Status
Call number
Publication
Description
Dr. Jean Twenge offers a portrait of a new generation that is growing up more slowly and more anxious -- but also more tolerant and more safe -- than any generation in history. They stay away from grown-up temptations like alcohol and sex, but they also avoid grown-up responsibilities, like learning to drive, moving out of the house, and gaining financial independence. They're open-minded, forward-thinking, and prudent in ways that previous generations of young people were not. The traits and trends of iGen can seem puzzling or even counterintuitive, but if we want to interact with them successfully -- to parent them, to teach them, to work with them, to market to them -- we need to understand who they are and why they behave in the ways that they do. With generational divides that are deeper and wider than ever, parents, educators, and employers have an urgent need to understand today's rising generation of teens and young adults who are just starting to enter the workforce. As social media and texting replace other recreational activities and ways of communicating, iGen'ers spend less time with their friends and loved ones in person -- which perhaps explains why they are experiencing unprecedented levels of anxiety, depression, and loneliness. But technology is not the only thing that makes iGen distinct. Through her research, interviews, and analysis of data drawn from more than 11 million respondents over multiple decades, Dr. Twenge demonstrates that iGen's uniqueness also lies in how they spend their time, how they behave, and in their surprising attitudes toward religion, sexuality, and politics. As this new group of young people grows into adulthood, we all need to understand them. Because where iGen goes, so goes our nation -- and the world.… (more)
User reviews
The author is a psychologist who studies and compares generations. She calls the youngest generation “iGen”: this generation was born in 1995 and later, and they have only ever known a life with the Internet, and for many, smartphones. In this book, she looks at how the internet and
Her previous book, Generation Me, looked at Millenials and I found it very interesting. Ditto for this one. I don’t have kids, but I still found this fascinating (and in some cases, horrifying – those “safe spaces” on college campuses? For anything that might offend anyone!). She includes a lot of statistics in the book; I like that she is able to compare the generations, but when all the generations were teens and young adults, due to surveys that have been done since the 1970s.
She also includes a lot of graphs, which are hard to read on my small Kobo screen, so print might be a better way to go if you want to look at the graphs. In addition to the statistics, though, she has done a lot of interviews, so she can take some of the stories from the interviews to highlight some of the findings from the stats (or show other perspectives) – the stats are averages. Overall, it’s a very interesting book.
My big issue with the book
Finally, this book is already a bit dated. Her projections about Gen Z moving libertarian/Republican didn't reallllllly pan out, as evidenced by the 2018 election (although the youth vote was relatively low). And the Parkland kids probably defy a lot of her findings. I'll be interested to see Twenge revisit this research in ten years or so.
iGen 1995 to 2012
Millennials 1980 to 1994
Gen X 1965 to 1979
Boomers 1946 to 1964
Collection
DDC/MDS
305.2350973 |