Generational strife define12/21/2023 It stems instead from the view that major familial, work and political institutions are rife with corruption and winding down, with no obvious regenerative forces or possibilities in sight. Moreover, popular commentators have not merely rediscovered classical forms of anomie that sociologists have long discussed, because the Generation X variant of disaffection does not emerge from social isolation and the absence of meaningful, binding social ties, the researchers said. Just as media accounts of Generation X have suggested, he said, "a great many contemporary young adults are cynical about institutions, bleak about the future, and generally dissatisfied with their own lives." This "X-class" of disaffected youth is also far larger now than it was in prior periods. They also compared how older adults in those time periods answered questions addressing cynicism, bleakness about the future and personal unhappiness.ĭid the popular commentators get it right? "The popular commentary is indeed on the mark on many counts," Grusky said, based on the results of the comparisons. They compared the answers to identical survey questions asked of 18- to 29-year-olds in three time periods since the survey began in 1972. In evaluating these claims, Grusky and Rice turned to the national General Social Survey, the only high-quality source of data available that would allow them to directly compare the attitudes of current young adults to those of past generations at a time when they, too, were between 18 and 29 years old. ![]() The creators of such works, often young adults themselves, typically assume that the generation's pessimism arises from concerns about the social problems they inherited from preceding generations, such as AIDS, high divorce rates, racial strife, homelessness and a shortage of good jobs, Rice said. This literature arose independently of sociological research on matters of anomie, said Rice, a graduate student who was exposed to Generation X movies, books and music as a college undergraduate. If sociologists have until now remained silent, a large popular literature nonetheless sprang up in the '90s, based mostly on anecdotal evidence that young adults today are more cynical and disaffected than past generations of young folk. Studies of anomie and alienation were common when public opinion polling was expanding in the '60s and '70s, he said, but had since "fallen out of academic fashion." "It's both surprising and unfortunate that sociology as a discipline has been largely silent on one of the major sociological developments of our time," said Grusky, a professor of sociology. If Rice's generation was indeed more down-in-the-mouth than Grusky's, they as sociologists ought to be able to find persuasive evidence. Sociology, after all, has a long history of studying such phenomena as anomie or alienation, both of which refer to forms of malaise and disaffection that are similar, but not identical to those more recently described by Generation X commentators. ![]() Are the young adults born after the hippie and yuppie generations really more cynical, bleak and disaffected, as popular media claim? If so, why?Įric Rice, 25, and his mentor, David Grusky, 40, decided it was time to take these claims seriously and put them to the test. The rise of a new generation of cynical, bleak and disaffected youth has long been discussed by hip novelists, TV commentators and news magazine editors, but now, after a careful and exhaustive search for evidence of Generation X, two Stanford sociologists are weighing in. 24 Generation X not so special: Malaise, cynicism on the rise for all age groups ![]() CONTACT: Kathleen O'Toole, News Service (650) 725-1939 Į-mail This release is based on research that will be presented at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association in the San Francisco Hilton at 12:30 p.m.
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