One of the greatest threats that face the development and success of our current generation of teens is Affluenza.  Many of today’s teens suffer from Affluenza and full blown cases of entitlement.  Of course they didn’t just wake up one day thinking the world owed them something and that their self-worth was tied to the amount of possessions they could amass.  This was taught to them in large part by parents.  It is this behavior that a couple writers at the New York Times have written about in the past week or so.  

The first article, written by Tina Kelley, follows a group of affluent parents and kids as they head off to summer camp.  To me, the way these adults act is pretty absurd.  It’s hard to even know where to start so I suggest you just read the article. In response to this article, Judith Warner wrote an opinion piece in the Times where she dissects the idea of Affluenza and goes ahead and places blame in some justified places.   

She says of affluenza:

“…what mental health professionals are now calling “affluenza,” a social pathology that, they say, is rampant at a time when getting and spending — a lot — have become our nation’s most cherished activities, and when purchasing power has become, to an unprecedented extent, almost the sole source of many people’s status and identity. 

In our society, you don’t have to be wealthy to suffer from affluenza. Its symptoms — “debt, overwork, waste, and harm to the environment, leading to psychological disorders, alienation, and distress,” in adults; “lack of motivation … apathy, laziness, or failure to commit to and achieve goals … overindulgence and attitudes of entitlement” in children,

according to the New York University Child Study Center, are pervasive — and no one is immune.

For affluenza is not just a constellation of symptoms. It is an ethic, a play-the-system, lie-and-cheat-your-way-to-what-you-want, don’t-let-the-peons-stand-in-your-way ethic of amorality. You rock, kid, parents teach. And you — alone — rule.”

I suggest you check out both of these articles and think about what it means for our nation’s future to have the next generation of leaders raised with this mindset.  

Right now, teens across America are packing up the contents of their bedrooms and preparing to move into dorms as college freshman. But as they box up their clothes and other possessions there is one thing that most young people don’t think about bringing with them: debt.

According to school loan provider Nellie Mae the average college freshman brings $1,585 of credit card debt to college. As they progress through their college years many teens live beyond their means and rack up even more debt. As a result of mounting financial difficulties it’s estimated that between 7% and 10% of college students drop out in order to go to work and pay off their bills. Many students who remain in college graduate with student loans and crippling debt that leave their credit score in disarray and their ability to get into grad school, get the job of their choice, or find housing in jeopardy.

In light of this reality it is important for parents to determine how teens get into financial trouble and work to prevent it.

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Today, all over America, college freshman are pushing overflowing carts around Target filled with dorm room furniture, 12 year old boys are trading in their grass stained jeans for some new dark blue ones and khakis and 8 year olds are trying to convince their moms that they need the deluxe 150 count pack of crayons (with colors like “Vivid Tangerine” and “Electric Blue”) instead of the basic 48 count package. That’s right, it’s back-to-school time again and as such news stories are swirling about the Internet, TV and in print.  Here are a few of them: 

• Why do kids hate School? (Because to kids it means spending most of their day listening to adults tell them things they don’t think they need to know and then judging them based on how well they know the aforementioned things.)

•  Schools move to eject cars from campuses. (In an effort to save the environment, save gas money, and save teens from being unfit, high schools and colleges are beginning to ban cars from campuses.  Instead they encourage both students and staff to ride bikes, walk, or ride the bus.) 

• Survey finds more college graduates are moving home. (This year, 77 percent of college grads moved back home with their parents after graduation, up from 73 percent last year and 67 percent the year before. To me this seems like a disturbing regression that is keeping many young adults from taking a vital step into adulthood and responsibility.  What is to blame?  I think entitlement, affluenza and the way many young people today are coddled results in adults who are scared to enter into a world where they must compete and work hard to make it.  There’s a good book about just that topic called “Hard America Soft America: Competition vs. Coddling and the Battle for the Nation’s Future” by Michael Barone.)

• Back to School: Picking up where Facebook left off. (Back when Facebook was a social network only for college students, one of the most popular features was the ability to see not only who was in your class, but who else was taking the same courses as you. (It must have been great for coming up with insightful pick-up lines). Facebook did away with that feature as it broadened beyond the college market. But now another startup is looking to fill the void that Facebook left behind. It is called inigral. Rather than reinvent the wheel, Inigral is building its applications on top of Facebook. Its first Facebook app was called Courses, which basically copied the canceled feature that students loved (along with other, more popular apps by other companies, such as Cramster’s Courses 2.0). But that was just a placeeholder. The app it is putting all of its efforts into is called schools. It too runs on Facebook, but it is much more fully-featured.)

POOR etiquette is hardly sufficient cause to have people arrested, as occurred at two high school graduations in South Carolina. The incident does, however, highlight a growing problem: Many people have forgotten, and many of those in what is called the Millennial Generation may never have been taught, how to behave at plays, operas, films, concerts, graduations, sporting events, and other public gatherings.

Six people were arrested at Fort Mill High School’s graduation and one person at the graduation for York Comprehensive High School, about 70 miles north of Columbia, for cheering too loudly when their graduate’s name was called. Five students in Galesburg, Ill., were denied diplomas last year because their friends or family members became too exuberant at commencement exercises.

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