I would say the "me, me, me" mentality is more a timeless function of age and not necessarily "the times we live in."
Think about the roaring 20s, when youth were spending money left and right on moonshine and movie tickets.
Then the Depression hit and humbled everyone.
After the War, you had the sports car era, where cars became more popular and kids began spending tons of money souping them up.
Then you had the very very selfish hippie era of the 60s...
Then abortion and birth control paved the way for consequence-free sex in the 70s...
More "me, me, me" of the 80s and 90s, and now electronics and the internet have led to instant-gratification, which continues today.
But I don't think it's fair to say that it's just the "teenagers of today"...it has always and will always be that way. There's just a "piling-on" effect from generation to generation, as things become less of a luxury to work towards and more of a given.
The only solution is to do right by your own kids and set them up right for life by making them hardworking and understanding the importance of sacrifice.
I agree. And Laura Ingraham was discussing this today, I caught part of it, and she was hesitant to pile on the new generation because generations always do this (talk of how bad the next one is). But there is a cumulative slippery slope of decline in this country.