Religion and Generation Me

I think the lack of religious discussion in “Generation Me” is because the author seems to believe that religion is not as important in our society as it was thirty or forty years ago. Throughout her book, Twenge drops hints of why fewer people seem to adhere to a certain faith. She states “We think that confession is good for the soul, and this no longer means whispering to a priest in a dark booth” (36). While it may be true that our generation divulges information more readily than the past generations, it does not mean that religion does not still influence our lives. Twenge seems to think that due to its highly individualized aspects, society gives us no real need for religion anymore. She quotes someone named Melissa who says “You have your own personal beliefs of how you feel about it and what’s acceptable for you and what’s right for you personally” (34). Twenge seems to imply that because not many people believe in all parts of a religion, that they are not religious. She also fails to explain why exactly the attendance in religious services has decreased—it might not be because of a lack of faith, but because, as the last quote explains, the person doesn’t agree with everything in a certain religion, and prefers to worship by themselves. But whatever the cause, religion is still prevalent in society and Twenge might have tried to downplay its effects in her book because it might have contradicted her thesis.
By going more in-depth with religion in her book, Twenge would not have had as strong of an argument for how materialistic and self-obsessed our generation has become. In general, religion and religious communities provide an opportunity for reflection and how to improve our lives and the lives of others. While the lack of religion in her book was not blatantly obvious, once pointed out, it seems to weaken her theory somewhat. I don’t think a section on religion could have been worded in any way to support the claim to the “me” aspect of our generation. If our generation is supposedly self-centered and materialistic, how could she explain the religious communities where people work to help and support each other? The only other reason I can think of for why she would have left religion out of her book would be in order to leave it open to interpretation and have people come up with their own ideas of how religion affects our generation.