That's the question posed in the discussion below, which stems from
this article from Psychology Today. It's a bit on the lengthy side, but well worth the read. The basic premise is that Generation Y (1982-2002) is too lazy and self important, without having any real justification for being either. The discussion on this issue (part 1 of 2; I'll add the 2nd when it's up) is better than the article on its own, I think, but reading the essay itself certainly helps expand on some of the points they commentators don't seem to cover very well.
One of the first things both the article and video bring up is how parents today seem to have fostered this "Everyone's a winner" mentality that, if you ask me, diminishes the work of people who actually try to get ahead, and prevents kids from tasting failure. Yeah, having to admit you lost a game or competition sucks, but you have to learn to cope somehow. I haven't had a single teacher or employer who's cared why I wasn't done a task on time. All that mattered was that the work wasn't done, and it was my fault. That's how it works outside of high school, and I see no reason why we can't teach children how to deal with it from a young age. Failure is as much a part of life as success, deal with it. Along these lines, there's also mention of modern parents not letting their children (mostly toddler age from the sound of things) learn and explore at playground alone. Instead, they prefer to teach their kids how to use all the toys and climby things and whatnot, without the risk of injury or
failure. That's kind of going to be a recurring theme, here.
The article itself brings up some points that I've been making for a while now. The first that really stuck out for me talks about the obsession with cell phones.
It's bad enough that today's children are raised in a psychological hothouse where they are overmonitored and oversheltered. But that hothouse no longer has geographical or temporal boundaries. For that you can thank the cell phone. Even in college—or perhaps especially at college—students are typically in contact with their parents several times a day, reporting every flicker of experience. One long-distance call overheard on a recent cross-campus walk: "Hi, Mom. I just got an ice-cream cone; can you believe they put sprinkles on the bottom as well as on top?"
"Kids are constantly talking to parents," laments Cornell student Kramer, which makes them perpetually homesick. Of course, they're not telling the folks everything, notes Portmann. "They're not calling their parents to say, 'I really went wild last Friday at the frat house and now I might have chlamydia. Should I go to the student health center?'"
The perpetual access to parents infantilizes the young, keeping them in a permanent state of dependency. Whenever the slightest difficulty arises, "they're constantly referring to their parents for guidance," reports Kramer. They're not learning how to manage for themselves.
Speaking from personal experience, I don't think many of my friends call their parents daily, but, in high school at least, I recall my parents having a fit if I went anywhere without a cell phone. Apparently I was prime pedo prey or something... anyways, it always bothered me, because it was like having a leash (my ex's parents took that to fucking extremes, holy shit...) that could be tugged on any time. Call during a movie? Leave and pick up. At a concert? God help you if you can't hear or feel it ring. Jesus fuck, does Generation X not remember growing up without the damn things? I'd have loved the ability to go out with friends after school and not have to call to check in every hour. Hell, I think I had more fun the few times I was late home because my phone died, if only because it made not caring about it easier (though my parents would disagree). Granted, college, which is more the target age of the essay, is a bit more lax about that for most people, but it still makes a solid point; if we keep calling our folks over every little thing, how will we learn to think for ourselves and be independent? Don't get me wrong, I love being able to call when I'm really lost, but I can't imagine not being able to figure things out on my own.
Then, there's this point, where I think the paper is a bit off.
The end result of cheating childhood is to extend it forever. Despite all the parental pressure, and probably because of it, kids are pushing back—in their own way. They're taking longer to grow up.
Adulthood no longer begins when adolescence ends, according to a recent report by University of Pennsylvania sociologist Frank F. Furstenberg and colleagues. There is, instead, a growing no-man's-land of postadolescence from 20 to 30, which they dub "early adulthood." Those in it look like adults but "haven't become fully adult yet—traditionally defined as finishing school, landing a job with benefits, marrying and parenting—because they are not ready or perhaps not permitted to do so."
Using the classic benchmarks of adulthood, 65 percent of males had reached adulthood by the age of 30 in 1960. By contrast, in 2000, only 31 percent had. Among women, 77 percent met the benchmarks of adulthood by age 30 in 1960. By 2000, the number had fallen to 46 percent.
While yes, I do agree that my generation isn't as "mature" as previous generations by the same age, I don't see this as a problem. By comparison, we also live several decades longer on average, so getting a career and family going at a young age isn't as important. Seeing as our average age is somewhere around 80 now, compared to, say 50 (or 30 if you go back a couple centuries), it's no longer as crucial that we decide what we want to do right out of high school, if not before, as I was pressured in to.
This also relates to a point made in the video about how my generation doesn't stay with any one job for as long, and doesn't tend to move up in the company. The point was made, however, that this is also the generation that came of age largely during the '08 meltdown (the year I turned 18), so it's not like we've had a chance at decent employment. Hell, only a handful of my friends have jobs, and most of those are part-time. The rest of us are stuck living off student loans or our parents because nobody will hire us. That, as has been discussed many times on the forums, is more than mere laziness on our part. That doesn't mean it's not a factor, but it's hard to get a job outside of fast food when your resume isn't very impressive and/or there are a few dozen other people looking for the same job.
TL;DR: I think that, while my generation is lazier than it's predecessors, a decent bit of that is because of their coddling and financial carelessness, though I would love to see more of my peers deal with failure and some old-fashioned hands-on labor.