The Try-Hard Generation Analysis

Every generation seems to clash with the other, since the beginning of time. Dr. Fareed Zakaria makes this clear in his article called “The Try-Hard Generation.” Zakaria examines the conflict between the Baby Boomer(1946-1964) generation and Millennials(1980-2000). The overarching argument that he makes, is defending Millennials--yet not fighting his audience(previous generations). The opposition to Millennials is that they are lazy, career-oriented, and are lacking intellectually. However, Zakaria argues that they are simply adjusting to the world around them. Simply that Baby Boomers lived in a very different time--a time that called for intellectual conversations. He states that Millennials do care, they just do not care in the same way as …show more content…
The anecdotal fallacy essentially takes personal experiences that his peers have had, that may normally be atypical. He says, “In the time I have spent on college campuses, I have found students to be thoughtful, interesting, and stimulating. The Harvard psychology professor Steven Pinker, who has spent much more time teaching college students, has written in the same...”(Zakaria). However, immediately after he acknowledges that there are many anecdotes on this topic. He goes a step further, providing evidence of why he may be correct, perhaps. (In fact, he uses many words like “perhaps” to slightly dull his argument, to seem more credible). Another possible logical fallacy evident in his argument is cherry picking. Cherry picking is when the author suppresses portions of a study done and chooses the evidence the supports his argument. For example, the UCLA’s Higher Education Research Institute study that he provides has an error shown when clicking on the link to the evidence he gave. There is no sure way of knowing whether or not he cherry-picked his evidence since it is a faulty link(keep in mind this article was published over two years