Look at me: I’m not being Narcissistic
One of the more pervasive memes about Generation Y is that we’re narcissistic. It goes so far that one of the other names for “Generation Y” (in addition to Millennials and Nexus Generations, both of which makes us sound far too much like robots for my tastes) is the “Me Generation.” This can be seen to various degrees in a lot of writing about our generation. There’s mild stuff, like the article Generation Y: Connectivity & Enjoyment which just sort of oversimplifies the generational issues and sums it all up as this:
Contrary to their parents, for whom “the job” dictated everything, for generation why-ers, enjoyment comes first. They choose where and what kind of lifestyles they want to lead and then choose their careers accordingly.
But then there’s the far more negative slant, such as in this article from the Christian Science Monitor. They write:
A little smug self-absorption might be a time-honored trait of at least some subsets of the under-30 crowd.
But over the past few decades the prevailing disposition among college students – today labeled Generation Y or Millennials – has slid into full-blown narcissism, according to a study released this week.
The “all about me” shift means much more than lots of traffic at self-revelatory websites such as YouTube and Facebook. It points, says the study’s author, to a generation’s lack of empathy, its inability to form relationships – and worse.
I think the they labeled YouTube & Facebook as self-revelatory is fairly telling of their inability to really understand both what those websites and the generational attitudes they refer to really mean. YouTube, Facebook, MySpace and the other Social Networking sites aren’t fueled by egotistical tendencies — they’re driven by social tendencies. It’s not just about logging on and telling the world what you’re doing. It’s also about seeing what everyone else is doing. And for most, that’s the real compelling reason behind being part of a social networking site. If it was just one person sharing their thoughts, activities & photos with the world, you wouldn’t see anywhere near the same level of popularity. (Plus, it’d just be a blog — not that blogs and blog authors are egotistical!)
This worry that Gen Y has too much self-esteem is actually pretty funny when you think about it. I guess the concern is that we’re too confident and have unrealistic expectations. But the subtext seems to be “life sucks, and you should know that already.”
Is too much confidence harmful? I guess so. But a good deal less so that a bunch of people who have no faith at all in their own ability. Nobody with ‘realistic’ or less-than-realistic levels of self esteem has ever created, invented or changed anything. If you want to see a parade of so-called narcissists, look no further than this video.
It’s the optimism — that so many write off as a negative thing — that separates us from Gen X, who were known for their cynicism, amongst other things. And, sure, the optimism can in a lot of cases manifest itself as egotism or narcissism — and I’ll be the first to point out that that can be really really annoying — but even in spite of that it is this generation’s hope and belief in change that has most strongly defined it.
And, yeah, we expect to enjoy the things we do, at work and otherwise. That some people find that difficult to understand seems to indicate a problem with them, and not us, doesn’t it? Not to draw lines in the sand or anything.
Photo by Huro Kitty. Licensed under Creative Commons
This entry was posted on Sunday, January 27th, 2008 at 4:39 pm and is filed under Attitude, Culture, News, Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
More on Y’s supposed narcissism - yworking.com March 21st, 2008 at 11:48 am
[...] written about the narcissism issue before but it’s one that keeps popping up. It seems like a lot of employers and managers are seeing [...]