Twenge’s Generation Me, a highly controversial book in my opinion, can have many readers guessing her intentions for writing this book. Is she trying to help her targeted generation by pointing out their deep flaws, or is she aggravating many people. From what I have grown up around, some of what Twenge points out may be true but it does not truthfully represent my generation. Twenge continuously repeats herself when she should have taken to the time to acknowledge the other half of the generation she left out. By dismissing the other half and brushing over religion, Twenge seems ignorant and self centered around her own theme.
On pages 34-36 Twenge lightly touches on Religion, in my opinion only to say that she did to complete her book, but barely going into depth. She leaves out factors such as the many religions that exist that people can conform to and/or the many reason’s why Gen Me’s attendance to religious services has dropped. For many Gen Me’s that are discovering new faiths to believe in, they may be un known to do research on or may not require physical attending to a sacred church, mosque, etc like other religions do. Or perhaps their attendance is low because their parents work on Sunday’s and they don’t have a ride, or their busy doing community service projects, sports, and other activities. Times are changing and Sunday’s are no longer everyone’s day off. Businesses are open, people are putting in the extra hours and Sunday is just another day of the week to advance.
Including religion could have either supported or contrasted with Twenge’s theme. If research was done and she found that Gen Me’s belief in religion had decreased, that would have supported her idea in a sense that Gen Me was much more focused on their own independent power that they didn’t need any spiritual connection. On the other hand, if research was done and studies had proven otherwise, Twenge’s theme would have been disrupted. With so many religions and other faiths in the United States alone, time to do research may have taken a while and Twenge was probably too lazy and scared of finding out a truth that may have conflicted with her book.
Dismissing the subject of religion didn’t hurt the point she was trying to make but it left big gap. This gap includes the many Gen Me’s whom she decided to leave out of the book, the readers that are the total opposite of her stereotypical Gen Me. In my own opinion, Twenge decided to write a book criticizing Gen Me for their self centered personals and carelessness but left out why Gen Me’s are the way they are. Advances in technology, the spiraling economy, and competitiveness in today’s society are all factors that can be the cause of Gen Me’s personality. This book may be helpful and eye opening to the Gen Me’s she’s referring to, but to the Gen Me’s she left out, it’s offensive, unfair, and ignorant.
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