Ranting against article" Why Gen Y Yuppies are Unhappy"

[dragonyphoenix]

Ranting about this stupid article:

First of all, I don't like his definition of happiness: “when the reality of someone's life is better than they had expected, they're happy. When reality turns out to be worse than the expectations, they're unhappy.” My therapist is showing me how to choose to be happy. Obviously happiness has some influence on mood, but this overly simplistic view, which is the basis of the writer's argument, isn't as plausible as the writer seems to think.

The writer lets his worldview through in some obnoxious ways, for example his description of the parents as having been “insufferable hippies”. I'm guessing he's saying all hippies are/were insufferable and as someone who used to live in a place called Hippie House, I'm feeling rather insulted about now.

“As the '70s, '80s, and '90s rolled along, the world entered a time of unprecedented economic prosperity. Lucy's parents did even better than they expected to. This left them feeling gratified and optimistic.” The thesis is the economic boom left the parents better off financially than they expected and so they are happy. I don't completely agree with this point, but if that's the case wouldn't the economic downturn have to be taken into account when describing the cause of Lucy's unhappiness?

The “phrase "a secure career" has gone out of style, just as the phrase "a fulfilling career" has gotten hot.” Which could have been predicted by anyone taking Maslow's hierarchy of needs into account. Once someone has a certain level of security in their life, they start wanting things like love and meaning. Why is this writer suggesting it's a bad thing?

"GYPSYs Are Delusional" and "I am unusually wonderful": Once again, this is human nature. In psychology it's called Illusory superiority and this is how the Wikipedia article starts: “Illusory superiority is a cognitive bias that causes people to overestimate their positive qualities and abilities and to underestimate their negative qualities, relative to others. This is evident in a variety of areas including intelligence, performance on tasks or tests, and the possession of desirable characteristics or personality traits. It is one of many positive illusions relating to the self, and is a phenomenon studied in social psychology.”

At this point, the addition of the unicorn to the flowery lawn has transformed the writer's visual images into a condescending metaphor.

In terms of Paul Harvey's research, I found a video of him from about three years back. After three years of research he said that there is “some proof” that Generation Y people feel more entitled than previous generations. He is also more explicit about blaming the parents than this writer is. Prof. Harvey says this feeling of entitlement can be traced back to the formative years when parents and teachers were telling the kids they were special and not giving them opportunities to fail and learn from that failure. I do agree that is a problem with our educational system.

Again we get a look at Lucy's reality vs her expectations, in an annoyingly condescending graph, which does not once mention the economic downturn.

Then the writer brings up Facebook and how it is causing Lucy to have an inflated view of how her peers are doing, relative to herself, which of course is making her even unhappier. Since I recently joined Facebook, I don't have any input on this, but I do know the younger generations pay a lot more attention to it than I do, so he may have a point (FINALLY!) here. Okay, I was a bit snarky there, but I really disagree with this guy.

He offers three pieces of advice to Lucy at the end:

1. “Stay wildly ambitious.” Yes! “The world is bubbling with opportunity” and you can do more than you'd ever believe if you just try.




2. “Stop thinking you're special.” No, what a terrible way to word your “advice”.




3. “Ignore everyone else.” I'd have been happier if this had been put more along the lines of “Don't play keeping up with the Joneses”. Actually, I don't like “ignore everyone else”; it sounds like advice from a psychopath. I'd have actually said follow your bliss.

Comments

[velvetwhip.livejournal.com]

That is one depressing article, mostly because his equation is laughably simplistic and fails to take a great many variables into account.


Gabrielle

[dragonyphoenix.livejournal.com]

He really doesn't seem to have thought it through much, if at all. He loses me right up front, with that obnoxious GYPSY definition.

[velvetwhip.livejournal.com]

We won't even go with the appallingly casual racism of using the word GYPSY in such a dismissive and negative way.


Gabrielle

[dragonyphoenix.livejournal.com]

I hadn't even thought of that. A friend used to have a dog named Gypsy - she was greiving at the time and basically wandering while she got her head and heart back together - and so my thoughts went there. Even though Gypsy has been dead for years, she's still one of my favorite dogs.

[velvetwhip.livejournal.com]

Naming a dog you love Gypsy is a far cry from using the term in a nasty, negative way as the author of the article did. One of my favorite 'bots on MST3K was named Gypsy, but she was cool and awesome, so there's no insult there.


Gabrielle

[dragonyphoenix.livejournal.com]

I remember Gypsy from MST3K. SHe was awesome!

And thank you for agreeing with me about this article. My aunt thinks the writer is completely correct and I was feeling a bit like "Am I missing something?" until I saw your comment.