Generation “Bubble Boy”

Mike DiamondComp 106Prof. Yerks

Generation “Bubble Boy” “Millennials,” “Generation Y,” “Generation

Me,” etc., are labels given to the generation of people born between 1980 and 2000.

Millennials are most distinguishable by being the first generation to grow up with the Internet.

I believe that excessive time in front of televisions, video game consoles, and computers have contributed to our becoming more detached from other people than any generation in recent memory.

The difference in Millennials could be likened to growing up sealed in a bubble and becoming a bitter jerk as a result, like the character in the famous “Seinfeld” episode.

The University of Michigan study

Researchers at the University of Michigan presented a study in 2010 at the Association for Psychological Science which shows that people born between 1979 and 2000 have 40% less empathy than those born earlier.

The study looked at data from 14,000 college students taken over the last 30 years.

It was found that Millennials are much less likely to agree with the statements "I sometimes try to understand my friends better by imagining how things look from their perspective" and "I often have tender, concerned feelings for people less fortunate than me."

"Empathy: College Students Don't Have as Much as They Used to." University of Michigan News Service. Web. 30 Mar. 2011. <http://ns.umich.edu/htdocs/releases/story.php?id=7724>.

Empathy: What does it mean?

Empathy is most easily understood as "putting oneself into the shoes of another.”

It triggers basic human responses, such as group alarm, parent-child behavior, identifying of threats, and theory of mind processes.

Theory of mind (the understanding of other people's emotions and actions) is typically only lacking in people with certain mental disorders, ones who are undergoing traumatic physical pain, and persons under the influence of excessive alcohol and/or narcotics.

De Wall, Frans B.M., and Stephanie Preston. "Preston and De Waal (submitted) Empathy: Its Ultimate and Proximate Bases." Welcome to Cogprints - Cogprints. Department of Psychology, University of California at Berkeley. Web. 30 Mar. 2011. <http://cogprints.org/1042/1/preston_de_waal.html>.

What caused this shift in empathy?

“'The increase in exposure to media during this time period could be one factor,' Konrath said. 'Compared to 30 years ago, the average American now is exposed to three times as much nonwork-related information.'”

"Empathy: College Students Don't Have as Much as They Used to." University of Michigan News Service. Web. 30 Mar. 2011. <http://ns.umich.edu/htdocs/releases/story.php?id=7724>.

Increasing bandwidth

"We found the biggest drop in empathy after the year 2000," said Sara Konrath, a researcher at the U-M Institute for Social Research.

After 2000, the Internet's influence and hold over us seemed to grow a greater pace every year.

During this time, instant messaging software and Napster's offer of free music made the Internet an essential part of the front-end Millennials' everyday college life.

The rise of instant messaging was the first great leap since the telephone in making distance convenient.

The flood of new Internet users found new homes in Web forums, newsgroups, and chat rooms concerning numerous topics, many narrow and exclusive.

Our generation had found a way to keep ourselves close to only family, friends, and the like-minded.

Decreasing responsibility

In 2003, 22-year-old Brandon Vedas (a.k.a. “ripper”) accidentally committed suicide on webcam after consuming his hoard of prescribed medication (including an obviously lethal methadone dose). He did this while chatting with his online friends on his Internet Relay Chat (IRC) channel.

His Internet friends egged him on and refrained from notifying the authorities once Vedas “looked dead.”

Quotes from the #shroomery chat log the day of Vedas's death: [ 02:13:54 ] [ Smoke2k ] you p***y

[ 02:13:57 ] [ Smoke2k ] eat more

[ 02:19:24 ] [ @phalaris ] i bet ripper will just pass out and forget it all

[ 02:20:09 ] [ Smoke2k ] I wanna see if you survive or if you just black out

[ 02:35:46 ] [ hast ] i think he'll be fine.

[ 03:22:23 ] [0ea] i am on line with 911

[ 03:22:55 ] [Smoke2k] you could really f***ing get him arrested

[ 03:23:17 ] [hast] i'm damn sure not getting involved with the cops

[ 03:24:56] [0ea] i talked my way out of it

Old media stays relevant

Meanwhile, television, in the post 9-11 world, became increasingly paranoid and fearmongering.

The meteoric rise of Fox News, with the echo of sensationalism by the other networks to compete, led to our nation being at its most polarized in recent memory. For many Millennials, it seemed much more preferable to deal with a dualist world than a complex one.

The hero of television became 24's Jack Bauer, (a sociopath, but America's sociopath) who was fighting off our constant terrorist threat. 9/11, occurring so early in the lives of all Millennials, had a pronounced effect on our collective psyche – enough to make Millennials idolize a guy who bit chunks out of people's necks.

Sons of Mortal Kombat

As a Millennial, I grew up with video games, and I disagree that violent video games make kids violent.

However, I agree with the assertion that violent media makes kids numb to violence.

In the game Dead Space 2, I watched the protagonist die every five minutes in some of the grossest manners possible. Eventually, instead of being disgusted by the scenes, I was simply bored of the repetition.

Online multiplayer games like Halo include excessive violence, but the online community (mostly young Millennials) converses almost entirely in racial epithets and homophobic slurs.

Millennial Competitiveness

“[Millennials] speak the language of the self as their native tongue. The individual has always come first, and feeling good about yourself has always

been a primary virtue. Generation Me’s expectations are highly optimistic: They expect to go to college, to make lots of money, and perhaps even to be famous. Yet this generation enters a world in which college admissions are increasingly competitive, good jobs are hard to find and harder to keep, and basic necessities like housing and health care have skyrocked in price. This

is a time of soaring expectations and crushing realities.”

Twenge, Jean M. Generation Me: Why Today's Young Americans Are More Confident, Assertive, Entitled--and More Miserable than Ever Before. New York: Free Press, 2009. Print.

Millennial Competitiveness

Millennials are generally regarded as highly competitive. While this trait is usually only mentioned in terms of jobs, this generation is hypercompetitive in all aspects of life.

With life itself being seen as its own competition, Millennials use the Internet to tear down their perceived enemies. Without the threat of bodily harm, it became common to verbally abuse people in the harshest manner possible. This cyberbullying ruins lives, even driving some to suicide.

The problem with Facebook

Because Facebook users are behind a computer, they often don't realize that what they are saying is harmful. Many make the mistake of thinking a comment hasn't been seen just because they've deleted it.

Four out of five users I surveyed reported strained relations with a friend because of a dispute on the site.

Beyond affecting just friends, people on Facebook say things that are offensive to nearly everyone, and the abundance of these comments makes it appear that the Facebook users aren't aware that they're doing something wrong. Also, many don't seem to be aware that their posts are searchable.

The problem with Facebook

Facebook is its own competitive arena, with users competing for numbers of friends, tagged pictures, “likes,” and recognition in general.

The concept of a “friend” has been nearly commoditized. Friends are now numbered, categorized status symbols.

The ability to show a user's every interest has led people to believe they are (even more) special, also leading to the belief that their taste in movies/music/etc. makes them superior to everyone else.

Competition to show the greatness of one's life via Facebook has led to “Facebook depression” among Millennials. These feelings of inferiority could lead to false diagnoses of clinical depression and/or anxiety.

Social media as a social vampire

“The researchers also theorize that social networking, which are physically distant allow young people to 'lionize their

own lives' and 'functionally create a buffer between individuals, which makes it easier to ignore others’ pain, or

even at times, inflict pain upon others.' So the authors speculate that the growing emphasis on self by young

people has come with a decreased emphasis on others.”

Williams, Ray. "Is “Generation Me” Less Empathetic? « Ray Williams." Untitled. Web. 30 Mar. 2011. <http://raywilliams.ca/blogs/is-generation-me-less-empathetic/>.

The Internet makes us invincible

Many Millennials are used to the anonymous nature of the Internet.

Because of this, many believe that the Internet will allow them to get away with anything, even things with easily discernible real world repercussions. Their lack of empathy has weakened their ability to identify dangerous behavior.

After the recent trouble with Wikileaks which caused PayPal to stop donations to the organization, anonymous Millennials decided to retaliate.

They used a program named the Low Orbit Ion Cannon which launched a massive distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack on PayPal's servers.

Many of the perpetrators were genuinely surprised when FBI agents knocked down their doors.

Is there anything that can be done?

No. The new forms of media are too prevalent and too influential. The damage has already been done to the Millennials.

If Millennials lack empathy to such a large degree, they may teach their manner of behavior to their kids regardless of whether or not the Internet's influence is throttled.

I don't believe there's anyone to blame. The Millennials are a sort of “shock generation” – like the Baby Boomers, but polar opposites in character.

There has always been doomsaying about the coming generation. Ask a member of the supposedly lazy and ultra-apathetic Generation X.