You can do whatever you set your mind to. Impossible is nothing. Never say never. Sound familiar? Of course it does—such clichés are the white noise of our childhood.
Think about the Disney movies, TV shows, and children’s books, where failure was never the outcome and everyone wins. Has this bred an overly optimistic yet under-qualified generation?
And then we grew up a little. How do we express ourselves nowadays? Facebook and Twitter. Status updates, profile pictures, mobile uploads, and 140-character witticisms. Each nurturing the idea that our thoughts/actions/experiences are worthy of being published to the interweb, to our own personal website, creating a false sense that everyone actually cares about what’s going on with each of us at any given moment.
Hungry? Pop something in the microwave. Viola—dinner in minutes. What’s everyone up to tonight? Text a few people and be in the know within seconds. Last minute question before exam? Email the TA late the night before. No response? Complain to the teacher the next day.
What does this all add up to? Anything, everything, me, now: the mantra of Generation Y, aka Generation Me. What’s the worst part? We’re all victims. I’m a victim, writing this on my blog like anybody cares. But does anyone care? Is just thinking people care enough? These are my peers and I face, problems we don’t know the answers to quite yet.
Psychologists say we’re going through a Narcissism Epidemic, everyone over-confident about their abilities and importance. Some even say it led to the economic crisis. “Sure I can afford that house.” “I can pay back that loan no problem.”
Anything, everything, me, now. What I fear the most about this mindset is my upcoming graduation. I expect to get a fulfilling, enjoyable job, aligned with my ideals, that pays enough that I can live comfortably while paying back the student loans that were so graciously handed to me by the government and private lenders. Has the environment that birthed me fostered unrealistic hopes for the future, or gotten me so high on myself and instant satisfaction that perhaps I will be able to fulfill my own expectations? Time will tell.
Interesting. I'm not sure if this is true for everyone, but this is definitely a feasible consequence for people to have to suffer if they fall into the category of people who have a Facebook, a Twitter, watched Disney movies, etc. I'm one of those people though so this post got me thinking. When you were talking about what your hopes are for after graduation, I realized I have pretty much the same hopes. And then I realized probably most people at our university have those same hopes. And then I realized that most people who go to college probably have the same hopes. If so many people want the same thing and there is only a limited space to be filled, some people are sure to be left unhappy. I don't know if we are blind to this because of what you're talking about, a narcissism epidemic, or if there is actually going to be enough spaces to fill. I guess you're right, only time will tell.
ReplyDeleteI'm not your psychologist but I imagine these thoughts are very normal for a graduating senior. One thing I find interesting about technology is its ability to make the world very large and at the same time very small. On the one hand it is quite simple to find out what is happening on the other side of the world. On the other, a lot of social media, like you said, fosters the feeling that everyone is the center of the universe. I would venture to say that certain social media technology's have made it easier to dedicate more times to selfish activities and in this way make the world a little smaller for each person.
ReplyDeleteYour idea about narcissism being the cause of the recent economic crisis made me think about something I heard recently about saving money and new aging technology. Certain banks are now using imaging software to take pictures of their clients at a young age and show them what they will probably look like when they are old. The idea behind it is that people don't usually think of themselves as being old one day, and in this way have a harder time planning financially for their future when they have a hard time seeing tomorrow. The statistic I heard basically said that when people were shown a picture of their older selves they were much more likely to save a larger portion of their income for retirement. Maybe the technology could be used in a similar way to rid the planet of narcissism .