“Millennials: The Me Me Me Generation”
STUDYGUIDE
1. In the opening paragraph, how does the author compare himself to generations older than
him?
How does he contrast himself?
2. In the second paragraph what facts does the author use to support his claim?
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3. According to the author, why are millennials of various contries more similar to each other than to different generations of their same culture?
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4. Using context clues, define narcissism.
5. According to the author, what was the effect of the Industrial Revolution and the Information
Revolution?
How did both of these empower the millennial generation?
6. How does the author support the idea that millennials are selfish?
7. What does the author say has been a cause for millennials’ selfishness?
8. Explain the following: “…self-esteem is a result, not a cause.”
9. What does the author say narcissism cause? How does he support this idea?
10. Explain what the author says about millennials’ “stunted” growth.
11. What is “phantom pocket-vibration syndrome”?
How does he use this term to support his opinion about millennials being less creative and
less empathetic?
12. What is a microcelebrity?
13. What is ironic about the author’s opinion of millennials and his own life?
14. How does the author compare millennials to their predecessors?
15. Define “emerging adulthood” and explain how/why it came about.
16. Explain the following: “The Internet has democratized opportunity for many young
people…”
17. What does the author conclude as a positive outcome from millennials’ sense of
entitlement?
18. What is self-actualization? How and why are companies like DreamWorks trying to use it to
better than employees?
19. How does the author use an opinion of an Army recruiter to positively portray millennials?
20. In what way are Millennials seen as “nicer” than their predecessors?
21. What does Tom Brokaw appreciate the millennial generation?
22. Explain the irony in one of the author’s conclusions about millennials.
23. What are microgenerations?
24. Is the author pro or con millennials? How do you know?
Tying It All Together
1. What is the AUTHOR’S PURPOSE in the article “Millenials: The Me Me Me Generation”?
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2. What organizational STRUCTURE(S) does Stein use within his article to emphasize his purpose and prove his point?
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3. What TONE does Stein use in his article?
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4. What TECHNIQUES does Stein use to create tone and/or prove his point?
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5. What MOOD does Stein’s tone create for the reader?
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6. What new TITLE would you give his article?
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Post-reading Quiz
1. Read the following passage from the article:
“Whereas in the 1950s families displayed a wedding photo, a school photo and maybe a military photo in their homes, the average middle-class American family today walks amid 85 pictures of themselves and their pets. Millennials have come of age in the era of the quantified self, recording their daily steps on FitBit, their whereabouts every hour of the every day on PlaceMe and their genetic data on 23 and Me. They have less civic engagement and lower political participation than any previous group. This is a generation that would have made Walt Whitman wonder if maybe they should try singing a song of someone else.
They got this way partly because, in the 1970s, people wanted to improve kids’ chances of success by instilling self-esteem. It turns out that self-esteem is great for getting a job or hooking up at a bar but not so great for keeping a job or a relationship. ‘It was an honest mistake,’ says Roy Baumeister, a psychology professor at Florida State University and the editor of Self-Esteem: The Puzzle of Low Self-Regard. ‘The early findings showed that, indeed, kids with high self-esteem did better in school and were less likely to be in various kids of trouble. It’s just that we’ve learned later that self-esteem is a result, not a cause.”
According to the passage, what cultural shift does the author attribute to narcissism of today’s teens and 20-somethings?
A. The increase in broken families allowed children more access to the Internet.
B. Adults wanted to encourage success by increasing kids’ self-esteem.
C. Teens and college students were introduced to innovative ways of keeping employment.
D. Teachers gave too many stickers to their students when they were growing up.
2. Based on the information in the passage, what conclusion can be made about the Millennial Generation?
A. They will fail socially in the future.
B. They will eventually suffer from low self esteem
C. They are more empowered than any other generation.
D. They will fail socially due to high self esteem.
3. Which sentence from the passage best supports the author’s belief that the Millennials have the potential to be a successful generation that will produce greatness?
A. “Whether you think millennials are the new greatest generation of optimistic
entrepreneurs or a group of 80 million people about to implode in a dwarf star of
tears when their expectations are unmet depends largely on how you view change.”
B. “They want new experiences, which are more important to them than material
goods. They are cool and reserved and not all that passionate. They are informed but
inactive: they hate Joseph Kony but aren’t going to do anything about Joseph Kony.”
C. “In fact, a lot of what counts as typical millennial behavior is how rich kids have
always behaved. The Internet has democratized opportunity for many young people,
giving them access and information that once belonged mostly to the wealthy.”
D. “The information revolution has further empowered individuals by handing them the
technology to compete against huge organizations: hackers vs. corporations, bloggers
vs. newspapers, terrorists vs. nation-states, YouTube directors vs. studios, app-
makers vs. entire industries. Millennials don’t need us. That’s why we’re scared of
them.”
4. What is the effect of the first person point of view in the passage?
A. It helps the reader understand the author’s narcissism.
B. It gives credibility to the author, who considers himself a Millennial.
C. It adds to the formal tone of the article.
D. It provides helpful humor and levity as a vehicle to defend stereotyping.
5. Read this quote from the Kim Kardashian that was featured in the article: “The like that I share a lot of myself and that I’ve always been honest about the way Ilive my life,” she says. “The want relationships with businesses and celebrities. Gen X was kept at arm’s length from businesses and celebrity.”
How does the author’s use of this quote help to communicate an idea from the article?
A. It conveys the idea that today’s teens and 20-somethings feel like they don’t know
anything about people they admire.
B. It shows the speaker’s intentions to reach out to today’s teens and 20-somethings.
C. It indicates the author’s need for acceptance from today’s teens and 20-somethings.
D. It illustrates how today’s teens and 20-somethings regularly have access to
information about whomever they want.
6. What is the main organizational structure of the passage?
A. claim and counter-claim B. cause and effect
C. sequence of events D. problem and solution
7. “And these aren’t just rich-kid problems: poor millennials have higher rates of narcissism, materialism and technology addiction in their ghetto-fabulous lives.”
What does the word narcissism mean as it is being used in the sentence?
A. modesty B. self-centeredness
C. uncertainty D. confidence
8. “For example, millennials perceived entitlement isn’t a result of overprotection but an adaptaion to the world of overabundance.”
What does the word entitlement mean as it is being used in the sentence?
A. ownership B. embarrassment
C. superiority D. intelligence
9. Which sentence from the passage contains an opinion?
A. They have less civic engagement and lower political participation than any previous
group.
B. The early findings showed that, indeed, kids with high self-esteem did better in school
and were less likely to be in various kinds of trouble.
C. Millennials consist, depending on whom you ask, of people born from 1980-2000.
D. It turns out that self esteem is great for getting a job or hooking up at a bar, but not
so great for keeping a job or a relationship.
10. How does the author’s style contribute to the tone of the article?
A. The author’s use of positive language contributes to the optimistic tone.
B. The author’s use of negative language contributes to the pessimistic tone.
C. The author’s use of anecdote lends itself to the informal tone.
D. The author’s use of figurative language exemplifies the bleak tone.