Youth is inherently selfish; I find it of much greater concern that the attitudes you’ve noticed are traveling UP the generational chain. That scares the heck out of me.

So, circling all the way back to where this conversation started… I don’t know. I feel like the rule of 80-20 rule is outdated. At the time I attended my university, it felt more like 95% of the work/progress/effort was put in by 5% of the student body. Perhaps that’s how it’ll be as my generation grows up. Part of me wants to be optimistic and say, “maybe that’s enough,” but a much larger part of me says, “It can’t be. And even if it is, think of all the great things we could be doing if more people really took an interest in working on fixing our problems.”

New Q: How do we motivate or teach college students to see their college experience differently? How do we expand the possibilities they see during that time and beyond?

Well, the younger generation always claims that the previous generation screwed everything up and the older generations claim that the younger ones are going to hell because they are different and have terrible music. Such is history probably back to the caveman.

It’s interesting that you say you started learning those lessons in college, I was told something similar about studying and learning by Jim Gordon, who draws mY generation at my other blog.

What the optimist in me hopes people learn in college is that they don’t know it all, the value of learning, how to learn, that different is more often good than bad and that, occasionally, they discover a true passion that will last a lifetime. Unfortunately, my optimist is having a hard time staying optimistic. The reality is that you get out of school exactly what you put into it. If you see it only as a path to an MBA that’s all it is; if you see it as a boring necessity, parental expectation or keeping your meal ticket an extra four years that’s exactly what it will be.

In answer to your question I’ve been doing relatively mellow rants on that subject on both blogs for the last few years. The short answer is parents instilling the “I am special” mentality in their little darlings by fighting their fights for them and an education system that tied funding to passing tests and graduating as opposed to learning.

If you want more of my thoughts on entitlement (not just in your generation) check here and here; you might also want to take a look at CandidProf for a view from the other side.

Short answer: I don’t know what we’ll do about it. Long answer: I don’t know what we’ll do about it, but I hope that realizations sink in soon that big changes require time, compromise is a vital skill, sometimes it doesn’t matter that you put in effort if the output isn’t there… these kinds of lessons.

Heh, but according to your post, this may be pretty hard, considering changing behaviors and outlooks once in adulthood can be challenging.

I also want to add that many of these lessons I started learning as an undergrad through participation in a variety of student organizations I was either a part of or headed. I sort of got through my classes, but put most of my time and energy into things outside my studies. Which brings up a whole separate question: what are students really getting from their college education and is what they’re receiving now best? By pushing college students through so they can get a job (currently not guaranteed whatsoever), are we really preparing them with the lessons and experience they need to take on the current problems of their country and the WORLD? The problems that are bigger than just getting through their work day?

I have a question for you, if I may ask: in your opinion, what factors contributed to my generation being impatient, cynical, entitled, etc.?

I agree in part with you, but what I wrote wasn’t a statement focused on the current economic situation. Boom or bust, the cross generational attitude has been heavily focused on ‘me’.

But since you’re here, I would like to ask you a question. Your generation (I checked out your blog:) claims that most of the fault for all this lies with previous generations (as they said about those that came before them), but I’m wondering what a group that feels such a sense of entitlement, has no patience, demands instant gratification and claims to be cynical will do about it.

I don’t mean that as a put down (except for the entitlement, which seems to be spreading across the entire population), just a description of publicly stated attitudes; I also realize that generalizations are dangerous and there are many who don’t fit one or more of those adjectives.

Thanks again for taking time to add to the conversation and I sincerely hope that you continue to do so.