Study reveals rocketing sense of entitlement on U.S. campuses

"Books aside, if you asked a college freshman today who the Greatest Generation is, they might respond by pointing in a mirror. Young people's unprecedented level of self-infatuation was revealed in a new analysis of the American Freshman Survey, which has been asking students to rate themselves compared to their peers since 1966..."

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2257715/Study-shows-college-students-think-theyre-special--read-write-barely-study.html?ICO=most_read_module



• I have a couple observations: 1. I really enjoy reading the comments made by the conservative readers of The Daily Mail because they show that generally people (of all political persuasions) tend to form a thesis before looking at any data. If you actually look at the trend of the multi-year study, you see that students' self-assessments peaked in the mid-80s and have remained relatively stable since then. It would be a far more likely conclusion that this so-called "narcissism" is more a result of conservative "individualism" embodied by the 1980s than the politically correct "self-esteem" movement of the 1990s. 2. If the study is only polling college freshman, then those students are right: they are all (or most are) above-average. You need to have an above-average intellect and work ethic in order to get into college (and also a lot of money). Perhaps the students' perception of what a "peer" is has changed: it is not who is at your level of education, but all young adults (or, in other words, a greater appreciation for "others".) Or maybe it's all Obama's fault. Who knows?

• Thank you, R1.

• [quote]if you asked a college freshman today who the Greatest Generation is, WTF does that even mean? There is NO "greatest generation" and it certainly is NOT the generation of American white men who fought WWII...the ones who made black men fight in segregated units and then come back home to sit in the back of the bus. Tom Brokaw is an asshole.

  stupid%20question

• I've never understood the term "greatest generation" either as if no one else ever made any sacrifices and have been poor. It was time of remarkable cooperation amongst Americans, I'll say that. And it was an era of fantastic music and entertainment.

• The duckface in that article is so fucking ugly and heinous. Those skanks (and dudes) will get theirs in ten years when they are working a checkout in Target to make money.

• 'The Greatest Generation' was a stupid marketing term dreamed up by Tom Brokaw to sell his stupid book. And that book came out around 15 years ago, when today's college students were barely in grade school. I wouldn't base anyone's intelligence on not knowing about that.

• It's my generation that is in college now and I don't think there is one of us who would say we are the greatest. Maybe in joking but not seriously.

• Seriously, the duckface...

  http://www.antiduckface.com

• Hot blond twink in the stock photo at the bottom of the article. IFHH.

• I want to snatch those bitches bald

• The yuppies did more damage to this country with their entitlement than anyone else. They took everything and deregulated what they wanted to for themselves and left the younger generations with next to nothing. And now to compensate, they want to lecture the current generation on how they're spoiled. You should have had that talk with yourselves.

• That's not true R11. In the 80s average income for people 18-24 dropped by more than a quarter, but it rose for the elderly. Yuppiedom was a symptom of economic decline, not success.

• Oh the Daily Mail Troll is back from hols. FOAD

• [quote]The Greatest Generation' was a stupid marketing term dreamed up by Tom Brokaw to sell his stupid book. Im glad you mentioned marketing. Young adults are just the product of aggressive American marketing being around them 24/7. American marketing is largely based on shiny facades to draw people into products. The actual reality about the product is something different. American individuals sell themselves in the same manner. Fake it until you make it. If a person is honest and says they are just average at anything they are viewed as being lazy, or having some kind of personality flaw, like low self esteem. If youve ever taken a generic employment questionnaire in America you know. You will not pass if you dont lie and say you are the best at everything.

• [quote] It was time of remarkable cooperation amongst Americans Correction Among white Americans

  Jm%20Crow

• I certainly agree with all that has been said about there being a "greatest generation" and Tom Brokaw is not only an asshole but a complete, fucking asshole who can talk about as well as Barbara Walters. How those two ever, ever got where they did, and let's throw in Oprah Winfrey for good measure, is an utter mystery to me. Wherever you find some grinning, vacuous jizzbag talking about "the greatest generation", chances are some republican is behind it or lurking nearby. Not only was that generation of white men fucked up and insecure, they were lousy parents and stuck women back into the home after having held down jobs everyone thought women couldn't do, especially in the defense industries. Marilyn Monroe was touted in the fifties as the great mystique of femininity to add to the propaganda--we didn't begin to crawl out of that shit until the 60s when all those same white men looked on in blinking disbelief when the Blacks, women and fags finally rebelled and said "enough". Not only that, they are the ones who acquiesced to General Motors and the rest completely scrapping perfectly good electric streetcar systems all across the United States in favor of cars, trucks and the interstates, which Eisenhower really wanted for military purposes. Not to mention the silly idiocy of Communist and Socialist witchhunts. Yes, Greatest Generation means Greatest Assholes of all time.

  anonymous

• Which is very hurtful to those of us who are really best at everything.

• The greatest generation were late teens and early twenties in '45, R16, so they were cannon fodder in WWII and they didn't run American civil society until the 80s, when they forced the Reagan Revolution on us and when their children were the obnoxious, entitled baby boomers. They were also the most homophobic generation, worse than the generations before and after. Our progress in gay rights is snowballing since they started dying off.

• I wouldn't disagree with you r18, but despite their glaring faults (and I, myself, am what some would categorize as a "baby boomer"), I think more of the major efforts toward environmentalism, stopping that stupid war in Vietnam and in civil rights were accomplished by "baby boomers". If one speaks of cannon fodder it is interesting to observe that in Russia much of that generation born in the 1920s just after the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917 was lost driving the Nazis/Germans and their allies back into Central Europe. If you ask me, it was a horrible time to be alive and alot of what went on was their own and moreso their parents' generation's fault. But that's not saying any generation is any better than any other because despite "technological advancement" many today in their own ways are just as stupid as they were.

  anonymous