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Some of that stuff is interesting, some of it is rather trite and familiar to anyone who has not been living under a rock over that time period. The basic premise of the book, that the recent generation of people is more self-centered and self-confident, is well argued in the first few chapters of the book, with plenty of empirical evidence and detailed statistical analysis. As many of other reviewers have pointed out, this is an interesting book with a good premise, but ultimately frustrating and full of shortcomings. The book loses focus, and never recovers to the quality of the earlier chapters. If book had focused on those claims and chapters, it would have been very convincing and interesting. Unfortunately, Twenge takes off after that in all sorts of directions, talking about all the ways that the culture and society have changed in the past couple of decades. This could have been a much better book had the author focused on a much narrower set of issues. This way, it still makes for an interesting read, but not something I would necessarily go out of my way to recommend others.
It was okay. I really didn't care to read about conclusions of this study conducted here or that study conducted there. The information in the book was good, there was just too much information. Author had a tendency to go on and on for an entire chapter what could have been summed up in a few paragraphs. If I wanted to read a text book, I would have purchased a text book. Again, it had some good information though.
If you teach anything in today's world, you better read this book. You'll be amazed at what background you are missing - why young people act the way they do.
So that must mean that people nowadays are whiny. She doesn't acknowledge the fact that less people go to churches, we have less money now, older generations are donating less too, etc. Just one example is when she says that civil lawsuits increased in this generation compared to the 1940s. At first glance, this book seems to make a very convincing argument. I guess that's why this piece of garbage is an actual best seller. Oh wait.
That must mean.today's generation is cheaper and isn't as generous as previous generations.
Oh wait.
Her book is also full of logical fallacies; she uses appeal to tradition, biased samples, post hoc, hasty generalizations, confusing cause and effect, false choices, and a myriad of others.
Chalk full of surveys, statistics, and testimonies by anonymous people.wait a second.First of all, almost all evidence the author presents in this book is biased or unfair in some way.
Not only this, but the majority of the author's evidence comes from anonymous people telling stories about how rude and misbehaved kids are nowadays, stories and people that she more than likely just made up herself.
She conveniently ignores variables such as population growth.
Oh yea, and people are donating less to churches.
And the fact is, she does this specifically in an attempt to trick the reader, and she does it well.
This book provides fabulous insights into Generation Y (aka Gen "me"). As a supervisor I find Jean Twenge's missive to be well documented, and extremeley helpful in understanding some of my employees and their incessant(and yes, overwhelming) need for constant attention. Would highly recommend.
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