page_title: Me generation
section_title: Characteristics
hierarchical_section_title: Me generation / Characteristics
caption_attribution_description: English: Anonymous man with Loretta Bezzini &amp; Lars Jacob in clothing by Gul &amp; Blå, as released by image creator Lars Jacob ProdPlace: San Diego, California
context_page_description: The "Me" generation is a term referring to the baby boomer generation in the United States and the self-involved qualities that some people associate with it. The 1970s were dubbed the "Me decade" by writer Tom Wolfe; Christopher Lasch was another writer who commented on the rise of a culture of narcissism among the younger generation of that era. The phrase caught on with the general public, at a time when "self-realization" and "self-fulfillment" were becoming cultural aspirations to which young people supposedly ascribed higher importance than social responsibility.
context_section_description: Health and exercise fads, New Age spirituality such as Scientology and hot tub parties, self-help programs such as EST (Erhard Seminars Training), and the growth of the self-help book industry became identified with the baby boomers during 1970s.  Human potential, emotional honesty, "finding yourself", and new therapies became hallmarks of the culture. The marketing of lifestyle products, eagerly consumed by baby boomers with disposable income during the 1970s, became an inescapable part of the culture. Revlon's marketing staff did research into young women's cultural values during the 1970s, and the research revealed that young women were striving to compete with men in the workplace and to express themselves as independent individuals. Revlon launched the "lifestyle" perfume Charlie, with marketing aimed at glamorizing the values of the new 1970s woman, and it became the world's best-selling perfume.
  The introspection of the baby boomers and their focus on self-fulfillment has been examined in a serious light in pop culture. Films such as An Unmarried Woman (1978), Kramer vs. Kramer (1979), Ordinary People (1980) and The Big Chill (1983)  brought the inner struggles of baby boomers to a wide audience. The self-absorbed side of 1970s life was given a sharp and sometimes poignant satirization in Manhattan (1979). More acerbic lampooning came in Shampoo (1975) and Private Benjamin (1980). The Me generation has also been satirized in retrospect, as the generation called "Generation X" reached adulthood, for example, in Parenthood (1989). Forrest Gump (1994) summed up the decade with Gump's cross-country jogging quest for meaning during the 1970s, complete with a tracksuit, which was worn as much as a fashion statement as an athletic necessity during the era.
  The satirization of the Me generation's "me first" attitude perhaps reached its peak with the television sitcom Seinfeld, which does not include conscious moral development for its baby boomer characters, but rather the opposite. Its plots do not have teaching lessons for its audience and its creators explicitly held the position that it was a "show about nothing".
caption: Discos and nightclubbing became popular with Me generation singles during the 1970s.
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