Initial Reaction (Blog Post 2)

           First, I will say I both liked and disliked the book. I would certainly like to read through it again, under normal time constraints, and get a second view it. On first read through, I can readily identify with several of her points on the relations between younger and older people. I deal with this regularly in the workplace, and have seen many of her examples (both vague and finite). I also share her vision on the state of many current issues. All of that I liked. What I find I could not agree with all of the time was the heavy dose of pessimism. Reality can often seem bleak, but statements like “The gap between expectations and reality has widened to a yawning gulf of disappointment” (page 213) tend to add her own personal negativity to the equation. All in all, I think Twenge can be as cynical as the Generation Me that she claims to be a part of (an intentional literary tool to give credence to this claim, perhaps?) most of the time. This makes for unpleasant spots in the book where she is already imbedding reality’s boot firmly in your arse. I didn’t care for that.

            I think that I would like to address some of the negativity with perhaps a bit more motivating perspectives. While many may not agree (or it may simply not matter to them) I find all the Eyore™-like statements spread throughout the text to be amotivational in general (and in finishing the book, for that matter). To that end, I think I will write from a perspective of “Is Generation Me really as cynical as Twenge portrays?”

            Digging into the text and looking at sections again, I hope that I can find evidence that either Generation Me isn’t quite so jaded as Twenge, or that I misinterpreted her in the first place. Perhaps, in finding whether or not Gen Me is so cynical may even provide some inight into why daily life in our society is the way it is. Who knows?; maybe I’ll even reverse my initial assessment of her negativity.