I read an interesting article today in the school paper about “Generation Me” (read it here). It pointed out that today’s generation of 15-25 year olds are more self-centered and attention needy than any other generation. The part of the article that stood out to me most was a quote by a professor in the School of Family Life at BYU who said that “[technology] can lead [young people] ‘to a false sense of where they can go in their life.’”

He mentioned that things like constant texting, calling, instant messaging, facebook, myspace, and personal websites (like this one!) have created a generation of young people centered on themselves that are unwilling to grow up, accept responsibility, contribute to society, and focus on those outside of themselves.

This article caused me to reflect a bit on my own outlook/attitudes towards life, and I found that to some extent I do fit the mold that is described in this article. While I no longer have the childlike dream of “I can do anything”, I still believe that there isn’t much that is out of reach. In today’s society, and especially for someone with the opportunity to grow up in America in a good family and get a quality education, the possibilities are, if not endless, pretty close. I believe that through appropriate goal setting and hard work, I can do amazing things with my life. Case and point, look at my last post. There I discussed doing an Ironman triathlon. I know I’m not going to be an Olympic athlete – (I would have to have been doing pushups since I was a fetus) – but an Ironman is still something pretty amazing that is within reach of many normal people.

The professor made a different point that I can more readily see. He categorized those within Generation Me as being in one of two categories: flourishers or flounderers. As you can guess, flourishers are those who, according to Nelson, are actively preparing to make a contribution to society, while flounderers are those who are just having fun.

The interesting thing about Nelson’s classification is that really, this applies to all people. There are some people in life who actively try to progress, improve themselves, and make the world around them a better place, and there are others who are just getting by. People who would consider themselves as flourishers have something to learn from the flounderers – sometimes its important to relax and just have a good time. Its not healthy to be wound up so tightly all the time. The reverse, however, is also true – there aren’t many more fulfilling things in this life than setting difficult goals that are followed by hard work and eventual fulfillment. By taking a page from both books, one can find satisfaction and happiness no matter what generation they hail from.

Future, Social