Personal Identity vs. Value Systems in the world of Social Media

[ThirstyBarbarian]

I only intended to use that event with "Mitch" as an example to introduce the topic.

As I said before, Mitch and I talked about what happened and we are on good terms.

But since there seems to be some ongoing concern about this event, consider this:

I talked to another 20-something young man, who is also from my church, who was party to some of the discussions that offended Mitch. I asked if I was inconsiderate to Mitch, but "Wayne" told me "Mitch is much too sensitive" Since I know Wayne knows Mitch much better than I, I felt like I had nothing more to worry about.

My main reason for pointing out we didn’t know much about the conversation wasn’t to actually get more info about it. It was to protest the fact that people were making some very harsh judgments about “Mitch” without really knowing much about him or the situation, and I don’t like that. There’s not enough basis in the anecdote you described for people here to be calling him a spoiled brat, or special snowflake, and using terms like entitled, self-centered, narcissistic, and retarded. It sounds like you two have worked it out. Just be sure “over-sensitive Mitch” never finds out about this thread and how so many people made such negative judgements about him based on your description of the misunderstanding.

Another thing that has really bugged me in this thread is how many people express so much judgement about the millennial generation. I’ve worked with lots of millennials, and they’ve all been competent, professional, and hard working, not entitled or self-centered.

One thing I noticed about the millennials I worked with is that they are far more comfortable and effective with team projects than older generations such as Gen X and Boomers. I think they were taught more about team projects in school than we were. They are good about dividing up the work and getting their part done and then bringing it all together. Maybe “participation trophies” taught them something about being collaborative participants.

My nieces and nephews are mostly in the millennial cohort, and they’ve mostly been pretty successful in their lives — getting married, starting families, building careers, buying homes, etc., despite steeper obstacles than we faced.

I don’t understand this idea older people have that millennials are self-absorbed or entitled. This is the cohort who volunteered and fought our nation’s wars after 9/11. They’ve had their finances and careers derailed once with the Great Recession, and now it’s happening AGAIN right now with this pandemic and the economic fallout. Their educations have cost them far more than ours did and left them with mountains of student debt. And speaking of debt, they are being handed a huge national debt without being left much of a legacy of value purchased with that debt. I think if they were as entitled as everyone seems to think, we’d be hearing a lot more about millennial backlash.

Honestly, I think millenials share a lot in common with the Greatest Generation that lived through the Great Depression, fought World War II, and then paid to build a world-class infrastructure and system of institutions to hand off to their children, the Boomers. We don’t know how it will all play out for them, but I think in another 50 years or so, when we look back at the hands the various generations were dealt, and how they played them, millennials will come out looking pretty good.

 

[LW Bercini]

My main reason for pointing out we didn’t know much about the conversation wasn’t to actually get more info about it. It was to protest the fact that people were making some very harsh judgments about “Mitch” without really knowing much about him or the situation, and I don’t like that. There’s not enough basis in the anecdote you described for people here to be calling him a spoiled brat, or special snowflake, and using terms like entitled, self-centered, narcissistic, and retarded. It sounds like you two have worked it out. Just be sure “over-sensitive Mitch” never finds out about this thread and how so many people made such negative judgements about him based on your description of the misunderstanding.

Another thing that has really bugged me in this thread is how many people express so much judgement about the millennial generation. I’ve worked with lots of millennials, and they’ve all been competent, professional, and hard working, not entitled or self-centered.

One thing I noticed about the millennials I worked with is that they are far more comfortable and effective with team projects than older generations such as Gen X and Boomers. I think they were taught more about team projects in school than we were. They are good about dividing up the work and getting their part done and then bringing it all together. Maybe “participation trophies” taught them something about being collaborative participants.

My nieces and nephews are mostly in the millennial cohort, and they’ve mostly been pretty successful in their lives — getting married, starting families, building careers, buying homes, etc., despite steeper obstacles than we faced.

I don’t understand this idea older people have that millennials are self-absorbed or entitled. This is the cohort who volunteered and fought our nation’s wars after 9/11. They’ve had their finances and careers derailed once with the Great Recession, and now it’s happening AGAIN right now with this pandemic and the economic fallout. Their educations have cost them far more than ours did and left them with mountains of student debt. And speaking of debt, they are being handed a huge national debt without being left much of a legacy of value purchased with that debt. I think if they were as entitled as everyone seems to think, we’d be hearing a lot more about millennial backlash.

Honestly, I think millenials share a lot in common with the Greatest Generation that lived through the Great Depression, fought World War II, and then paid to build a world-class infrastructure and system of institutions to hand off to their children, the Boomers. We don’t know how it will all play out for them, but I think in another 50 years or so, when we look back at the hands the various generations were dealt, and how they played them, millennials will come out looking pretty good.

I am disappointed that so many people took the conversation in that direction. I really feared that would happen and explicitly asked people in my post not to focus on generations and Facebook. But, as Neil_people tend not

 

[LW Bercini]

I am disappointed that so many people took the conversation in that direction. I really feared that would happen and explicitly asked people in my post not to focus on generations and Facebook. But, as Neil_W pointed out, people tend not adhere to things like that