Generation Me

We live in a very self-centered society. I think living in the age of technology where we can pay our bills, buy clothes, order groceries, even go to school over the internet without ever being in the presence of or even speaking to another individual has contributed to this self-centered society we live in. People tend to think of themselves as individuals instead of part of a whole. They don’t see themselves as part of our society and part of humankind. Instead, they just see themselves. They forget that their actions can and do affect others. They think they can create as much garbage as they want because it’s carried off every week and not their problem anymore. They think they can do anything they want with their property because they own it. They don’t think about what the consequences are for the next generation or even just the people next door. Is it because they just don’t care or is it that society has lead them to this destiny, a destiny of “me first” and “I want it now”?
A good example of this comes to mind. In my work I recently ran across a person who needed some engineers to get him out of trouble. Let’s call him Sam. Sam owns a piece of riverfront property. Sam thought since it’s his property, he can do what he wants with it without having to check with anyone else. I definitely understand his thought process, after all, it is his property. What some people seem to forget is that they only own that piece of property, not the whole river. And what Sam did was build several things that he would not have been able to get a permit for. The problem here is that next time there is a flood, it is very likely that Sam’s neighbors will have a higher water elevation on their property due to a large amount of fill that Sam brought in to fill a low spot in his property. He also poured a large amount of concrete and completely changed the bank of the river. Sam thinks he shouldn’t have to fix anything because it’s his property. When his neighbors house floods next time a hurricane brings heavy rains, maybe he’ll see things differently.
This story, along with something I recently heard on the news about our youth being more self-centered than ever, got me thinking about some things. What are the effects of this self-centered society we live in? And how did we get here in the first place? Now I love the internet just as much as anyone out there but I think it is partly, if not mostly, to blame. As I said before, you can do almost anything now without ever dealing with another human being. I don’t think we’ve fully realized the consequences of this yet. I think it is contributing greatly to “Generation Me”.

Just a side note … I have to laugh a little as I post this on a blog for you all to read over the internet without any of us ever having a real live conversation about this.