Special

Sometimes I come across news articles that are so obviously written from a specific angle that it really makes me cringe. How about this piece:

Jeugd vindt zichzelf veel te verwend

For those who don't read Dutch, it's about a research done in the Netherlands, which concludes that young people are worried about today's youths. They are too confident, they are too spoilt, the balance between rights and obligations is wrong, and they demand too much.

It seems to me that the remarkable thing about this article is that the youths say so themselves, but that is besides my point.

The same research shows that nearly half of all the people aged 16 to 24 feel that they are 'very special', as opposed to 'only' 25% of the age group over 55.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm all for this kind of research, but this article makes it seem as if the perceived uniqueness of people is part of a generation gap. I'm just wondering if this difference cannot simply be explained by experience. Shouldn't each young person feel special and unique, since they still have every opportunity to make something of their lives, to make a difference in society, and to make the world a better place? This is much harder for the older generations, as so many chances have already gone by.

It appears that the conclusions from this research are designed to make today's youngsters look like lazy, spoilt brats, which seems to me a typical older generation's point of view and not really indicative of society at all. In other words: a great piece of researching has just been lost to the narrow-minded thinking patterns of the researcher. What a shame...

And now, if you'll excuse me, I'll go wallow in my own special uniqueness.