When young people refuse to move from Copenhagen to a small town in the provinces for their education, they are called spoilt and self-obsessed by old men who themselves were called spoilt and self-obsessed.<\/p>\n
Like Johannes Andersen, who called the young \u2018spoilt and childish\u2019 in the newspaper Information recently. He was asked to explain why 7,500 young applicants who didn\u2019t get into the University of Copenhagen (U of C) this year, didn\u2019t just pack their bags and accept one of the 4,000 available places in other parts of the country.<\/p>\n
Johannes Andersen accuses them of putting their own interests above the interests of society. A trend that he also describes in his book \u2018The Childish\u2019 (Da. \u2018De barnagtige\u2019).<\/p>\n
But is the self-obsession of the young a new thing?<\/p>\n
\u00bbThe notable thing about young people today, is that their thinking is more and more based on their own needs, and they perceive those who see things differently as opponents that need to be defeated. This is in opposition to what I call \u2018the grown-up perspective\u2019, where you are better able to generalise and see both you and me, the context, and the norms and priorities that we are a part of,\u00ab Johannes Andersen explains.<\/p>\n
The world has never been short of the wise elders who, with omniscience, can pinhole an entire generation of young people with a label. Or even a single letter.<\/p>\n
The difference today is that the students of 2009 have accumulated so many labels, that they can pick and choose. Like Generation Y or Generation Dumb (see box on the right).<\/p>\n
Professor of Psychology and youth-researcher at U of C, Sven M\u00f8rch, can see the fun in labelling generations, but warns against over-generalising.<\/p>\n
\u00bbIt\u2019s very normal to speak about how egocentric the youth is today, and it\u2019s a wonderful thing for the rest of us to agree upon. But I\u2019ve actually never met anyone more egocentric than my parents.\u00ab<\/p>\n
Sven M\u00f8rch, like Johannes Andersen, belongs to the famous generation of \u201968\u2019. He thinks \u00bbspoilt\u00ab is the wrong word to use about the youth of today.<\/p>\n
\u00bbInstead of focussing on their own needs, the young people tend to focus on their own situation. They look at the possibilities they have right now. That means becoming a little more short-sighted than the plans the politicians would have laid for them.\u00ab Sven M\u00f8rch explains. <\/p>\n
He believes you have to look at the complexity of our society to understand young people.<\/p>\n
\u00bbAll of society, not just the educational system, is very complex and hard to suss out. When young people follow their short-term options, it is a way of achieving independence.\u00ab<\/p>\n
\u00bbIt\u2019s about what young people are offered, what they can act on and what is expected of them. And there is a difference between, on the one hand, supporting young people in whatever choices they make and, on the other hand, calling them spoilt.\u00ab<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not exactly original calling young people spoilt, and Johannes Andersen of the University of Aalborg does admit that he, too, was called spoilt by older generations.<\/p>\n
\u00bbBut it was a different type of spoilt. I was spoilt because I had the opportunity for an education and a loan. Young people started getting financial resources and time freed up from work in the 60\u2019s. Today it has accelerated and incorporates more and more things\u00ab.<\/p>\n
ser@adm.ku.dk<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Is this generation spoilt and childish? The University Post asked two social scientists from the ’68 Generation<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":25806,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25804","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","expression-news_article"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"yoast_head":"\n