We are raising a generation of deluded narcissists

[proudpittsburgher]

While I don't take quite as harsh a stand as the author, I tend to agree.

http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2013/01/08/are-raising-generation-deluded-narcissists/

That’s really the unavoidable end, by the way. False pride can never be sustained. The bubble of narcissism is always at risk of bursting. That’s why young people are higher on drugs than ever, drunker than ever, smoking more, tattooed more, pierced more and having more and more and more sex, earlier and earlier and earlier, raising babies before they can do it well, because it makes them feel special, for a while. They’re doing anything to distract themselves from the fact that they feel empty inside and unworthy.

 

[RickStain]

They stand on lawns way too much for my taste.

 

[Azrael]

That the story of Narcissus is itself thousands of years old would seem to indicate youth and the fixations of vanity are not a new problem.

 

[Dick Whitman]

I don't think that any of his assertions are true. Maybe the tattoos. Maybe.

 

[Azrael]

Or a problem at all.

True - except maybe to the extent we fall into our own reflections and drown.

 

[YGBFKM]

Can I get a ruling as to this thread's degree of irony?

 

[Boom_70]

Can I get a ruling as to this thread's degree of irony?

Given that it is a Fox News story I would say degree is fairly high.

 

[Buck]

The U.S. already raised a generation of deluded narcissists, the Baby Boomers.

 

[YGBFKM]

This belongs on the running narcissism thread.

 

[DanOregon]

http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/weekend-update-segment-grumpy-old-man/1349245/

 

[Azrael]

We have always been at war with "young people."

www.guardian.co.uk/education/2009/mar/17/ephebiphobia-young-people-mosquito

 

[JackReacher]

Unavailable for comment:

Dynamite drop-in, MC!

 

[Huggy]

Unavailable for comment:

He's the total package, baby.

 

[dooley_womack1]

Surprised that JC, the ultimate ageist, hasn't come clomping onto this thread. Anyhoo, tis the way it's always been: humans look into the mirror until the big picture around them cannot be unseen.

 

[Bradley Guire]

All I need to feel special is pride in my school's football team and a new, overpriced screen-printed T-shirt. Note, I actual had nothing to do with the creation of those things, but DAMMIT I'M SPECIAL! ROLL TIDE!

 

[jr/shotglass]

I believe there's as much of a generation gap between twentysomethings and their parents as there was in the previous generation.

 

[Buck]

The piece is a mixture of a few facst and a few falacies stated as fact pieced together by gross leaps of reasoning.

Test scores are lower than they were two generations ago, and there is a huge gap between students' academic preparation and their perceptions of their own academic preparation.

I don't know that drinking or drug use is up. I know that, despite what the author claims, tobacco use and violent crime are down from two generations ago.

Social media and cell phones weren't around two generations ago, so saying the activities have increased is specious.

Tattooing and body piercing are certainly more common than they were two generations ago, but that seems more like a shift in fashion and taste than an indicator of something menacing. If anything, the menace previously associated with tattoos and piercing has been neutered.

Large-scale change is ongoing and inevitable. The printing press changed the world, and the consequences were both wonderful and catastrophic.
The steam engine. Refining petroleum into kerosene. The electric light.
All of these developments changed the social interaction and ongoing psychology of our species in profound ways. They all led to the end of valued ways of life, thought and interaction. They all led to strange and scary new ways of life, thought and interaction.
Anyone of them are more seismic change bringers than cell phones, Twitter or video games.

 

[Starman]

In my day, they dropped the drinking age from 21 to 18, and for about the first 3-4 years after that, they didn't check IDs for ANYBODY. If you had two bucks in your pocket and could walk up to the bar, you got served. I was 14 the first time I stumbled out of a bar.

Then the old fuddy duddies all screamed, "god damn it WE couldn't drink when we were 18, why do THESE young whippersnappers get to!! We have to raise the drinking age back up IMMEDIATELY! HARRUMPH!! HARRUMPH!! HARRUMPH!!"

And so it was.

 

[spikechiquet]

Kids just need Jesus.

 

[Inky_Wretch]

"Back in my day, we didn't have those fancy spears to fend off sabretooth tigers - we did with our hands and rocks we threw at them! And we sure didn't cook any meat, we ate it raw! These damn kids are so spoiled!" said a caveman.