> Does every generation do this about its youngers?
This sort of journalistic sophistry has been popular since the end of World War Two and catered to the need for the Baby Boomers (the only group to which this sort of generalization can really be accurate) to justify their feelings of self-importance, as they knew they couldn't match the heroics of their warrior parentage. If you think this is bad, you should have seen what they wrote about Gen X.
Nobody but the Boomers really gives a shit about it, and once they're all gone, I predict this naming-and-shaming nonsense will go with them.
I really don't think so. Being perplexed/disgusted by the iniquities of the younger generation has been going on for a long time and will in all likelihood continue. I do agree that there's a lot of boomer-focused "get off my lawn" stuff in the NYT, though. That's their audience.
> Being perplexed/disgusted by the iniquities of the younger generation has been going on for a long time
Well, sure, but there's a difference between the normal run-of-the-mill "kids think they invented sex"-type bitching and this naming-of-the-generations claptrap. Google up some of the old articles, they're the height of verbose, narcissistic inanity. It took a special kind of self-involvement to generate this crap.
This sort of journalistic sophistry has been popular since the end of World War Two and catered to the need for the Baby Boomers (the only group to which this sort of generalization can really be accurate) to justify their feelings of self-importance, as they knew they couldn't match the heroics of their warrior parentage. If you think this is bad, you should have seen what they wrote about Gen X.
Nobody but the Boomers really gives a shit about it, and once they're all gone, I predict this naming-and-shaming nonsense will go with them.