<body>





Yep, that`s me.
2010-01-10 @ 4:23P


Jean Twenge is a psychology professor at San Diego State University and author of "Generation Me: Why Today's Young Americans Are More Confident, Assertive, Entitled and More Miserable -- Than Ever Before" and co-author of the upcoming "Narcissism Epidemic" with W. Keith Campbell. Based on recent research she has conducted to learn about current attitudes toward relationships, Twenge confirms, "There is in fact a massive cultural shift at work here." She says the number of women who are romantically uninvolved is a result of one major factor: our culture tells us we don't need relationships.
Call it the "singular-single syndrome" -- we have it. Twenge recently conducted a study of 200 student participants at San Diego State, and 90 percent of them answered the questionnaire stating they live by grand individualistic philosophies like, "You shouldn't ever need anyone else to make you feel complete" and "You have to make yourself happy." Based on this study and a handful of others Twenge has conducted in the last few years, she concludes that today's young adults feel they need to be completely self-sufficient in their happiness.
The fact is, young American adults view deep emotional involvement with others as weakness and dependence. It's not just that our culture accepts and accommodates the single lifestyle now -- it's that it actually disparages the individual who isn't focused solely on her own personal advancement. The ubiquitous teachings from our capitalist culture media, Boomer-generation parents who toiled to teach us the importance of pursuing personal goals, and teachers in an increasingly survival-of-the-very-fittest education system -- all these emphasize the individual and her goals, not her need for involvement with others

previous - next