We’re Better Than You, and We Know It

I don't have much room to talk. I'm 21 years old, and I'm sure I've exhibited self-importance and narcissism at various times and to various degrees during my, thus far, short adult life. But I'm wondering if observations of my personal behavior, as well as the behavior of other college students, confirms any sort of pattern or trend.

I'm speaking, of course, about Generation X, Generation Me, the Millenials—whatever name they're calling us these days. A while back, the Copy Chief for The Greyhound brought to my attention a forum titled "Have College Freshmen Changed?" on the New York Times website. 

Overwhelmingly, respondents answered "Yes," noting that kids in my generation are more likely to be overly individualistic, bordering on narcissistic self-centeredness.

Suppose this is a bad time to admit that I've already submitted my Christmas list to Mom and Dad, huh?

In any event, I'd tend to agree. I'm not psychologist or sociologist or anthropologist, so I really have no data to support my agreement. 

Jean Twenge, on the other hand, does. 

Dr. Twenge is an associate professor of psychology at San Diego State University and the author of two books: her most recent, The Narcissism Epidemic, I have yet to read; her first book, Generation Me: Why Today's Young Americans Are More Confident, Assertive, Entitled—and More Miserable Than Ever Before, I have read, and I think her argument is spot on.

Essentially, she pinpoints my generation's reinforcing of our self-esteem—by our parents and through education—as our downfall. This feeling that we are all special, even before we've really accomplished anything. And indeed, we do feel we are all special. In an October 18 editorial for The Greyhound, in which I commented on the one thing everyone seemed to be ignoring regarding Rutgers student Tyler Clementi's apparent suicide, I wrote:

"I'd venture to say that what we just saw with the incident at Rutgers is something symptomatic of a broader disconnectedness displayed by kids of "Generation X," "Generation Y," the "Internet generation"—whatever you want to call us.

We're the purveyors of a consistent and continuous online reality TV show, with episodes played over and over on YouTube channels, Facebook pages, personal blogs and Twitter accounts. We "Facebook stalk"; we upload 120-image albums showing other people how drunk we can look during a single night out; we Tweet our daily lives, self-importance and narcissistic glee dripping from our fingertips; we inundate ourselves daily with petty amusement.

And in doing so we dangerously disconnect action from consequence in a bastardized socio-cultural version of Russian Roulette where . . . stark, staring reality is supplanted by meaningless, and supposedly innocuous, amusement."

In short, I think we are—that is, my generation—teetering on the brink of amusing ourselves to death, to borrow the title of author Neil Postman's 1985 book. Of thinking we've done something—anything—when we really haven't.*

*Case in point: I was flattered—even a little flabbergasted—when my editor here at the Cockeysville Patch sent me an inquiry about writing a weekly column. Naturally, I jumped at the opportunity, but not without deep reservations. A professor once told me I shouldn't write before age 25 because I won't have much (of substance) to say. I'm beginning to think he was right. . .