Generation Me by Jean Twenge

I checked out Generation Me: Why Today's Young Americans Are More Confident, Assertive, Entitled--And More Miserable Than Ever Before from the library a couple months ago, and it was a really interesting book even though I didn't always agree with her conclusions.  I have been able to use things I read in this book in many conversations, so it was a very valuable read for social purposes.

Twenge uses research to try to make general characterizations of children born between 1970 and the late 1980s.  I loved the first few chapters about the self-esteem garbage we have been fed since birth, the "you can be anything you want to be" mentality, and the complete dismissal/loathing of social rules.  I found her characterizations to be very accurate in these areas based on my experience, and I even grew up in a conservative area.

The research in the chapter on the rise of depression and anxiety in "GenMe" was really interesting, but I thought she missed the point.  I would say GenMe is so depressed because they are so self-focused, not necessarily because they have so much pressure to perform and get into good colleges, etc.  It seemed like she missed the connection between depression and what she wrote in the preceding chapters about self-importance and self-absorption characterizing the generation.

The last couple of chapters really ticked me off though, particularly the chapter about the "equality revolution."  I thought she completely lost any objectivity.  Perhaps as a stay-at-home mom I'm just being sensitive (but I really don't think so), but it seemed as if she were rejoicing that high housing prices (the book was written in 2005) forced women to give up the option of staying at home.  She obviously doesn't even want women to have that option because, God forbid, women might start staying at home and we lose all that liberation we've worked so hard to obtain (...could this also be related to the misery that characterize the generation?).

As someone who is no stranger to the phrase, "That is exactly what is wrong with people today," I really enjoyed reading this book.