Are millennials really that selfish?
In the U.S., millennials are the children of baby boomers, who are also known as the Me Generation, who then produced the Me Me Me Generation, Times Joel Stein famously wrote in 2013, whose selfishness technology has only exacerbated.
Steins cover story for Time garnered plenty of controversy (Every every every generation has been the me me me generation, wrote The Atlantics Elspeth Reeve at the time), but many of his assertions have stuck.
Amidst the heated debate over decreasing birth rates in America, a new question, similar to Stein's line of reasoning, has come to the forefront: Are millennials just simply hedonists?
According to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, hedonism is the belief that only pleasure or pain motivates us and that those who ascribe to a hedonistic worldview believe only pleasure has worth or value and only pain or displeasure has disvalue or the opposite of worth.
The hedonistic status of millennials came into prominent view last week when The Weeks Damon Linker used the term to describe what might be influencing the younger generation to reject having children, as I reported for Deseret News National.
But hedonism implies plenty of other behaviors besides just choosing not to have children. If millennials really are the ultimate pleasure seeking generation, such attitudes would likely dip into their life at work as well as their approach toward charitable giving, not just their family life.
Much attention has been given to the work habits of the me me me generation, with many recent studies, including this one by IBM, concluding that workplace differences between millennials and baby boomers have been greatly exaggerated. So if work habits indicate that millenials are concerned with their own happiness, success and pleasure, theyre really no different than the generations that came before them.
When it comes to charity, however, there are some fascinating differences.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Americans ages 20 to 34 are less likely to volunteer for charitable causes than those 35 to 64 (those 16 to 19 also volunteer more).
Bloombergs Akane Otani believes the BLS numbers indicate that theres something inherently selfish (possibly hedonistic?) about the early adult years that millennials have perfected.
Maybe aging is the antidote to being self-absorbed, Otani wrote.
But Mics Jon Levine wasnt so convinced. Are millennials lazy and selfish? That certainly appears to be the implication of a recent piece in Bloomberg Businessweek, Levine wrote in his response.
But according to Levine, there are plenty of other indicators that show millennials are trying hard, despite the strong economic pressures associated with early adulthood, to be as charitable as possible.
A millennial might be forgiven for having less time to volunteer than their more established elders, Levine wrote. The up-by-your-bootstraps, starting-with-nothing narratives of the parents and grandparents of millennials sound inspiring, but they overlook the fact that many millennials begin their professional lives with considerably less than nothing.
Another data point that came to the forefront last year is how millennials choose to be charitable. According to NPR, millennials are increasingly looking to online donations for their charitable giving.
With around 80 million millennials coming of age, knowing how they spend their cash on causes is going to be critical for nonprofits, NPRs Elise Hu wrote last year. And their spending patterns aren't the same as their parents.
For some, the issue doesnt seem to be that millennials are worse than the generations that preceded them but that they dont seem to be much different at all.
Didn't baby boomers think that Generation X was entitled? The Guardian inquired last year. And didn't the Second World War generation think that baby boomers were entitled? Well, yes, I suppose so.
In the U.S., millennials are the children of baby boomers, who are also known as the Me Generation, who then produced the Me Me Me Generation, Times Joel Stein famously wrote in 2013, whose selfishness technology has only exacerbated.
Steins cover story for Time garnered plenty of controversy (Every every every generation has been the me me me generation, wrote The Atlantics Elspeth Reeve at the time), but many of his assertions have stuck.
Amidst the heated debate over decreasing birth rates in America, a new question, similar to Stein's line of reasoning, has come to the forefront: Are millennials just simply hedonists?
According to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, hedonism is the belief that only pleasure or pain motivates us and that those who ascribe to a hedonistic worldview believe only pleasure has worth or value and only pain or displeasure has disvalue or the opposite of worth.
The hedonistic status of millennials came into prominent view last week when The Weeks Damon Linker used the term to describe what might be influencing the younger generation to reject having children, as I reported for Deseret News National.
But hedonism implies plenty of other behaviors besides just choosing not to have children. If millennials really are the ultimate pleasure seeking generation, such attitudes would likely dip into their life at work as well as their approach toward charitable giving, not just their family life.
Much attention has been given to the work habits of the me me me generation, with many recent studies, including this one by IBM, concluding that workplace differences between millennials and baby boomers have been greatly exaggerated. So if work habits indicate that millenials are concerned with their own happiness, success and pleasure, theyre really no different than the generations that came before them.
When it comes to charity, however, there are some fascinating differences.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Americans ages 20 to 34 are less likely to volunteer for charitable causes than those 35 to 64 (those 16 to 19 also volunteer more).
Bloombergs Akane Otani believes the BLS numbers indicate that theres something inherently selfish (possibly hedonistic?) about the early adult years that millennials have perfected.
Maybe aging is the antidote to being self-absorbed, Otani wrote.
But Mics Jon Levine wasnt so convinced. Are millennials lazy and selfish? That certainly appears to be the implication of a recent piece in Bloomberg Businessweek, Levine wrote in his response.
But according to Levine, there are plenty of other indicators that show millennials are trying hard, despite the strong economic pressures associated with early adulthood, to be as charitable as possible.
A millennial might be forgiven for having less time to volunteer than their more established elders, Levine wrote. The up-by-your-bootstraps, starting-with-nothing narratives of the parents and grandparents of millennials sound inspiring, but they overlook the fact that many millennials begin their professional lives with considerably less than nothing.
Another data point that came to the forefront last year is how millennials choose to be charitable. According to NPR, millennials are increasingly looking to online donations for their charitable giving.
With around 80 million millennials coming of age, knowing how they spend their cash on causes is going to be critical for nonprofits, NPRs Elise Hu wrote last year. And their spending patterns aren't the same as their parents.
For some, the issue doesnt seem to be that millennials are worse than the generations that preceded them but that they dont seem to be much different at all.
Didn't baby boomers think that Generation X was entitled? The Guardian inquired last year. And didn't the Second World War generation think that baby boomers were entitled? Well, yes, I suppose so.
