“This generation is so lazy. I don’t know how they’ll ever accomplish anything.”
“This generation is so entitled! They don’t want to work for their money. They just expect it to be handed to them.”
"I worry for the world if your generation is in charge."
If you’re like me, you’ve heard statements like these a thousand times made broadly about your “generation” – which, being 19 currently, I’m not entirely sure which generation I even belong to. According to the Pew Research Center's survey, three out of four Americans believe this generation is less virtuous and industrious than their elders. Besides being broad generalizations and stereotypes that obviously don’t apply to every individual, they don’t even apply to the majority of individuals I’ve met.
Maybe I'm biased. After all, I go to Duke, a hub for motivated individuals who actively want to make a change in the world, or at least want to make money. But at least here, most of the people I know hold a part-time job or two. They're presidents of clubs, launching start-ups, studying for "midterms" that never end, writing articles to change perspectives, fighting injustice, conducting research, and still trying to find time to socialize and be a college student.
Most people, though, don't see this. They don't see that high schoolers are taking an average of 3.6 credits more than in 1990, and 8% more of them have a "rigorous" curriculum now than in 1990. Most college admission rates have gone down, making admissions even more competitive than before, especially for top-tier universities. High schoolers, even, are supposed to have perfect grades, multiple extracurricular activities, a part-time job, high SAT scores, and a flawless essay. Not to mention the fact that it's nearly impossible for most high schoolers to get a part time job in today's economy, where almost 50 percent of minimum wage workers are over the age of 24 and 76% are over 19, filling the jobs that used to be allocated to teens because there just aren't any other jobs available.
They don't see that 44% of recent graduates helped to finance their own educations in this world of rising tuition -- rising six percent above inflation. In addition, 66% of students from public colleges and 75% of students from private colleges have debt that they must pay back through their own hard work after graduating. Many just don't acknowledge these challenges and constraints that hold back this new generation.
They also don't acknowledge the positive this generation has brought. Community service rates have doubled since 1989. At UCLA, the percent of incoming freshmen who plan to volunteer is at a record high. The new generation is also more comfortable working collaboratively and in teams than previous generations. More students than ever are graduating from high school - in 2013-14, my graduation year, 82% of high school students graduated. This new generation is more educated than ever despite many of the challenges they face. They care about current issues and are involved in activism, believing that everyone deserves the same opportunities. They can handle new technology quicker than most others, a benefit that comes from this generation always "being on their phones". This also implies that this generation is even more connected before -- connected to friends, family, information, and the world around them.
If, of course, you aren't convinced and find that your children/workers from this generation are lazy and unmotivated, perhaps the best course of action isn't to criticize their entire generation and call them "lazy". Many believe that giving positive reinforcement, allowing multitasking, investing in training, and assigning important tasks motivate this new generation more than simple critiques and angry words.
Of course, in the end this is just my opinion -- but in this world where criticisms are thrown to this generation left and right, maybe what we need is to hear more voices that believe in us and our possibilities.
Generation Y, Generation Z - I believe in you.
