The Generation Me, By Lesile Bell

In today’s society, the social structure has changed drastically compared to the previous generations. The social restrictions have been loosened for quite a bit; for example, the women in the 60s and 70s were supposed to learn how to become a house wife and get married at a young age. Women in the modern generation are given complete freedom to decide on when to get married and start a family. Also, society’s focus had shifted from group focus to more on individuality; the modern generation has shown to have a greater self-esteem and sense of individuality. With all these great changes, many observers have been alarmed by a negative pattern - the new generation that has been fed with the idea of self-focus since birth has become self-absorbed …show more content…
Because of the change in society, “the Generation Me” had been granted with freedom that is unimaginable. In the Lesile Bell’s book, a quote shows the amount of freedom women of “the Generation Me” has, “The current average age of the first sexual intercourse for girls is seventeen, leaving ten years of sexual and relationship activity before the current average of marriage twenty-seven.” (26) The quote illustrates how much freedom “the Generation Me” have for themselves. Besides the freedom they were given, they were taught to believe that they are special no matter what. In the Twenge’s book, a quote shows “the Generation Me” mindset, “We simply take it for granted that we should all feel good about ourselves, we are all special, and we all deserve to follow our dreams. GenMe is straightforward and unapologetic about our self-focus. In 2004’s Conquering Your Quarterlife Crisis, Jason, 25, related how he went through some tough times and decided he needed to change things in his life. His new motto was ‘Do what’s best for Jason, I had to make me happy; I had to do what was best for myself in every situation.” (491) In the quote Twenge illustrated that GenMe takes their freedom for granted and they believe they are special. In her example, in order get through a tough time, Jason decides to become self-centered, even making his motto “Do what’s best for Jason. I had to make me happy; I had to do …show more content…
As a result, they developed a curriculum to increase the kid’s self-esteem; this extends from school to TV shows, telling kids that they are great, to change the way of teaching in the school. In the Twenge’s book, a quote displays this change in the society, “One Austin, Texas, father was startled to see his five-year-old daughter wearing a shirt that announced, ‘I am lovable and capable.’.” (495) This quote shows how the curriculum has changed this society, the society had decided to almost brainwash the kids to believe that they are special. The society believes that in order to develop “GenMe” self-focus, they have to start a young age. This is evidenced in Twenge’s quote, the daughter was five years old and she has already been influence to believe that she is special. However, the most change the society has made in order to “GenMe”’s self-confidence was shown in the school