Losing Is Good For You Analysis

In “Losing is Good for You” by Ashley Merryman, participation trophies are steering society in the wrong direction, making people feel that participation is now as good as winning. Aside from that, much more money is being spent on trophies because of the purchasing of participation trophies, not just first through third place. Most people now agree that everyone should be equal, therefore, aside from the actual awards, participating awards are now given as well to everyone. This “nonstop recognition” is causing children and young adults to not do as good on everyday activities because either way they know they will get an award. However, if the recognition isn’t given to them, they “collapse at the first experience of difficulty” making them choose other easier unethical methods like cheating or copying. Another issue is that participation awards are causing a “cultural …show more content…
The mentality of many will change over the years and it will not change in a good way. As mentioned in this article, “The “negative outcomes” will affect the whole society and cause many conflicts that will prevent the distinction between those who work hard, those who just copy or those who just barely go by. Another contributor to those negative outcomes, previously mentioned, is attendance, because even if it does contribute to a major part of success. Attendance is hardly enough; because hard work must be shown every single day. Yet today, Millennials are receiving misguiding messages. One of them being, “…to succeed, you must show up…they still believe that attendance is all it takes to get a promotion.” This is of course not a positive message for the generation. The mentality set into many will be that, even when failing and not trying it will be okay as long as they continue to show up every