Do you think younger generations have a sense of entitlement?

TDCHIM · May 18, 2011

Oh lord. This again? Every generation blasts the ones that follow it (and there are always members of those following generations that swallow the argument whole and enthusiastically disparage their cohorts).

As a result of my birth year, depending on your definition I'm either the youngest X or the oldest Y and I heard the same accusations about my age group growing up (despite the fact that I worked at least part-time year round and full-time every summer from the age of 15 on and was hardly unusual in doing so). My mother heard the same things about the boomers. My grandparents have told me how disapproving and disparaging their coal mining parents were about the "rowdy" and "feckless" behavior of the "Greatest" Generation, and how they thought the girls had no business selfishly moving to work in the factories rather than staying at home to help their parents and younger siblings.

Any young generation is going to include a large percentage of individuals who display entitled behaviors; younger people (let's say especially those under 23 or so) are naturally inclined to think themselves the center of the universe. It's something that is usually knocked out of you as you emerge into true maturity. Of course there are people who never emerge from that entitled cocoon of adolescence, but I've seen nothing that makes me think either Gen X or Gen Y is more prone to this sort of thing than those from previous generations. There will always be roughly the same proportion of shiftless, selfish, and/or entitled people in every generation. As a parent of a child from whatever the heck the next generation has been christened (I've heard Gen Alpha tossed around), I'm sure the same things will be said of his generation. It's like the song from "Bye Bye Birdie" says: "What's the matter with kids today?"

Poi Dog · May 18, 2011

Oh lord. This again? Every generation blasts the ones that follow it (and there are always members of those following generations that swallow the argument whole and enthusiastically disparage their cohorts).
As a result of my birth year, depending on your definition I'm either the youngest X or the oldest Y and I heard the same accusations about my age group growing up (despite the fact that I worked at least part-time year round and full-time every summer from the age of 15 on and was hardly unusual in doing so). My mother heard the same things about the boomers. My grandparents have told me how disapproving and disparaging their coal mining parents were about the "rowdy" and "feckless" behavior of the "Greatest" Generation, and how they thought the girls had no business selfishly moving to work in the factories rather than staying at home to help their parents and younger siblings.
Any young generation is going to include a large percentage of individuals who display entitled behaviors; younger people (let's say especially those under 23 or so) are naturally inclined to think themselves the center of the universe. It's something that is usually knocked out of you as you emerge into true maturity. Of course there are people who never emerge from that entitled cocoon of adolescence, but I've seen nothing that makes me think either Gen X or Gen Y is more prone to this sort of thing than those from previous generations. There will always be roughly the same proportion of shiftless, selfish, and/or entitled people in every generation. As a parent of a child from whatever the heck the next generation has been christened (I've heard Gen Alpha tossed around), I'm sure the same things will be said of his generation. It's like the song from "Bye Bye Birdie" says: "What's the matter with kids today?"

Heck yeah to the bolded!

Feeling entitled? Try not paying your electricity bill for a month. Call the power company and tell them that you DESERVE to have your power for free. Oh yeah, that sense of entitlement is guaranteed to be knocked out of you. I promise :smokin:

duchesssarah · May 18, 2011

I hate the every kid is a winner nonsense. When my son comes home with anything other that a 1st, 2nd or 3rd place type trophy.... I throw it in the trash and tell him to try to earn 1st place next time. He is 11 and pretty competitive now but not a sore loser. I don't think its any certain generation though.... I know lazy 50 year old entitled people. I also know so.e in their teens/twenties that are friends of my daughter.

were you joking??

Gold_SJ · May 18, 2011

Oh lord. This again? Every generation blasts the ones that follow it (and there are always members of those following generations that swallow the argument whole and enthusiastically disparage their cohorts).
As a result of my birth year, depending on your definition I'm either the youngest X or the oldest Y and I heard the same accusations about my age group growing up (despite the fact that I worked at least part-time year round and full-time every summer from the age of 15 on and was hardly unusual in doing so). My mother heard the same things about the boomers. My grandparents have told me how disapproving and disparaging their coal mining parents were about the "rowdy" and "feckless" behavior of the "Greatest" Generation, and how they thought the girls had no business selfishly moving to work in the factories rather than staying at home to help their parents and younger siblings.
Any young generation is going to include a large percentage of individuals who display entitled behaviors; younger people (let's say especially those under 23 or so) are naturally inclined to think themselves the center of the universe. It's something that is usually knocked out of you as you emerge into true maturity. Of course there are people who never emerge from that entitled cocoon of adolescence, but I've seen nothing that makes me think either Gen X or Gen Y is more prone to this sort of thing than those from previous generations. There will always be roughly the same proportion of shiftless, selfish, and/or entitled people in every generation. As a parent of a child from whatever the heck the next generation has been christened (I've heard Gen Alpha tossed around), I'm sure the same things will be said of his generation. It's like the song from "Bye Bye Birdie" says: "What's the matter with kids today?"

Lol you are right, every generation seems non plussed with the next (Due to acting different, different time, different world). Pretty much I agree with your whole take on it.

But it's fun to try to work out reasons why trends change through the generations.

For Gen Y it is true that they are taking longer to mature/leave home (To the point the Millenial generation are being nicknamed the Boomerang generation. They just keep coming back home) going by statistics they're relying longer on parents, not moving out as soon. Other studies think its because there's a higher divorce rate and this generation want to make the right decisions the first time when moving out (idealistic much?), compared to their parents who moved out and married young. That's just one groups opinion though.

Overall I think it's natural for those younger to have a sense of entitlement and they grow out of it. Just seems Y's taking longer, probably because they're not out there having to take all accountabilty for their bills and dinner each night lol. (I know that's not all Y's XD I am a Y after all).

Oh they say the next generation is Z (The electronic generation) apparently it's only a small group then after that will be Generation Alpha?

redhead_NURSE98!, ADN, BSN · May 18, 2011

were you joking??

Probably not...my friend in school used to win a lot of trophies in speech and debate competitions, but one day she told me that most of her trophies were hidden under her bed because they weren't 1st place. In her parents' minds it was better to not be able to achieve any place unless it was TOP DOG. They would punish her for not getting an A in a class by something related to the class, like for geography it was to memorize all the countries in Europe with their capitals.

mazy · May 18, 2011

I remember reading an article in Times or Newsweek about the changing culture of younger generations and how it was such a huge difference from that of older generations. The article went into an analysis of their new and baffling lack of initiative, their belief that as soon as they graduated from high school or college that things would magically fall into place and they would land the job of their dreams, the house, the car, etc. etc.

Then the article went on to talk about the sting of their reality check and how so many of them ended up moving back in with their parents, fuffling about with no goals in sight, and whining about how unfair life is.

The interesting the about the article is that it was written in 1984. I remember that very clearly because at that time I had been emancipated from my parents for several years and was working two jobs and struggling every day to put myself through school, pay my bills, and have a little left over for the basics such as food -- which I usually ended up pilfering from my restaurant jobs.

So. It may be the case that back then younger generations did have a new and even greater sense of entitlement then their elders, and that it became even more magnified as they went on to have children who then grew up with that from birth and were taught to believe that the reality that was so disappointing for their parents would not hold true for them.

I see a lot of younger people who seem bizarrely certain that the world owes them something, but I also see a lot of younger people who work hard for every crumb that life throws at them. I saw it when I was in nursing school -- there was such a sharp divide between the younger students, some who were working full time jobs to make it and the other ones who were riding through courtesy of their parents' checkbooks.

The sad thing was that so many of the working students ended up having to drop out or ended up failing out because they just couldn't juggle all of those obligations. Some of those others -- the ones supported by their parents -- graduated and spent a lot of time grumbling when the rest of the world didn't step in and pick up where mom and dad left off.

And I'm going to even qualify that by saying I see plenty of young people who get a lot of support from their parents and still work their bottoms off because those are the values that they have been taught. It's just those few entitled ones who are so noisy about how unfair life is that suck the life force out of you.

flashpoint · May 18, 2011

I think a lot of people have a sense of entitlement, but I really don't see it as being generation specific. We get a lot of people in the ER who are in the 18-25 age range. Some of them rude and demanding and entitled…some are polite and listen to discharge instructions and ask appropriate questions. We also see a lot of people in the 70-100 age range. Honestly, we find more of them to be rude and demanding and entitled than we do in other age ranges. The people in the older age range are more likely to demand that we call a certain doctor who isn't on call, that we fetch them snacks from the kitchen, or to insist on being prescribed whatever is currently being advertised on TV.

I'm also taking a continuing education class that will expand my scope of practice a bit. The younger students pay closer attention, take more notes, and ask more questions. The older students do more of the eye rolling, sit without taking notes, and argue with the instructor.