By VICTORIA ADDISON
Executive Editor
Students gathered in the Carl E. Touhey Form last week for a discussion with author Jean Twenge on individualism and narcissism among young people in today’s society.
Chosen to speak at the annual Constance Vickery Series in Ethics in Leadership, Twenge visited the College of Saint Rose to give a lecture on the information presented in her book, “Generation Me.” The event, which was organized by Dr. Michael Brannigan, was presented by the Saint Rose Ethics Roundtable and the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies.
Prior to the main discussion, which took place Tuesday night, Twenge met with students and professors in the Carl E. Touhey Forum for a similar, yet more personal conversation.
In a very informal setting, Twenge, who teaches psychology at San Diego State University, spent about an hour and a half answering questions and talking with students about the topic at hand.
“It opened my eyes so much more to the narcissism epidemic in our society,” said senior Callie Garcia. Unlike some students in the crowd, Garcia has read “Generation Me” and thought that hearing Twenge talk was even better than reading the book.
In “Generation Me,” which was published in 2006, Twenge explores the younger generation, which she labels as “Gen Me-ers.” She declares that those born in the ‘80s and ‘90s have created a new definition for individualism. More recently, Twenge co-wrote a book called “The Narcissism Epidemic,” which discusses narcissism in today’s society among different generations.
For one social work professor at Saint Rose, Twenge’s work has been a required text in some of his classes for the past eight years.
“Because I require her books in three courses I wanted my students to have an opportunity to meet and greet and converse with an author,” said Gregory Gross. “I just feel that that’s a rare event and it’s the kind of thing that people will remember.”
Gross, who has taught at the College since 1977, required students from both his Sociology through Literature and his Human Behavior and the Social Environment classes to attend the discussion.
“The questions have been awesome,” he said. “I think I made a mistake calling this a conversation. This has been nothing short of a work session.”
However, Gross was not the only professor who required his students to attend. Other students present included those from a philosophy and communications class.
“I think her views on our generation were accurate,” said junior Rachel Salasky, a member of Dr. Cailin Brown’s Media Ethics class.
“This is what is becoming of our peers and either we accept it or we can’t move forward. One day our generation will be running things and the world is slowly adapting to what is to come of it.”
Salasky, along with other students, asked a variety of questions concerned individualism and narcissism in relation to culture, technology, academics and the economy during the session. For most of Twenge’s answers, she supported her statements with the research and statistics found in her studies.
After the discussion, Twenge stayed to talk with students who wanted to ask more questions. As most of the audience members began to file out of the building, a handful lined up in hopes of finding out more information on the topic.
“It’s been great. People had such thoughtful and perceptive questions and I could tell they really thought through their questions and were really interested in trying to find out about more about individualism and how its changed society,” Twenge said. “I really enjoyed the discussion.”
