Tide Pods are being eaten. I'd say we're seeing entropy in action.

Excellent question, and I think the answer is both... there's always been some really dumb and dependent people, and there's always been some old people who struggle to adapt to change.

I'm a Millennial. Back in my day, I played outside or read books in my free time from homework and school. We didn't have cell phones.

I'm a Gen X'er too, and while I had a lot of fun in the 80' and 90's there was some pretty messed up stuff going on in the world.

Not sure if they are lazier but having so much technology at your fingertips that wasnt available before might create that illusion.
By the way I walked uphill in the snow to and from school

I came in at the tail end of what is called the "baby boomer" generation. Watched tv go from black and white to color, to cable, to satellite, to the internet. Went from corded phones with rotary dials to cell phones.
I watched Neil Armstrong climb out of a space ship and walk on the Moon.
The number of technological advances during the last 56 years, when you actually stop to think about all of them, is fairly mind-boggling.
I was 2 when Kennedy was assassinated. Saw footage from Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia, on the evening news. Watched the Watergate hearings and Nixon's resignation on live television. Watched the race riots, and Civil Rights marches. Watched Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy's funerals.
Was in high school during the 70s, and believe it or not, That 70s Show, got a lot of it right.
Saw a lot of the cool bands, too.
Also got my ass beat regularly by an alcoholic, authoritarian asshole with anger issues.
Watched a couple of classmates die. One from disease, one from suicide.
Am I better, stronger, or tougher, than any kid that's growing up now? Hell NO.
These kids are growing up and learning from their own time. It's not worse, or better, it's just
different.
I used to hear older people complaining about kids and teenagers, when I was a kid and teenager. They bitched about the music we listened to, and the clothes we wore. They were positively scandalized over girls calling boys, and being "forward".
This is the way of the world. The kids coming up now are going through their own trials and tribulations. Hopefully, us older folks will be capable of passing on some of the wisdom we learned from those who came before us. It's the motherfucking Circle of Life.

I think it is quite silly to divide people by "generations". Time is a continuum. Admittedly generations do exist simply because of changes in society but the boundaries between them are quite fuzzy. I have some characteristics of Baby Boomers and some characteristics of Gen X yet by the calendar I'm firmly a Boomer.

I think there are notable and praiseworthy people in all generations. We are all derived from the basically the same genetic stuff. Sometimes, I think older people forget what it is like to be young and dismiss young people as ignorant when they shouldn't. When I was young - I vowed never to be like that and I'm not. I remain young through my students (I teach high school and college level physics). I'm glad to have some real ties to the upcoming generation and I am extremely proud and hopeful for many them.

Young people give me hope and at 60 hope is much needed.

I think it's a combination of things. Part of it is just that the older generation doesn't understand the younger generations, so there's some innate resistance to all of the weird things kids are doing. And I think with age comes a measure of wisdom for most people, but we forget how foolish we were at that age and judge younger people more harshly through a lens of maturity. But there's a legitimate side to recent criticism, too, I think: I've seen in the last few years a serious uptick in workers just entering the workforce — early to mid-20s — who lack experience yet expect to be given high-profile jobs immediately, who don't do the work they're assigned, and who need constant validation that the work they (sometimes) do is awesome. This isn't a blanket statement about 20-somethings, as I work with a lot of really talented, hard-working people in that age range, but this is a trend that I hadn't seen before. And it's literally just the last five years or so that I've seen it. I'm perplexed by why this mindset has suddenly become so pervasive, but it doesn't seem to be going away. Fortunately, it still seems to be a minority (from what I've seen) who feel so entitled.

Which generation you referring too? I'm 66 so a teenager in the sixties, my parents experienced ww II , I don't think that todays generation would put their lives on the line for anything

“Back in the day” in this USA is code. You never hear any oppressed people from back in the day refer to the good ol days. Every generation is more inclusive, more tolerant and smarter than the last. This new generation has the tough task of pulling this country’s head out of its ass after this desperate white GOP and evangelicals have raped our constitution.

All generations go through those stages.. when I was younger... when will they grow up... they have no idea what its like.. etc. Technology has changed our ways of seeing the world. No one know that more than this generation and the one before that. But there are many that want to change the world and become something more so than their parents.

I am a tail end boomer, my parents were early boomers and seriously I think their generation were quite pathetic, theie parents went through 2 world wars and 2 major depressions and achieved a lot, all generations before achieved a lot, my generation brought personal computers, the internet etc. we also tried (and failed) to save the world from war, pollution, climate change. I would like to have lived in my great parents times I think, more opportunity, today I see little..

I really think that Millennials, Centennials, or whatever they are called will see beyond a lot of the crap that is being shat upon us today from the old, orange stained goon squad currently occupying 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. I think this represents the last hurrah of old white male privilege, and I say this as a 52 year old white male who bridges the Baby Boom/Gen X cutoff. Do young people really care about race? Do they care about gay marriage? I think many of them see these as non-issues, as they are just a part of life, why worry aboyt who you love or what you look like. They have more pressing issues at hand, such as the destruction of the environment, the hoarding of money by the elite 1%, etc. There is already a stirring of a great wave of diversity in leadership coming. I am hopeful.

When you read a lot of old books you're likely to discover that every generation grouses about the one that follows it. It's been going on since the ancient Greeks.

The specific complaints may vary a little, but the basic mechanism is the same. It's nothing new.

Values evolve as old generations pass into history and younger ones take their places. So the frame of reference moves.

I am concerned about the influence of technology on social development and dynamics, attention span, etc. I've see it at work with my 12-year-old cousin and it's worrying.

Then again, they used to say the same kind of thing about novels, so...

I was kinda hoping my generation would just die off so that the world can have peace. I don't want to go back to ANYTHING. Telephone party lines, forced work, forced religion, lack of technology. I hope that each new generation is more tolerant and peaceful than we are. The entitled ones I know are the ones getting multi-billion dollar bailouts without having to do a damn thing except be born into riches.

Technology breeds laziness.At 66years of age I think each generation becomes lazier,and has it easier than the generation before .My grandfather had it harder than my father ,my father had it harder than me and my daughter has it easier than me . But as intelligence goes all the same .

As a gen x-er I hear people complain about millenals a lot . I find them sensitive,hard working and creative,as a general rule. They're facing all sorts of challenges previous generations did not. I think there's also the nostalgia effect coming into play. We tend to remember our youth as better than it really was.

I think they call that spoiled, however, I have to say my kids are working harder than I did...

This is a complicated issue for me. I'm incredibly immature for my age.

I am a Boomer and to me when I use "back in the day"... is about nostalgia... I had a great time in the last century. Don't know anything about millenials other that they have not lived yet. Gen X I never complained about then or now and the generation before boomers was the greatest generation they were in a World War and then again in Korea. If you measure a generation by its wars... The Greatest Generation is the Greatest. My generation was a rebel and experimented with drugs but was free and created many types of liberations... including sexual liberation and female liberation. We did many things without the benefit of the internet. Boomer generation was very irresponsible in many ways but it was part of being free. We showed the path to take for future generations to find their groove. Modern not necessary means better. I won't touch today's weed or drugs. Can't stand most of the music of this century. And the creation of "celebrities and personalities" out of untalented assholes well don't speak well for what is going on in the century. Don't see the toughness now days. Can't stand the comix hero culture. And the last dancing generation was Gen X.

It has been proven that humans are becoming dumber with each generation and yes I think they are babies

"A Progeny Yet More Corrupt"
In Book III of Odes, circa 20 BC, Horace wrote:

Our sires' age was worse than our grandsires'. We, their sons, are more
worthless than they; so in our turn we shall give the world a progeny yet more
corrupt.

I have mixed emotions about this. As far as technology, you all have it much easier but I would not want to be a young person with all the social media today. We witness so much bullying and body shaming its really sad.

. Baby boomers seemed more enterprneurial. They were the former hippies who were creative and wild. Till they became parents. They moved to the suburbs and became yuppies. Our children are grown now and some having their own children. We are always adapting to change.

The generation before me were the young adults during the Great Depression. They were tougher -- had to be, but not wiser. They were the people of the 1960s and 1970s who saw their world changing so much, and tended to reach back to the certainty of the past, including religion and southern racism. My generation -- the late Depression and early World War II one -- became the one committed to personal success and few deep commitments.

The generation after me -- the baby boomers who grew up in the 1960s and 1970s were both stronger and wiser. They began to care about social issues and bettering our country and society and to become activists in pursuit of those issues. They took chances for something other than simply themselves. If their momentum could have continued for another decade, this would be a different and better country.

Let me add. I find two things that trouble me about today's young people. First, it concerns me that these young people spend so much time fiddling with electronics and texting instead of face-to-face personal contact -- and that they even seem to prefer the safe distance of electronics. Second, I don't really see any commitment among many of them to do anything to make a difference. I hope I am wrong.