Is it just me or are today's younger journalists lazy?

[Lester Bangs]

How did this thread get this nasty? Seemed like a fair request for thoughts to me. Or maybe this board is as heavily populated by the under-25 crowd as it sometimes seems.

 

[Clever username]

Troll BigUgly,

There's a poster on here named Hondo. You two would make great friends.

They could throw puppies off the bridge together.

One to supply the sack, the other the bricks.

 

[Ace]

How did this thread get this nasty? Seemed like a fair request for thoughts to me. Or maybe this board is as heavily populated by the under-25 crowd as it sometimes seems.

Well, the subject line asks one question and then the post seems to veer off into several directions. So I was put off, to tell the truth, and I'm not even young.

 

[Clever username]

What, you mean one day I might be able to work for a company that keeps ****ing me in the ass on a daily basis and expects me to say, "Thank you sir. May I have another?"

Yes, why, I think I'll pass.

(Seriously: It's not the "motivation" that needs to be different for younger employees. It's the treatment. ... ****ing me over is not going to make me work harder. Sorry.)

Can we be friends, Buckweaver? That was beautiful.

One could make an argument for self-motivation, but that quickly goes out the window when the higer-ups keep giving you the Boots treatment.

 

[Flying Headbutt]

How did this thread get this nasty? Seemed like a fair request for thoughts to me. Or maybe this board is as heavily populated by the under-25 crowd as it sometimes seems.

Because it started with a premise of absurdity and bitterness. Maybe the guy supervises an asshole. Or maybe he's the asshole. Hell there are plenty of employees and employers that fit that category all over the country. But in their own eyes, they're just swell to be around.

 

[Franklin]

and they all listen to that rock and roll devil music.

 

[FantasyAlliance.cm]

Troll BigUgly,

There's a poster on here named Hondo. You two would make great friends.

Don't try to throw him under the bus.

 

[daemon]

Damn kids!

Seriously, this is the lowdown on the business:

If you are good, you'll eventually get anything you want.

If you are decent, you might eventually get anything you want.

If you are poor, you won't get anything you want and you'll end up starting threads on message boards bitching about the people younger than you (or blacker than you, or more feminine than you) who are getting anything they want.

Are there plenty of young writers with a false sense of entitlement? Sure.

Are there plenty of old writers with a false sense of entitlement? Sure.

It ain't the age, or the color, or the gender. Although possessing any one of the three could give you a leg up in the short term, your ultimate destiny will be decided by one thing: you.

So start your thread if you'd like, and vent when you must, but while doing so, take a look in the mirror.

 

[pallister]

One could make an argument for self-motivation, but that quickly goes out the window when the higer-ups keep giving you the Boots treatment.

If you have to make an argument for being self-motivated, well ... somehow I don't think self-motivation's gonna be a big issue for you.

 

[Tom Petty]

How did this thread get this nasty? Seemed like a fair request for thoughts to me. Or maybe this board is as heavily populated by the under-25 crowd as it sometimes seems.

you're exactly right. why else would so many people be appalled by such a simple question?

 

[Alma]

Everybody wants what they want because they want it and thinks what they think because they think it.

what the HELL does that mean?

It means that people don't necessarily understand why they want what they want or why they think what they think. Many people - even smart people - want and think in a certain way and are flabbergasted anyone else thinks differently.

 

[spnited]

And now for an old guy's take on this very touchy subject:

Bigugly went quite a bit off track from his orginal question to the end of his post but he's not entirely wrong here.
I don't think I'd call it lazy but I do think there is a sense of entitlement that too many of you youngsters have that people of my age did not have.
The irony in that is that people of my generation -- baby boomers, the parents of you younger writers -- are the ones who fostered this sense of entitlement in their children. So in a way, we older folks are complaining about the monster we helped create.
I'm trying not to paint with too board a brush because I know and work with a large number of very good, hard-working, ambitious young writers. But I also know quite a few who think they're god's gift to the profession and are too good to be "stuck" where they are. Most of the latter group stay "stuck" forever.
And, yes, I got a couple of very big breaks at a very young age. I never had to work at a small paper or struggle to work my way up through the ranks. But I also appreciated the fact that I got those breaks while too many youngsters today think they are entitled to those breaks.
There are lazy people and people with a sense of entitlement at all levels of all professions. My generation, for the most part, does not have quite the same work ethic my parents' generation had. Many of the 20-somethings don't have quite the same work ethic my generation has.
But to say today's young journalists are all lazy is absurd. To say more of them seem to have a sense of entitlement is probably closer to the truth.

 

[Piotr Rasputin]

If you are good, you'll eventually get anything you want.

Depending of course on what you want, who has what you want when you're in position to want it, how patient you are when you want it, if you're in position to get it when you want it and it becomes available, and how many other people wnat what you want.

Personally, I have exactly what I wanted. But there are plenty of quality journalists out there who never get what they want, for many reasons. Simply being good isn't enough.

And I have found that being "poor" - or okay, having to improve just to reach mediocre - is often far from the hinderance it should be.

As for today's youngsters, it's a tempting generalization to make, especially with the fact there are plenty of great columnists and beat guys who have not lost their drive after decades pounding the pavement. Then you see columnists who almost never go to the ballpark, beat guys who spend more time kissing posteriors and writing standard fare with zero creativity, and editors counting the minutes, hours and days on the clock until retirement or the end of the shift.

All veterans, all people who should know better.

Quality isn't restricted to the veterans. Mediocrity and laziness aren't restricted to the young.

Useless thread, that proceeds from a false assumption.

 

[sportswriter not a junky]

Daemon, you're right on!!!

 

[spaceman]

spnited, good take.

 

[SF_Express]

But to say today's young journalists are all lazy is absurd. To say more of them seem to have a sense of entitlement is probably closer to the truth.

As another Old Guy, I'm kind of down on this side of the argument.

I do know it's a different world, and some of that's probably good. Maybe it WASN'T always fair that when I started out, the young guys did the food runs for the office without question, got yelled at and took it (and hopefully learned from it), literally respected their elders.

Some of the "good old days" weren't so good, but I do think there was something to be said for paying your dues.

 

[Cadet]

The irony in that is that people of my generation -- baby boomers, the parents of you younger writers -- are the ones who fostered this sense of entitlement in their children. So in a way, we older folks are complaining about the monster we helped create.

This is what kills me when I hear people complain about "kids today" ... most recently my parents, aunts and uncles. They're the ones who raised us. They're the ones who did this. They're the ones who created the "everyone gets a trophy" mentality. It is simply a case of reaping what they have sown.

Again, this is a broad generalization. I know lazy people of all ages, I know dedicated people of all ages. I'll admit I've been both. But I hate being stereotyped.

 

[Pringle]

"Paying your dues." Ah, yes, how you all yearn for the days when someone like Mike Royko could walk off the military base right into a columnist gig at the Chicago Daily News.

I mean, this is big-time revisionist history. People skipped steps then. They skip them now.

 

[SF_Express]

"Paying your dues." Ah, yes, how you all yearn for the days when someone like Mike Royko could walk off the military base right into a columnist gig at the Chicago Daily News.

I mean, this is big-time revisionist history. People skipped steps then. They skip them now.

yeah, pringle, but this isn't about that. There are and have been people who have the attitude that theyr'e great right now, and they are, so they succeed.

And there are people who have the attitude that they're great right now, but they really aren't. They could get there if they wanted to work hard. But they don't think they should have to.

By the way, Royko couldn't have happened that way in 2006, not at a mainstream, big-city newspaper. It's a whole different world in the business.

On the other hand, there are probably people blogging out there in obscurity right now who are going to be big media stars someday.

 

[Van Lingle Mungo]

I don't know if it's even a sense of entitlement as much as it is more opportunities. Not just with the market favoring younger, cheaper labor, but it seems that society is more mobile these days.

(Now watch as I risk making my own generalizations...)

Job postings are nationwide, job searches are nationwide, contacts are formed from different time zones, people are getting married and having kids later, so a lot of the new generation can just get up and go. They're also not as afraid of debt (even though that's mostly not a good thing).

They're primed to move up at the drop of a hat, not particularly caring if they have to move elsewhere to do it. Paying dues might mean something completely different nowadays, because it's not like kids waiting to move up to the adult table at family get-togethers. The Internet makes it a lot easier to see that there are far more tables that could be reached.