by Rin Yeo
Your time is over, strawberry generation – there’s now a new generation in town, and it’s becoming a thorny issue! Known as the durian generation, they are soft and they are protected at every single angle by a prickly issue – their extremely protective and indulgent parents who they turn to for every single thing!
From schools to workplaces, incidents of the durian generation have been reported aplenty, ranging from how teachers are to be blamed for the students’ behaviour in school, right down to how job-hunting should be an easy and fool-proof process. The durian generation, or specifically those born after 1990’s, take it for granted that anything they want, they get, and it is no wonder why they have this thinking – their parents have been spoiling them for years, and especially if they are the only child.
So how different are they from the strawberry generation? While the previous bunch are accused of being insubordinate and being lazy in their work, and unable to withstand social pressure, the durian generation is said to be a group that is arrogant, selfish and unwilling to put in any effort for what they do, as they know their parents would back them in any way. Thus, should the stress level increase for them, they would try to push the responsibility off to someone else instead, knowing full well that there would be a substitute who would work in their favour.
However, by doing so, inevitably what results is this generation will never learn what failure is, because in their opinion, they have never failed. They will not take up responsibility as they do not want to, nor are they willing to admit their mistakes or take orders. They will nonetheless take whatever credit they can lay their hands on, and they welcome praises and compliments to boost their ego.
And if you don’t believe us for any reason (or if you are from the durian generation), there are of course exceptions, and we aren’t denying that. Nonetheless, take a look around you – we are certain you can find examples of the durian generations closer than you realise!
