Is Gen Y That Different?

While perusing Bloomberg this morning, I came across this little tidbit that wonders if Gen Y is really that difference from previous generations. Here's the main point.

I was delighted to catch up recently with one of my teachers, and found her as passionate about educating children today as she was three decades ago, when I was in school. We had a great conversation, but I must admit to a sense of disquiet as I heard her opinions about the next generation.

Gen Y's desire to learn is lower than that of preceding generations; it doesn't have big dreams or huge aspirations; and the pursuit of instant gratification has compromised its values, she felt.

I agree with the premise that this generation is different, but I'm not sure it's worse. My first reaction is to say it's simply dreadful, but that's my first reaction to almost everything and should be taken with a grain of salt. To me the difference comes from attention spans and that comes from the entertainment available to us. Here's my example.

When I was in junior high, there were no video games. Pong hadn't even come out. My friends and I amused ourselves by making Civil War ironclads from cardboard and aluminum cans and then holding naval battles in our back yard with a BB gun*. We researched the ship designs, experimented with construction techniques, learned how to treat deep cuts from ragged pieces of Coors cans after cutting them with tin snips and made cannon muzzles from tiny pieces of aluminium coiled with a needle-nosed pliers. The project lasted for weeks as we researched, built, shot and refined the process again and again.

Video games eliminate the need for that. We weren't intellectually superior, we simply had no choices. To me, the changes are all about attention span. And if we had to have longer attention spans, we had nothing on previous generations.

"You should see the cool new video games, Dad!" "I've got one right here for you, honey. I carved it out of wood with a knife and painted it with pigments made from clay."
* - The number of modern rules this violates is almost without count. First off, one of us had to take the side of the racist Confederacy. Second, we used an actual gun. Third, we used tools and building materials that could hurt us and used them without supervision! The list goes on and on.