Bruce Tulgan, the founder of Rainmaker Thinking and an expert on Generation Y, says that "they are a pampered and nurtured generation, being both high performance and high maintenance, with a very high sense of self-worth. Tulgan calls them "Generation X on steroids."

According to a University of Michigan study of 13,737 college students in the U.S. by Sarah Konrath at her associates at the Institute for Social Research, young people today, compared to college students in the late 1970's are "40% lower in empathy than their counterparts of 20 or 30 years ago." The researchers examined 72 studies of students with a mean age of 20 from 1979 to 2000, all of whom had taken the Davis Interpersonal Reactivity Index test, which looks at empathetic concern, an emotional response to distress to others and perspective taking or the ability to imagine another person's perspective--often expressed as "being in other person's shoes."

Individuals who score higher on the empathy assessment exhibit such behaviors as helping a stranger carry their belongings, allowing someone ahead in a lineup, giving help to a homeless person, or assisting a friend. The researchers reported than there has been a 48% decrease in empathetic concern and a 34% decrease in perspective taking between 1979 and 2009. The researchers also reported that today's college students were less likely to have empathetic feelings for people less fortunate than them. Kornrath, who is also affiliated with the University of Rochester Department of Psychiatry concludes that "young adults today comprise one of the most self-concerned, competitive, confident, and individualistic cohorts in recent history." They also cited a previous 2005 study that described decreased empathetic concern among medical interns.

If the researchers' observations and conclusions are correct about Gen Y, what are the reasons or causes? They identify a possible reason is the influence of social media such as Facebook, and media content such as many movies, news programs, and video games with a high degree of violent content. Edward O'Brien, one of Kornrath's associates cites work being done at the University of Michigan which concludes that "exposure to violent media numbs people to the pain of others." The researchers also theorize that social networking, which are physically distant allow young people to "lionize their own lives" and "functionally create a buffer between individuals, which makes it easier to ignore others' pain, or even at times, inflict pain upon others." So the authors speculate that the growing emphasis on self by young people has come with a decreased emphasis on others.

Kornrath argues that part of the explanation for decreased levels of empathy for young people may be as a result of changes in parenting styles in the 1980's, when parents focused on nurturing if not spoiling children, and focused on success and competition. The researchers observed that young people today "may be so busy worrying about themselves and their own issues that they don't have time to spend empathizing with others, or at least perceive such time to be limited."

Jean Twenge, a psychology professor at San Diego State University, who examines Generation Y in her book, Generation Me: Why Today's Young Americans Are More Confident, Assertive, Entitled--And More Miserable Than Ever Before., argues that younger people are more self-assured than their parents, but they also are more depressed. She bases her argument on 14 years of research including 12 studies on generational differences based on data from 1.3 million young Americans, comparing the results of personality tests given to baby boomers when they were under age 30 to those of the Gen-Me or Gen Y cohort today.

Twenge says that this is a result of the misplaced emphasis on the self-esteem movement of the last few decades. Twenge says in her book, Gen Yers "speak the language of the self as their native tongue. The individual has always come first, and feeling good about yourself has always been a primary virtue. Generation Me's expectations are highly optimistic: They expect to go to college, to make lots of money, and perhaps even to be famous. Yet this generation enters a world in which college admissions are increasingly competitive, good jobs are hard to find and harder to keep, and basic necessities like housing and health care have skyrocked in price. This is a time of soaring expectations and crushing realities." Twenge cites the work of Joan Chiarmonte, head of the Roper Youth Report who says for young people today, the "gap between what they have and what they want has never been greater."

Twenge says that Generation Y can be called Generation Me because they've been taught to put themselves first. Unlike Baby Boomers, GenMe didn't have to march in a protest or attend a group session to realize that their own needs and desires were paramount. Reliable birth control, legalized abortion and a cultural shift toward parenthood as a choice made GenMe the most wanted generation of children in history. Television, movies and school programs have told them they were special from toddlerhood to high school and they believe with a self confidence that is impressive. GenMe, unlike the Baby Boomers are not self-absorbed, they're self-important. They take it for granted that they're special, independent, and don't need to reflect on it.

Twenge says this doesn't mean GenMe is spoiled. That would imply they always got what they wanted. Young people today have to overcome many challenges their parents didn't have to. For example, while families of the Baby Boom generation could once achieve a middle-class status on the earnings of one high school educated person, it now takes two college-educated earners to achieve the same standard of living. Many Gen Yers feel that the world demands perfection in everything, and some are cracking under the pressure. Many of them in their twenties today find that their jobs do not provide the fulfillment and excitement they had anticipated, and their salaries are not enough to have the lifestyle they wanted.

Does that mean that GenMe is selfish? Twenge says no. She cites the fact that youth volunteerism has actually risen in the last decade. GenMe wants to make a difference in the world. GenMe also believes that people should follow their dreams and not be held back by societal expectations. This theme is often reflected in the movies and videos of today.