Generation Me | Teen Ink

Generation Me

February 11, 2009
By Anonymous

Each generation has many different characteristics that make it unique in its own way. The generation that covers the 1950's to the 1990's, is a fairly self-centered, and selfish generation. Many things have been altered in the current generation. Each alteration has a new effect.
The book Generation Me, written by Jean M. Twenge, is a non-fiction novel that informs the reader on the generation covering those fifty-plus years. Twenge uses logical appeal and legitimate facts to prove how the generation is shaped and how it works. Generation Me isn't just a simple story by any means. The novel is based on statistics of the generation. Charts, years, percentages, and ages are used to show the amount of teens that experience depression and take medication, the amount of self-esteem one carries, the amount of confidence one has, and different actions the teens commit in this generation. For instance, 'more than 21% of teens aged from 15 to 17 have already experienced major depression (Twenge 105).' Her form of writing allows the book to be an easy read, and the reader is able to clearly understand what is being said.

The author describes this generation as selfish, self-centered, depressed and narcissistic. Expectations are set so much higher that cause the teenagers to go through more problems than are actually there. Once reality hits them, they tend to fall into a depression because they don't feel that they are good enough. With the quote on the front of the book, "Why Today's Young Americans Are More Confident, Assertive, Entitled ' and More Miserable Than Ever Before," and the facts that Jean Twenge provides, she proves that the generation is narcissistic and all of the others previously mentioned.

From what I read and interpreted from the novel, I agree with Twenge one hundred percent. By being a teenager and experiencing everything that was described, I completely understand the point that Jean was trying to prove. As the reader, I took the information given into consideration and realized that the generation I was born in is exactly how it was portrayed in the book. Teenagers these days nearly get everything set in the palm of their hand by their parents, take it for granted, and yet, still find something to complain about. They expect what they want, when they want it, and if they don't get it, they blame mom and dad, or anyone else around them. They find something to complain about, no matter the circumstances. Dealing with their troubles, they tend to get depressed, experience the pains of anxiety, lose self-esteem and self-confidence, and deal with it the way they want to, whether it be good or bad.

As I was reading Generation Me, I found it very clear and easy-to-understand. This was an easy read for me. I breezed through the book sentence by sentence knowing exactly what the author the author was speaking of. The way she constructed her information made the novel flow in a manner that anyone could grasp her point of view on the generation.

With what was mentioned in Jean Twenge's novel, parents, grandparents, and the elder will easily be able to understand what the characters in the generation really go through and how they go about easing the pain their problems cause them. This book is an excellent explanation of the generation that spans from the 1950's to the 1990's.



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