George Rebane
Time for a short update on our generational tailspin. A new body of research has just been published on iGen, the latest generation of Americans. iGeners are the young people born in the 1995-2012 interval. They are the ones following our infamous millennials born 1977-1995 whose aggregate predilection toward dumbth we have been following for the last several years (here, here, here, here). Well, it turns out that the latest bunch out of the womb are giving the millennials a run for their money.
Dr Jean Twenge (psychology professor at San Diego State) has been doing the research and published her most recent findings in iGen: Why Today’s Super-Connected Kids are Growing Up Less Rebellious, More Tolerant, Less Happy – and Completely Unprepared for Adulthood. Actually, “the generation after the millennials loves smartphones, avoids books, craves safety and doesn’t tolerate intolerance” reports Christine Rosen in the 23aug17 WSJ (here).
These young people, in the aggregate, have an interesting departure in their values and worldviews than those who came before, including an “aversion to adulting”. In their tolerance of almost everything else, what they are more likely to do than their predecessors is “to support restricting speech”. Here they seem to have a pretty draconian bent, opining that professors who even utter one incorrect (intolerant, insensitive, …) word should be summarily fired, and students who also trip up in a similar vein should be expelled. According to Dr Twenge, “This is the dark side of tolerance; it begins with the good intentions of including everyone and not offending anyone but ends (at best) with a reluctance to explore deep issues and (at worst) with careers destroyed by a comment someone found offensive and the silencing of all alternative viewpoints.”
iGeners are now the generation of snowflakes that totally embrace ‘safe spaces’, ‘trigger warnings’, and such. For them these are “not fringe ideas but those embraced by the majority of iGeners.” In their daily round they prefer virtual relationships to real ones, they read less than even their predecessors, and most certainly less than the so-called GenXers and Boomers. And here’s the kicker – their academic skills lag behind those of millennials “by significant margins” and they are “less informed” about current events. By any comparison they make the “dumbest generation” look smart.
So here is what the one-two punch of union public schools and social media have produced in a progressive politically correct world. According to Dr Twenge’s research, the iGeners are not a happy bunch. “On the contrary, the more time they spend online, the worse they feel.” The iGeners are “at the forefront of the worst mental health crisis in decades, with rates of teen depression and suicide skyrocketing since 2011.” And this cohort of new voters will determine your civil rights, disposition of private property, generation and distribution of wealth, and how America will deport itself among nations. All of this complex output promises to be based on even less input than evinced today by the millennials. Oh my.
[26aug17 update] And then there is this timely and apropos contribution from Ramirez.
rebanesruminations.com 
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