There is something to be said for all those people who whine about the teenagers and twenty-somethings who are quickly entering the real world. Like every generation before us, the older generations would whine that we have it too easy, we’re too self-involved, we rely too heavily on technology, or we do not appreciate the value of hard work.
[singlepic id=619 w=320 h=240 float=right]
Perhaps there is a grain of truth to the complaints aimed at this particular generation. There is hardly a better example than right here on campus. Students spend so much time concerned with their phones, Facebook, their social standing, partying on Thursday, their jobs, and their schoolwork; there is hardly time for consideration of the rest of the world. Politics, news, or anything involving something beyond the scope of their personal lives falls by the wayside for the average student. There isn’t enough interest or drive to get involved.
We’ve been taught to be competitive with our peers. It seems like every positive thing our generation has had some sort of self-serving edge to it. We rarely volunteer or participate in clubs for personal growth, but because it beefs up our resume. Instead of helping our friends, we want to beat them in everything. We want to go to the better school, have the better friends, have the better life.
For every example of a student with the desire to make a difference in the world around them, there are dozens of examples of students who can barely take enough time away from themselves to consider making a difference. They might find something that piques their interest, but beyond updating their Facebook or twitter, they will not care.
Perhaps as a society we’ve been asking too little of this generation. Instead of harboring a desire to help those around us, we’ve been encouraged to serve ourselves first. We don’t care if the rest of the world is going up in flames; so long as we still have a bottle of rum in the freezer and the ability to tag drunken photos on Facebook, we’ll never have to worry.
