I own two small rental properties and come into contact with many 21 to 30 year olds, either as tenants, neighbors, and/or those who constantly feel they have the right to park in a lot marked in four places with "Private - unauthorized vehicles will be towed" signs near lights. I also work with quite a few recent graduates who have been out of college for 1-8 years. The majority of times when I politely ask someone who's just parked in my lot to please move their car and point towards the signs, or when I arrive home to find neighbor renters throwing a football or frisbee in the lot just feet away from my tenants' vehicles, I'm met with amazingly brash, belligerent, and irrationally narcissistic BS centered on "what do you care when nobody else is parked there?" They obviously believe with every fiber of their being that you're an irrational idiot for not accepting whatever they feel they need to be doing at the moment. Once when I called in the police to ticket a kid whom I had just asked a few days prior to move out of the lot, the cop pointed to the signs and asked the kid "so what happens when someone who pays for their parking spot comes home in a few hours to see someone else in their spot..." only to have the kid completely not get any of that and actually start giving the cop some attitude and the same "why can't I if the lot is half empty" routine along with even lying to the cop that it was the first time he'd parked there so what's the big deal, etc.. It was especially nice that I had a photo on my phone of his car from the prior week in a different spot. Then at work in a professional environment, there's a very obvious line of demarcation above & below around 28 years old, where the majority in that group seems extremely loathe to seek help from or engage in any coffee/cooler talk or join up for lunch with anyone outside of their circle. Contrast that with my first week at Ford Motor 20 years ago as a green college graduate grasshopper where 3 of 5 lunches each week were with people from our entire work group, from interns up to the grey beards just years from retirement. I know each generation of 40+ year olds thinks we're all screwed because of the youth at the moment, and I know I'm just one google search away from a few key generational nicknames and key buzzwords and theories as to "what's wrong with today's narcissistic youth." I even think there was a newsweek or Time magazine article on that semi-recently, which I'm now super curious about and will seek tomorrow. But dammit anyway, what's wrong with today's youth?
Edit on 6/5: what's wrong with SOME BUT NOT ALL of today's young adults? I want to reinforce that I don't mean to generalize to all under a certain age. I know a few spoiled and narcissistic adults over 40 ha ha but not many!
Edit on 6/5: what's wrong with SOME BUT NOT ALL of today's young adults? I want to reinforce that I don't mean to generalize to all under a certain age. I know a few spoiled and narcissistic adults over 40 ha ha but not many!
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