it is an opinion piece that gathers and links together several arguments relating to the strangely disconnected and apathetic younger generations (even the term apathetic has been dropped, as the condition suits commentators and advertisers just fine). All have been put forward before but it is helpful to see them summarized. I have some quibbles with it, and i think it fails to pay enough attention to social networking sites in a largely consumerist, suburbanized context, but on the whole it is refreshing to see someone taking a wider than usual view of social behavior. I also think that many of these arguments apply to those no-longer young, of course. These processes have pervaded the developed world through the latter half of the last century. Evidence suggests that the piling on of student debt was purposely designed during the more restive 1960s to enforce economic discipline and produce compliant students.