The Twenty Somethings.

I wrote this blog a while back. Before the Vancouver riots. Since the riots, there has been a lot of photos of people looting, burning cars and smashing windows. There were definitely different age people doing it, but young males did seem to dominate. Why? Here is my blog - maybe totally unrelated.

The twenty somethings. Very interesting age group. Now we can spend hours discussing the strengths and weaknesses of each generation, down the line, but not today. Today I am looking at the group born in the 80's. I have some experience in this area, as I have a 23 year old daughter and a 22 year old son. I love my kids, they are incredibly dynamic, interesting, polite and intelligent young adults. You know there is a "but" coming don't you. The twenty somethings that I know personally and in the sporting world, seem to have a common thread, and that is a sort of sense of entitlement. They are the "instant gratification" generation. I want it now. I don't want to wait. They have instant messaging, facebook, twitter,  and blackberries. They take pictures of wverything around them and share it with everybody.They know everything about everybody, instantly. This is the group of young adults that my generation created. We read them stories when they were little, taught them right from wrong and passed on our experience to help them grow up to be the next powerful generation. I think we did a great job. My kids and my friend's kids are all such a great bunch of people. But it is this instant gratification thing that keeps haunting me. Where was the disconnect?
"Back in the day" (i had to say that) - we were taught to , respect your elders, work hard, "pay your dues" and over time you will eventually move up the "corporate" ladder. The harder you work, the more time you put in, the quicker you move up in a company. If you don't like your boss, you still do the job, because he/she is the boss (no other reason needed here.)
This is not about "we did it right" and "you are doing it wrong" It is about, why is it so different?
In today's world if you don't like your boss - you quit. If you disagree what they are saying, you tell them - immediately. It is almost like the "discretion filter" has been removed. When we were that age, we would bite our bottom lip almost off rather than talk back, or disagree. I guess that could be looked at as weakness. We looked at it as, I really need this job, I need the paycheck, so I will say nothing. Am I right about this or am I overreacting? I would love to here from all ages.