things down instead of memorizing and preserving the oral tradition. Edit to add also that Horace wrote (in latin of course): "And yet with crimes to us unknown, Our sons shall mark the coming age their own."

nl 13y ago

Oh yes!! I remember a circa 1993 article about Gen-X (or whatever): about how they were lazy, grunge was just wanna-be 70's rock, they never did anything new and were just copying the Boomers. I wish (WISH!) I'd kept it so I could have emailed the author to ask if they got in on the Netscape IPO.