Generation Me
Why Today's Young Americans Are More Confident, Assertive, Entitled--and More Miserable Than Ever Before
By Jean M. Twenge Ph.D.
(Free Press, Paperback, 9780743276986, 304pp.)
Publication Date: March 6, 2007
Other Editions of This Title: Google eBook
Categories: Demography, Sociology - General
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Called “The Entitlement Generation” or Gen Y, they are storming into schools, colleges, and businesses all over the country. In this provocative new book, headline-making psychologist and social commentator Dr. Jean Twenge explores why the young people she calls “Generation Me”—those born in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s—are tolerant, confident, open-minded, and ambitious but also cynical, depressed, lonely, and anxious.
Herself a member of Generation Me, Dr. Twenge uses findings from the largest intergenerational research study ever conducted—with data from 1.3 million respondents spanning six decades—to reveal how profoundly different today’s young adults are. Here are the shocking truths about this generation, including dramatic differences in sexual behavior, as well as controversial predictions about what the future holds for them and society as a whole. Her often humorous, eyebrow-raising stories about real people vividly bring to life the hopes and dreams, disappointments, and challenges of Generation Me.
GenMe has created a profound shift in the American character, changing what it means to be an individual in today’s society. The collision of this generation’s entitled self-focus and today’s competitive marketplace will create one of the most daunting challenges of the new century. Engaging, controversial, prescriptive, funny, Generation Me will give Boomers new insight into their offspring, and help those in their teens, 20s, and 30s finally make sense of themselves and their goals and find their road to happiness.
Jean M. Twenge, Ph.D., is a widely published associate professor of psychology at San Diego State University. Her research has appeared in Time, USA Today, The New York Times, and The Washington Post, and she has been featured on Today and Dateline and National Public Radio's All Things Considered. She holds degrees from the University of Chicago and the University of Michigan. Dr. Twenge lives with her husband in San Diego, California.
"Those vague hunches we have about this generation -- Twenge does a huge, decidedly un-GenX amount of research and replaces them with actual data. Her writing is lucid and entertaining, and she's unafraid to draw bold conclusions when necessary. It's nothing new for a generation to be misunderstood by popular and commercial culture, but the one she describes has been misdrawn to the point of absurdity; refreshing, then, to have someone swap those persistent old myths for thoughtful, careful observations."
-- Chris Colin, author of What Really Happened to the Class of '93: Start-ups, Dropouts, and Other Navigations Through an Untidy Decade
"Jean Twenge is not only dedicated as a researcher and social scientist, she is clearly passionate about it. In this forward-thinking, clear-eyed book, she immediately stands out as a social critic of substance, in a world of dogmatic and chattering media pundits who are only guessing when they are 'covering' major social trends and generational changes."
-- Paula Kamen, author of Feminist Fatale and Her Way: Young Women Remake the Sexual Revolution
"An informed, rollicking look at the epidemic narcissism, illusory optimism, and anxiety and depression of today's younger Americans. Compelling reading, Generation Me has all the makings of a culturally significant, major book. It's provocative. It speaks to many parents' concerns. It reveals the benefits and costs of America's radical individualism. It has the potential to be what The Greening of America, Future Shock, and other such books have been for previous generations. Rooted in science and rich in anecdotes, Generation Me is marvelously written with a sparkling humor."
-- David G. Myers, author of The American Paradox: Spiritual Hunger in an Age of Plenty
"In this startling, witty, and refreshing book, a pioneering researcher explains how the very personality of the average American is different....Based on careful, groundbreaking research, but filled with touching and amusing stories, this book explains exactly how the American character is changing and evolving, sometimes for the better, sometimes not."
-- Roy F. Baumeister, author of The Cultural Animal: Human Nature, Meaning, and Social Life and Eppes Eminent Professor of Psychology, Florida State University
"Dr. Twenge provides an insightful analysis of the young adults she labels 'GenMe' -- their supreme self-confidence in their own worth, their concern with doing things 'their way,' and the benefits and costs that come from their focus on themselves. Twenge draws upon her outstanding research to describe generational differences and their sources, lending an authority to her analysis that few previous commentators on GenMe have enjoyed."
-- Susan Nolen-Hoeksema, Ph.D., professor, Yale University, and author of Women Who Think Too Much
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