Teenage self-esteem doesn’t match reality

By Miranda Buttram Posted January 12, 2011

Me, me, me. In a society that hands out praise for mediocrity, the ego of today’s teen generation has grown to astronomical proportions. What can I say? Many teens think very, or too highly, of themselves; the majority think that they are the best, they would be the perfect parent, the perfect spouse, and don’t forget they are all around smarter.

In thirty years the difference between the teen generation’s self-esteem is rather astounding. In 1975, less than 37% of teens thought that they would make good spouses, while in the year 2006 more than 56% thought they would be very good spouses (washingtonpost.com). Is this egocentric attitude deserved in modern American society especially with just as high divorce rates?

Students are more likely to say they have a high IQ, even though research shows that teachers give less homework to today’s youth than they gave to their counterparts in the 1970s. Today’s teens’ perceptions of themselves have become unrealistic; three-fourths of them expect that their performance is in the top 20 percent (washingtonpost.com). We are the generation with the largest percentage of people who are completely satisfied with themselves. Having good self-esteem isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but the current teen generation’s self-esteem has moved into the ridiculously self-obsessed and wildly unrealistic. This is going to cause serious problems because they will view themselves and the world with a skewed perception.

How could they view themselves any differently? Growing up you received awards, certificates, and trophies for not really doing anything. “Congratulations, you participated; you’ve earned a trophy.” Is that really how it should work? Children are taught that they are the best at everything. All of this was done with the best of intentions, of sparing the child’s feelings, however they adapt a distorted view of reality.

Despite the intentions and the reasons the result is the same, the current teen generation thinks very highly of themselves. They think they’re better than previous generations, smarter, better spouses, and higher achieving, and all of this with nothing to back it up.

The current teen generation should really look at the reality of how good they really are.

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