Portland Public Library

IGen, why today's super-connected kids are growing up less rebellious, more tolerant, less happy-- and completely unprepared for adulthood (and what this means for the rest of us), Jean M. Twenge, Ph. D

eng

Includes bibliographical references (pages 317-333) and index

illustrations

index present

non fiction

IGen

bibliography

965140529

Jean M. Twenge, Ph. D

why today's super-connected kids are growing up less rebellious, more tolerant, less happy-- and completely unprepared for adulthood (and what this means for the rest of us)

They were born after 1995. They grew up with cell phones, had an Instagram page before they started high school, and do not remember a time before the Internet. They are iGen. In the book that has sparked conversations around the world, Dr. Jean Twenge offers a revelatory portrait of a new generation growing up more slowly and more anxious -- but also more socially tolerant and safe -- then any generation in history. Through her deep analysis of data drawn from more than 11 million respondents over multiple decades, Dr. Twenge identifies iGen's surprising attitudes toward religion, sexuality, and politics, as well as unprecedented levels of anxiety and loneliness. As this new group of young people grows into adulthood, parents, educators, and employers have an urgent need to understand them. Because where iGen goes, so goes our nation -- and the world. - Back coverAs seen in Time, USA TODAY, The Atlantic, The Wall Street Journal, and on CBS This Morning, BBC, PBS, CNN, and NPR, iGen is crucial reading to understand how the children, teens, and young adults born in the mid-1990s and later are vastly different from their Millennial predecessors, and from any other generation. With generational divides wider than ever, parents, educators, and employers have an urgent need to understand today's rising generation of teens and young adults. Born in the mid-1990s up to the mid-2000s, iGen is the first generation to spend their entire adolescence in the age of the smartphone. With social media and texting replacing other activities, iGen spends less time with their friends in person -- perhaps contributing to their unprecedented levels of anxiety, depression, and loneliness. But technology is not the only thing that makes iGen distinct from every generation before them; they are also different in how they spend their time, how they behave, and in their attitudes toward religion, sexuality, and politics. They socialize in completely new ways, reject once sacred social taboos, and want different things from their lives and careers. More than previous generations, they are obsessed with safety, focused on tolerance, and have no patience for inequality. With the first members of iGen just graduating from college, we all need to understand them: friends and family need to look out for them; businesses must figure out how to recruit them and sell to them; colleges and universities must know how to educate and guide them. And members of iGen also need to understand themselves as they communicate with their elders and explain their views to their older peers. Because where iGen goes, so goes our nation -- and the world. - PublisherDr. Jean Twenge offers a portrait of a new generation that is growing up more slowly and more anxious -- but also more tolerant and more safe -- than any generation in history. They stay away from grown-up temptations like alcohol and sex, but they also avoid grown-up responsibilities, like learning to drive, moving out of the house, and gaining financial independence. They're open-minded, forward-thinking, and prudent in ways that previous generations of young people were not. The traits and trends of iGen can seem puzzling or even counterintuitive, but if we want to interact with them successfully -- to parent them, to teach them, to work with them, to market to them -- we need to understand who they are and why they behave in the ways that they do. With generational divides that are deeper and wider than ever, parents, educators, and employers have an urgent need to understand today's rising generation of teens and young adults who are just starting to enter the workforce. As social media and texting replace other recreational activities and ways of communicating, iGen'ers spend less time with their friends and loved ones in person -- which perhaps explains why they are experiencing unprecedented levels of anxiety, depression, and loneliness. But technology is not the only thing that makes iGen distinct. Through her research, interviews, and analysis of data drawn from more than 11 million respondents over multiple decades, Dr. Twenge demonstrates that iGen's uniqueness also lies in how they spend their time, how they behave, and in their surprising attitudes toward religion, sexuality, and politics. As this new group of young people grows into adulthood, we all need to understand them. Because where iGen goes, so goes our nation -- and the world