The Age of Entitlement - Portrait Magazine, February 2010

The Age of Entitlement:
Why todays teens and twenty-somethings are frustrated and dissatisfied
Written by: Fran (USA, Age 25)

There are always “names” for different generations: Generation X, Generation Y, The Baby Boomers, The Greatest Generation, etc. These names can give us an idea of the character of the generation in question and the times that they live in. But what does it mean when the current generation of teens and twenty-somethings is often referred to as the Entitled Generation or Generation Me?

As today’s high school students enter college and the workplace, we're seeing that their expectations are higher than ever before. Today’s youth is confident, ambitious, educated, smart, and have a take charge attitude. That can be a double edged sword. On one hand it creates a generation who believes in their ability to make things happen, to create positive change in the word. On the other hand it means a generation that is over confident and believes that they don't have to work hard in order to reap rewards- that the rewards are their due regardless. The latter is a generation in for a harsh dose of reality.

Aldous Huxley wrote a novel called Brave New World in 1932. This novel imaged a frightening future devoid of feeling: a world where a pill can make you happy, where the world is united under one government, where everyone has his/her predetermined place and things like individuality and emotion are discouraged. In the novel the society was perpetuated by children who were whispered indoctrinating messages to them as they slept. Imagine those messages of “community, identity, stability” are replaced with messages of “you must love yourself before you can love someone else” and “you're special because you're you”. The result would be a generation frighteningly similar to today's youth.

Beginning in the 1970's, but gaining strength in the 80's and 90's, the “self esteem curriculum” began to be used in schools. From childhood people were asked to do exercises to increase their self confidence and promote positive self image. Some examples of these exercises:

Describe yourself in ten words. All ten must be positive

Write down five things you're good at and place the list somewhere you can see it every day to remind yourself of you talents

List your five greatest achievements

List at least twenty accomplishments in your life

Make a circle and give each person a chance to sit in the center. The surrounding people take turns complimenting the person in the center.

These exercises work. Perhaps too well. We do learn to appreciate ourselves in spite of our flaws. However, if we only focus on our strengths then we tend to forget our weaknesses. We forget that we're not in fact perfect. This means that we feel justified in asserting ourselves. We feel like we deserve good grades, important jobs, nice homes, a designer wardrobe, some high end electronic equipment, a fancy car, and so on.

Today’s youth also has access to more, faster. With the Internet we have a world of information available- literally- at our fingertips. We never have to be bored. We can see all sorts of films in the comfort of our own how, chat with friends anywhere in the world, and participate in video games that are so realistic that you feel like you're actually there. All of this takes place with the click of a mouse and the press of a button. We're used to that and we become frustrated with things that take a little longer.

The problem arises when we're hit with reality. The current generation is well educated. The importance of a college degree is emphasized from childhood. To protect our self esteem students are sometimes given an “A for effort” and high schools have been known to inflate grades to help students get into college. Naturally when students get there, they expect good grades and positive feedback. That's what they've gotten all along. So it's a rude awakening when that doesn't continue. Andria Woodell, a professor of Social Sciences at Central Oregon Community College says “it is surreal when a student is arguing they deserve an A despite scoring 70-80s on their assignments. It is also frustrating when they refuse to listen to why they have received those scores or suggestions to improve their grades”. But then why would some of these students listen to suggestions for improvement? Many of them have been told how great they are since they were small children.

And then of course there's the workplace. This is a generation that's grown up on instant gratification, it's a shock to move from a school to a job and realize that we're not immediately given the most important responsibilities, the fancy office and the big salary. There's some grunt work involved. Also, these just out of school workers aren't making the largest salaries. That means that we can't afford a lot of the things that we think we deserve: the fancy cars and houses, the designer clothes and high end electronics.

Things get even trickier when we factor in the current economic crisis. The most recent wave of graduates isn't getting high powered jobs- they're lucky if they're getting any jobs at all! Psychologist Jean M Twenge wrote a book entitled Generation Me: Why Today's Young Americans Are Confident, Assertive, Entitled- and More Miserable Than Ever Before. Considering the gap between our expectations and reality maybe it's not all that surprising that we're not happy.

So are we all doomed to unhappiness and dissatisfaction because of how we were brought up? Of course not. And we don't have to settle for less than we deserve in life. But we do need to keep some perspective. We need to understand that though we're smart, well educated, and in some cases far more tech-savvy than our elders, we still have a lot to learn. We need to be willing to be patient, put in our time and yes, sometimes do some grunt work. Maybe the key is to think less about what the world can give us, and more about what we can give the world. We are undoubtedly a generation of smart, determined, aware and talented individuals. Surely by keeping an open mind and remembering that others also have a lot to offer, we can do wonderful things.