The last time we dove into the NY Times' self-parodying Styles section, "futurism consultants" were strapping on their "Brooklyn goggles" to lament how the neighborhood was becoming unaffordable for the most clichéd of hipsters. This weekend, the Times takes on a different subdivision of this well-educated demographic: ambitious 20-somethings who embrace low pay and long hours with masochistic hopefulness.

The characters are thankfully not quite as egregious as those residing in "Hipsturbia," although there's still plenty of room for coffee addicts, overworked book publicists, Lena Dunham, and hokey catchphrases. Let's start out with those last two:

“We need to hire a 22-22-22,” one new-media manager was overheard saying recently, meaning a 22-year-old willing to work 22-hour days for $22,000 a year. Perhaps the middle figure is an exaggeration, but its bookends certainly aren’t.

...

The young are logging hours, too. In 2011, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, full-time workers ages 20 to 24 put in just 2.1 fewer hours a week than those 25 and over. That’s not a big gap of leisure for the ostensibly freewheeling time in one’s life. Or, to quote Lena Dunham’s 24-year-old aspiring writer in “Girls,” “I am busy trying to become who I am.”

First off: did somebody ACTUALLY say “we need to hire a 22-22-22?” Who talks like this without subsequently cutting out their tongue? How can we really know that whoever was "overheard" saying this wasn't just an old-school sexist referring to some (admittedly peculiar) female dimensions?

And however you feel about Dunham, nothing good can come of pulling quotes from her show, or using the fictional characterization of herself as an vessel to compare and project upon any real person who is in their 20s. This story really is worth reading—it raises some important questions about the culture of internships and the hazards of young people undervaluing themselves. But inserting transparent attempts to "connect" with younger readers like this (and the Taylor Swift lyrics at the outset of the piece) only undermines the reader's ability to take it seriously.

Regarding that last bit: the writer implicitly calling Taylor Swift's "22" the anthem of this generation, comparing it to Neil Young’s “Old Man” and Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” However you feel about Swift—and we think she writes really enjoyable pop songs—the idea that her cliche-riddled ("We're happy free confused and lonely at the same time/It's miserable and magical oh yeah"), superficial ("You look like bad news/I gotta have you"), awkward ("It feels like a perfect night to dress up like hipsters") lyrics contains some deep truth about hard-working young people who are facing the worst economy in American history while also dealing with the soul-numbing encroachment of social media upon their every waking moment seems pointedly insulting. Also, Swift has never written a lyric as emotional and probing as, "A mulatto/An albino/A mosquito/My libido."

Now for the good: Ross Perlin, who wrote the excellent book “Intern Nation: How to Earn Nothing and Learn Little in the Brave New Economy," adds plenty of welcome insight about the difficulty of making the leap from free intern labor to respected full time worker. “Particularly in some rock-star professions — film and TV and publishing and media — companies are pushing the envelope to see how much they can get out of young people for how low a stipend or salary,” Perlin says. “And people are desperate enough to break in to do it.”

Perlin argues that many businesses are attempting to inculcate young people into believing that that their job is their reason for existing (why else would Dunkin Donuts offer such huge coffee sizes if you weren't supposed to work 22 straight hours?).

"People are working much more and are convinced to invest themselves body and soul," Perlin says. "[The culture] tries to make you lose your sense of your workplace versus home: who are your co-workers and who are your friends?” If you're not willing to stay the extra five hours, if you're not willing to sacrifice your personal life for your work, then you're not really trying hard enough.

Perlin also brings up the idea that social media has become such an obsession for these types of people, they don't even appreciate that they're being exploited. “Is a tweet labor? Is a Facebook post labor?” Perlin asked. He also believes the shuffle between various internships can be permanently damaging rather than: “Some studies show that people in their 20s work eight or nine jobs in that period, which economists see as a good thing, but they aren’t looking at the stress and personal toll it takes.”

But after all that good will, we couldn't end this without pointing out one last instance of Greybeard Catnip, something that'll really get those young people's ears perked up. Let's see, we've already hit Girls, can we shoehorn in an anecdote about weed? Kids love talking about (and Instagramming) their subversive behavior!

On her last day at one job, her 75-year-old supervisor asked her to help move some heavy things in her house. In her garage, the supervisor opened a door from which issued a blinding stream of light.

“It was a huge room filled with her own field of marijuana plants,” Ms. Schiller said. “She conscripted me for no pay to harvest it overnight. She makes $35,000 per crop and it goes straight to her retirement account.”

The intern’s payment the next morning: a breakfast burrito.

Never change, Styles section.