Ask HN: Where the hell is all this recent hate on Gen Y'ers coming from?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1289907

by devinus • 16 years ago

6 12 16 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

How does Jason Calacanis get off calling my generation "entitled trophy kids"?

jolan• 16 years ago

"They should make a phone that you put on a wall so you always know where it is!" -- Gen Y

rewind• 16 years ago

More importantly, why do you care what he thinks? Just do your thing.

_delirium3• 16 years ago

It seems to be an eternal truth that older generations think younger generations feel too entitled and don't respect their elders, the value of hard work, authority/hierarchy, or paying your dues. It was basically the complaint the WW2 generation had about the 60s/70s generation, the complaint the 60s/70s generation had about Gen-Xers, and now apparently the complaint Gen-Xers have about Gen Y. So I wouldn't worry too much about it.

MikeCapone• 16 years ago

You beat me to it, and are more eloquent than I would have been.

pg3• 16 years ago

The interesting thing is, it may actually be true. Those things have been in a long, gradual decline for centuries.

j-g-faustus• 16 years ago

Doubtful. Here's Hesiod around 800 BC:

"I see no hope for the future of our people if they are dependent on frivolous youth of today, for certainly all youth are reckless beyond words... When I was young, we were taught to be discreet and respectful of elders, but the present youth are exceedingly disrespectful and impatient of restraint"

Between the two hypotheses a) "society has been declining for thousands of years" and b) "older people tend towards grumpiness" I know which one sounds more likely :)

Although Hesiod's "I see no hope for the future of our people" may be vindicated by the fact that his culture no longer exists.

Perhaps cultures stagnate and corrupt over time, and complaints about youth is a symptom rather than a cause? Perhaps the collapse of a civilization every now and then is one of the mechanisms that keep human societies sustainable in the long run?

There are interesting questions here, but I don't think the older generation complaining about the younger generation is one of them. Not in and of itself, at least.

julius_geezer• 16 years ago

The other year an in-law remarked that "kids today" were unwilling to do the group house thing. I asked whether n years ago he ever imagined himself using the expression, and got laughs from his sister and wife, and a rueful one from him.

How does JC get off? Well, what are going to do? Boycott him? Challenge him to a duel? A mixed martial arts match? Regard him as background noise, a minor nuisance like a loud, smelly bus stop, and move on.

But remember this in 10 or 20 or 40 years when you are tempted to say bad things about the young of that day.

Ask HN: Where the hell is all this recent hate on Gen Y'ers coming from?

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