Why is this generation different from all other generations? Well, to put it bluntly, we are 70 million narcissists trying to enter the workforce expecting a six figure salary while we sit at our cubes and check to see how many people liked our most recent Instagram photo. While this is obviously a generalization of our generation and largely stereotypical, our generation is, without a doubt, the most self-obsessed group of individuals to date.
Let’s look back to our childhood. We were most likely praised by our parents for miniscule accomplishments and given “Way to go!” stickers for completing a simple worksheet. In second grade, I made my soccer debut and quickly discovered it was not my calling. I was in no way, shape, or form any asset to my team whatsoever. In fact, my athletically challenged self probably led my team to a few losses. In spite of my poor soccer skills, I still received the same trophy as the star player on my team, though I was completely undeserving.
BuzzFeed is a product of Generation Me. The development of shorter attention spans led to the creation of quick, list-heavy, and picture-filled articles. BuzzFeed is much different than CNN or the New York Times because most of BuzzFeed’s content is about you. Yes, you. Articles such as “26 Symptoms of Entering Your Senior Year of College” and “25 Signs You Grew Up with Disney” are not news-breaking articles. I know I am a college senior, and I know I grew up watching Disney movies and television shows just like every other person my age, but why does our generation find these articles unbelievably entertaining? Because Generation Y loves themselves. And our generation would rather read about ourselves instead of reading about the crisis in Syria. BuzzFeed completely caters to our generation’s narcissism by providing even more ways for us think about ourselves. Their most popular articles are not the ones about Russia’s extreme anti-LGBT laws, but are about x amount of signs that you are you.
Instagram is yet another product of the self-obsessed generation. The majority of our parents do not have Instagram. But, come Mother’s Day, my Instagram feed is full of collages of people with their mothers. Your mother will most likely never see that post, so why make a nice collage of photos with her? Because our generation has a need to show everyone how great and perfect our lives are. Instagram is an easy way to put up a façade and say, “Hey everyone, look how awesome I am.” Ultimately, we post photos on Instagram because getting numerous likes makes us feel liked.
Today, there are much more important, and more urgent, things than being popular on Instagram. Unfortunately, previous generations have left much of the world’s problems for us to solve. Our economy is not going to magically improve, the Middle East will not achieve peace tomorrow, and the rate at which we use natural resources is not decreasing. While this is all happening, our generation has repeatedly stated getting rich and retiring early are their main priorities. A study conducted by Journal of Personality and Social Psychology finds Generation Y (born 1982-2000) are more politically disengaged, more focused on materialistic values, and less concerned about helping the larger community than Generation X (born 1962-1981) and Baby Boomers (born 1946 to about 1961) were at our age. Therefore, we have no valid reason to be so obsessed with ourselves, because we have not accomplished as much as we need to. Once we stop thinking “me, me, me” and start thinking about critical issues and a means of solving them, maybe we can have a reason to think so highly of ourselves.