On the Job 029

I read this one for a book discussion on the campus where I'm faculty, which I always like. Honestly, Twenge, who's around my age, kind of lost me with some really broad generalizations that didn't ring at all true to me. Some of my fellow discussion members seemed to agree.

I lent my copy to a friend, so I don't have it on hand to find examples I can point toward. Basically, I disagreed with the entire premise that the kids just now graduating from college and those coming out of high school have a bleaker work outlook that people my age, for example. Remember the early 90s? I'm not going to argue that I walked uphill both ways, but let's acknowledge that late adolescence and early adulthood are really difficult and transitional times, and always have been. I'm thinking of my grandparents and what they had to look forward to at that age, namely the tail end of the depression and World War II.

The other thing that really bugged me was Twenge's heavy reliance on pop culture, which she frames as evidence. I watched Dawson's Creek, too, but I wouldn't use one conversation between Dawson and Joey as some kind of revelation about teen hopelessness. Sure, pop culture is a reflection of our society (and sometimes that reflection turns back on itself in truly scary and meta ways), but surely there's some real evidence that could shore up what I would call cute illustrations of phenomena. Still, I liked reading Generation Me. It made me angry and I often disagreed, but it made me think. ( )

After reading through the entire book, I found myself nodding my head again and again as things I see everyday start to make more and more sense. Similar to The Long Tail, Generation Me better articulates everyday patterns I’ve noticed and gives it some structure and theory. A good read - i recommend it.

full review here: http://sideways8.wordpress.com/2008/0... ( )

Not quite as good as Millennials Rising but she does offer lots of statistics and facts. The writing is very concise so she packs a lot into the book but she does jump to conclusions in a few places. ( )

Awesome. She's so right on the money, and her analysis should be the starting point for other research on this generation. She incorporates a lot of examples from different disciplines. Funny and smart. The end some might consider very politicized, but while that might stray from the overall book, I'm glad she included it. ( )