More Dumping on the Kids

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A stupid survey that purports to show that young adults are more self-absorbed than ever before is making its way through every newsroom and talk show in the country. The main reason this is that anything even slightly incriminating regarding youth is pounced upon by the media. It’s always been that way. I’m not sure why but middle-aged jelousy of youth lost is my prime suspect.

Anyway about this new survey:

Twenge and her colleagues, in findings to be presented at a workshop Tuesday in San Diego on the generation gap, examined the responses of 16,475 college students nationwide who completed an evaluation called the Narcissistic Personality Inventory between 1982 and 2006.

The standardized inventory, known as the NPI, asks for responses to such tatements as "If I ruled the world, it would be a better place," "I think I am a special person" and "I can live my life any way I want to."

The researchers describe their study as the largest ever of its type and say students' NPI scores have risen steadily since the current test was introduced in 1982. By 2006, they said, two-thirds of the students had above-average scores, 30 percent
more than in 1982.

So, assuming my math is right, in 1982 (when I was a self-absorbed youth of 21) about 50% of us were above average in our narcissism while today the figure is about 66%. And that increase is the cause of this GREAT concern in the newsrooms?

Then there’s this:

Twenge, the author of "Generation Me: Why Today's Young Americans Are More Confident, Assertive, Entitled -- and More Miserable Than Ever Before," said narcissists tend to lack empathy, react aggressively to criticism and favor self-promotion over helping others.

So, today’s youth is so self-absorbed they are dubbed Generation Me. Gosh that sounds familiar. Let’s see, what could I be thinking of…oh yeah, the Me Generation of the Me Decade, the1970s. Gosh, the media was so concerned about the narcissistic youth back then too. I wonder what ever happened to those kids? I bet some of them got journalism degrees and now work in newsrooms throughout the land where they can sit in judgment of, what else, narcissistic youth. Will this society ever over it's envy/hate relationship with young people?