What is it with those 20-somethings? Seriously!

Aren’t you sick of being compared to a directionless couch potato? It seems like the new hot group to pick on these days is the 20-somethings, generally the just-finished-school-somethings. Apparently, we’re lazy, uninspired and love mooching off Mom and Dad.

Seemingly fed up with the 20-something target practice, Derek Thompson at The Atlantic has written a rebuttal to a recent New York Times Magazine article that featured the tagline, Why are so many people in their 20s taking so long to grow up?

Thompson addresses three issues in his essay: women and college, the recent recession, and my favourite, student debt.

He writes:

“Put yourself in the shoes of a 22-year old from a relatively affluent family. You’ve graduated with $15,000 in debt, you can’t find a job that pays more than $23,000 without benefits, and you don’t hate your parents. Why wouldn’t you live at home for a year?”

Check out the rest of the post, and let me know what you think. Then go be ambitious and prove them wrong. Or, perhaps you could write a scathing review of the current generation of 50-something reporters that keep writing these pieces.

And finally, a bit of humour: The New Yorker‘s “Your College Graduate: A Parents’ Guide.”