Summary Of Joel Stein's The New Greatest Generation

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Throughout history, older generations have always perceived younger generations as being “lazy, narcissistic, and entitled.” Joel Stein, an American journalist, writes an article titled “The New Greatest Generation” for Time magazine in order to achieve his goal of explaining to older generations the lifestyle Millennials are choosing to live. Although Stein uses celebrity statements to support his opinion in presenting his argument, he is effective in getting his point across to his readers through his organizational skills, lively humor, and statistical data. When generations begin reading Joel Stein’s article, “The New Greatest Generation” in Time magazine, they might feel as though Stein is bashing Millennials because of the organization of his article. Stein presents his counterargument first in hopes of keeping older generations such as, “Baby Boomers” and “Generation X,” reading and engaged in his article. Joel Stein begins the article by “[calling] those younger than [him] lazy, entitled, selfish, and shallow” to show that he agrees with how older generations view Millennials (28). What the reader does not know is that as they continue to read the article, Stein proceeds to explain why Millennials act in such a way. The author tricks his audience by allowing older generations to believe he is siding with their view on Millennials but in reality, he does this to show the side of Millennials older generations decide to block out. By tricking his audience, Stein