Abstract
Jean Twenge is a psychology professor at San Diego State University, author of Generation Me and The Narcissism Epidemic, plus 120 “scientific publications” (dust jacket). So even though iGen is written for the public, she cannot be easily dismissed as some have done by criticizing her sources or overgeneralizations. But the book can be criticized: She sometimes takes correlation as causation, she interviewed only 23 millennials, a (very) small sample size, and some changes she points to have not been large or quick, only one of which is a 25-year decline in 12th graders having had sex from 67% to 58% (with ups and downs along the way).
iGen is her name for the post-millennials generation born in 1995 and later, or about all of today’s “traditional” aged college students and about half the total. Like her book’s title, chapter titles also are crystal clear (while trying too hard with “i” words): “In No Hurry: Growing Up Slowly” (Chapter 1); “Internet: Online Time—Oh, and Other Media, Too” (Chapter 2); “In Person No More: I’m With You, but Only Virtually” (Chapter 3), “Insecure: The New Mental Health Crisis” (Chapter 4), “Irreligious: Losing My Religion (and Spirituality)” (Chapter 5), “Insulated but Not Intrinsic: More Safety and Less Community” (Chapter 6), “Income Insecurity: Working to Earn—But Not to Shop” (Chapter 7), “Indefinite: Sex, Marriage, and Children” (Chapter 8), “Inclusive: LGBT, Gender, and Race Issues in the New Age” (Chapter 9), “Independent: Politics” (Chapter 10); and “Understanding—and Saving—iGen” (Conclusion).
Twelfth graders in 2013-2015 were spending 6 hr a day with new media and about 2 hr per day with television, so iGen Americans are ostensibly a huge audience for all media content. But cited surveys show the self-reported percentage of 12th graders who “read a book or magazine nearly every day” declined from about 60% in the late 1970s to about 17% in 2014 (magazine reading among 10th graders was down to 10% in 2015). Similarly, reported newspaper readership dropped from nearly 70% (really?!) in the early 1990s to 10% in 2015. Of course, a big problem with these statistics, which Twenge omits, is that iGen Americans still consume large amounts of content that are produced by legacy newspaper and magazine companies while usually not even noticing, let alone caring, about original sources and their credibility. Many of Twenge’s students told her that they don’t like reading books and one might mistakenly assume that they don’t like reading at all, but obviously iGen Americans are reading constantly (though apparently favoring, say, 140-character tweets over 140-page books) and many find it difficult to hold a face-to-face or telephone (voice) conversation.
On work, surveys and interviews of iGen Americans show that they are more interested in making money, and less interested in whether jobs are interesting, learning opportunities, have clear results of effort, or have “social attributes” (making friends at work, interacting with many people). Now only 25% of 12th graders “expect work to be a central part of life,” and 40% (and increasing) of 12th graders “do not want to work hard.” Thus, only about 32% say they want to own their own business, a number that has mostly gone downward since a high near 50% in 1987. (iGen’s willingness to work overtime is only about a larger paycheck.) All of this probably bodes ill for the quality and quantity of iGen citizens who are highly motivated to practice all media functions, but journalism in particular.
Other chapters are, if anything, even more troubling. iGen citizens who are “growing up slowly” (Chapter 1) and claim disinterest in news (Chapters 2 and 10) are likely to be much less interested in the very adult topics of journalism’s heart and history: politics, diplomacy, war, business and finance, economics, religion, education, science and technology, and health/medicine. Indeed, communication schools already are swamped with journalism students primarily interested only in reporting sports, fashion, food, or travel. iGen journalists who think religion is not important (Chapter 5) or who think sexism, racism, and homophobia no longer are concerns (Chapter 6) will have more reasons to not seriously cover those topics. iGen communicators who are insecure (Chapter 4) and poor at oral communication will have problems with everything from making presentations to public relations and advertising clients, to interviewing strangers, to speaking truth to power.
Again, iGen citizens are consuming substantial quantities of news through social media while claiming they don’t and aren’t interested in news. They also dislike labels (straight/gay, Republican/Democrat, Christian, etc.). Like 35 years ago, when executives thought USA TODAY would sell better if its vending machines looked televisions (on stands), one may easily wonder if iGen will continue consuming a lot of news on social media as long as content producers don’t use the “j-word” (journalism) or new “n-words” (news and newspaper).
As for the headline’s question in Twenge’s Atlantic article drawn from her book, “Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation?” this reviewer suggests several likely answers: changed, not destroyed, the entire generation, but about those “destroyed,” it’s not completely and not everyone (as was true about movies and then television).