A recent study published in the Journal of Personality found that college students largely believe they are special and have what it takes to succeed. Critics like Fox News Contributor Dr. Keith Ablow have condemned our generation for having unprecedented levels of narcissism and social dysfunction.
So why is this a problem? Young adults today seem to be less respectful towards authority figures and believe that exceptions should be made for them. You can see examples of this in virtually any college classroom where students are incessantly texting or glued to their Facebooks while their professors are lecturing. Ear buds silence the rest of the world while they listen to music of their choosing. They complain when free websites like Hulu and YouTube have commercials and they regularly pirate music and movies because they simply don’t think they should have to pay for it. The concept of give-and-take is a foreign one; they are a generation of consumers and everything is at their fingertips.
These are generalizations, of course, but still, most college students today are in a state of arrested development and many do not understand the value of hard work.
Many blame the barrage of childhood compliments and awards for shaping these unfounded attitudes. While it is not wrong to tell kids that they are special, instilling a sense of superiority over one’s peers is not beneficial for anyone. In addition to the parenting aspect, the media also plays a role in our vanity by zeroing in on super-narcissists like Kanye West and Kim Kardashian, two egotistical, self-involved role models.
But it is not fair for our elders to write off everyone born in the late twentieth century as narcissistic. The truth is, it is going to take a gargantuan amount of confidence to save the economy, the environment, and the reputation of the United States of America, and our generation will do it with the very same confidence that the older generation admonishes. Our generation may be one of consumers and narcissists who are overly self-assured, but ultimately, this extreme confidence, almost cockiness, is going to be necessary to tackle the issues our generation faces. For better or for worse, these egotistical minds are the leaders of tomorrow and may indeed fulfil their prophecy of being “special.”