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posted by cmn32480 on Tuesday October 10 2017, @11:04AM   Printer-friendly
from the me-me-me-me-me-me-me-me-me-me dept.

Submitted via IRC for TheMightyBuzzard

In an age of political animus, increasing hostility toward "others," and 24/7 media coverage that seems to focus on the negative, a recent article in Frontiers in Psychology provides a glimmer of hope, particularly for those who live in the United States.

Written by Yale University academic Gabriel Grant, "Exploring the Possibility of Peak Individualism, Humanity's Existential Crisis, and an Emerging Age of Purpose" aims to clear up two competing views of today's cultural narrative in the United States. First is the traditional view of the next generation—millennials—whom many view as individualistic, materialistic, and narcissistic. Some even refer to millennials as "Gen Me" in response to those who develop their "personal brand" with selfies and social media posts.

In stark contrast there is a view of millennials as rejecting selfish values and leading America into a "great age of purpose." Unlike previous generations, simply earning money is not enough for them—significant data shows that younger people are searching for purpose in their lives and their work. Consider the fact that the non-profit group 80,000 Hours (whose name represents the amount of time spent at work in the average lifespan) even exists. 80,000 Hours provides career advice to help young people build careers with social impact. Universities and businesses are increasingly following this path to help millennial workers achieve their goal of finding purpose in their lives.

Both sides can provide reams of anecdotal evidence that supports their view of millennials, and until recently, there have been few studies on the issue. In his article, however, Grant theorized that Google's digitization of millions of books and the Ngram Viewer, a tool that shows how phrases have appeared in books, could allow a quantified analysis of culture over the past two centuries, and he used this approach to quantitatively test the popular notion that a drive for purpose is increasing. What he found is encouraging.

Yeah, because people with a healthy ego would never possibly do volunteer work...

Source: https://opensource.com/article/17/10/rise-open-source


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  • (Score: 3, Informative) by t-3 on Tuesday October 10 2017, @09:16PM (7 children)

    by t-3 (4907) on Tuesday October 10 2017, @09:16PM (#580067)

    I think you've been reading too much Ayn Rand. Selfishness and selflessness seem to me to be much more culturally based than inherent. Human instinct drives toward survival of the group, not the individual at the expense of the species. Greed is a psychological perversion brought about by the structure of modern (read: Post-historic) society.

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  • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday October 10 2017, @10:06PM (4 children)

    by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Tuesday October 10 2017, @10:06PM (#580105) Homepage Journal

    Honestly, I can't stand Rand. Not her philosophies, those need some work but they're quite easy to read and understand. Her fiction is fucking painful though.

    --
    My rights don't end where your fear begins.
    • (Score: 2) by http on Wednesday October 11 2017, @01:24AM (3 children)

      by http (1920) on Wednesday October 11 2017, @01:24AM (#580203)

      Ayn Rand was a mediocre novelist. None of her writing counts as philosophy.

      --
      I browse at -1 when I have mod points. It's unsettling.
  • (Score: 2) by unauthorized on Wednesday October 11 2017, @01:57AM (1 child)

    by unauthorized (3776) on Wednesday October 11 2017, @01:57AM (#580223)

    And you've been reading too much Sandra Harding. Greed can be observed in all other species of the animal kingdom, including those with sophisticated social behavior such as our primate cousins.

    Greed is a psychological perversion brought about by the structure of modern (read: Post-historic) society.

    Oh really, comrade Lysenko? So, do you have any evidence for that by any chance, or are you just asserting feel-good bs because it makes you all fuzzy inside? I would love to see how you can prove certain sophisticated human behavior from a period of time for which we have virtually no evidence of the human way of life.

    • (Score: 2) by t-3 on Wednesday October 11 2017, @02:29AM

      by t-3 (4907) on Wednesday October 11 2017, @02:29AM (#580240)

      There are pre-historic societies that survived well into the modern era - those without written language. The social structures of hunter-gatherer cultures were vastly different than pastoral societies. Never heard of Sandra Harding though, any good?