singularity's Journal: PowerBook (and Generation Y)

I got the PowerBook (shipped four days before it was scheduled to ship, and delivered a day earlier than it was scheduled to take from Taiwan).

All I can say is "Wow!" This is truly a nice machine. The RAM was delivered a day earlier, so I snapped that in and was off and running.

No more sitting in the office stuck with the Windows 98 computer I was forced to endure for 2.5 years. Now I get to pull in the PowerBook. I can even stream my MP3s from the PowerMac.

Earlier this week I went to a conference. One of the sessions I attended was on what they called "Millennials". I have heard them called Generation Y more often, and the name refers to the generation of people born from about 1981 until the present.

I have done some reading on my own about my own generation (Generation X, usually described as having been born from about 1963-1978 or so... The years are not completely set, there is some overlap, and some gap in some ways). It is an interesting field, to say the least.

Anyway, one of the things that was discussed in the session was the attitude of current Generation Y students at the high school and college level. A lot of them have an attitude that they are entitled to everything or, at least, a lot more than students who came before them.

My theory is that a lot of the psychology of a generation can be traced back to the culture of the world while they were growing up. Baby Boomers are heavily influenced by a post-war economy and the Cold War. Science was heavily pushed, and that effected the generation.

Generation Y was brought up in a time of political correctness. One component of this was making everyone feel like a winner. At least, no one should feel like a loser. Do not give trophies to the top three, give them to everyone who competed.

In the end, I wonder how this lack of ever "failing" has determined some of the psychology of students today. if showing up is 90%, and 90% is an A, does that mean that everyone who simply shows up should get an A?

You might laugh, but I feel that too often students have that sort of attitude.

it's not funny

[heliocentric]

You might laugh, but I feel that too often students have that sort of attitude.

I agree that many students do have that attitude today, but it truely is not funny.