Defining My Generation

My generation is a generation without a cause. We were sheltered, pampered and deceived until just recently when we were thrust into a truly global reality and overloaded with information. We don’t know how to react - what cause to fight for.

It must first be noted that a generation is no longer a span of twenty years, a standard divide between parent and child. Technological advances have shortened the generation. For example, the generation before mine can remember a time without the internet, my generation cannot, and the generation after mine will never know a time where the world wide web is beyond the reach for their phone.

My generation was born into a bubble economy, which manifested itself for us as a childhood of plenty. With Barbies, Legos, and Nintendos, the days of rope swings and tree forts were gone. We could drive our own car at 3 (Tonka trucks), have our own virtual pet at 6 (Gigapets) and control a city at 10 (Sims.) My generation only knew how to exist within the boom of consumer capitalism. When the economy crashed, the most I knew about recession came from my textbooks.

Our childhood was sugar coated. With her bubble gum pop music, Britney Spears guided us through our pre-teen years, selling us sex before we knew what it was. Happy Meals and Lunchables reigned supreme, giving kids a sense of order and control with their own box full of pre-packaged food separated in individual containers. Who cared if the food was not in fact food but saturated fat and preservatives? Video games gained popularity, and now we could all shoot ‘bad guys’ and explore alien war zones whenever we wanted.

We were living in a false reality.

And so when the age of enlightenment occurred - when we were forced to do current events in school, when 9/11 happened, when the stock market crashed - we were stunned. Reality set in. The world was messed up, scary and unpredictable.

When my generation started to look around, there was too much to see. When the Baby Boomers became mobilized as a generation, they were united behind a common cause- they worked to create stability and safety for everyday Americans. But my generation has no common cause to unite us. Or, more truthfully, we have too many causes to be united behind just one.

Our presidents have cheated and lied. Our media is biased. Our faith in our government is compromised. Our sense of security was taken from us.

My generation’s response to the current times is very much a response inspired by history. Grassroots organizations- in politics, in social reform, in popular culture - have become the most prevalent source of influence. In attempts to find direction, my generation is disregarding the mainstream and looking for causes that appeal personally to the individual.

Our President appealed to my generation through a very local campaign, politically enabling individuals like no one in previous history has. The music industry is so varied that no one genre or name can be used to classify the music of our generation. Low budget indie movies, like the 2007 hit Juno, are winning Academy Awards right alongside million dollar productions. Small interest group organizations are finding favor across the nation as members of this generation are seeking to make an impact.

My generation was protected too vigilantly as children, and then was stunned and somewhat stupefied with the onset of reality. The broad sense of disillusionment from our childhood has led to the sectioning off of interest groups within my generation. These interest groups- political, social, cultural - and the diversity they foster are what define us.