My Generation: Not Defined Until 2008

Our President did what? The election was decided how? I have to take my shoes off at the airport why?

For individuals born in 1990 or later, these are the first three political oriented questions posed by members of my generation.


As an eight year old, all of the talk was centered on President Clinton and his relationship with Monica Lewinsky. Sex. Scandal. Impeachment. I remember these words being thrown around on a daily basis but had a vague understanding of the events involved.

Just two years later, in the fourth grade, the country was tuned in to the 2000 Presidential election between Al Gore and George W. Bush. The buzzwords changed this time around. Corruption. Cheating. Cronyism. By this point, I was slightly more aware of what was going on but all I really knew was come January 20, 2001, George W. Bush would be our new President, the third in my lifetime but the first I was able to watch closely.

Then came the day in fifth grade I will never forget. My dad woke me up and urged me to turn on the news. Two planes had struck the World Trade Center in New York City, another the Pentagon and a fourth in a field in Pennsylvania. I remember crowding in a classroom with teachers trying to explain something they did not understand themselves. A new lexicon was born. Terrorism. Homeland Security. War on Terror.

What does it say about the politics and worldview of my generation with these as our first three political memories? While I am fascinated by politics and maintain a generally positive view of government, most people are incredibly cynical. They complain that all politicians are liars and that corruption runs rampant. On a global scale, many in my generation see the world as a scary place, practice racial and religious profiling and are yet to be exposed to other cultures and ways of life. With their political foundation, how can anyone blame them?

Aside from politics, one other thing truly sets my generation apart – technology. When reflecting on my earliest memories, computers and the Internet were already in the picture. Yet, my sister, just seven years older, can remember a time without the World Wide Web. My parents were in their late thirties when they got their first cell phone; I got mine in the seventh grade. People my age (and slightly older) were the first plugged into Myspace, Facebook and Twitter. When I first got to college and had to wait several days for the Internet to be set up, I remember commenting to a friend how disconnected I felt even though I had been receiving my email instantaneously and checking the Internet regularly on my Blackberry.

We have arrived at our next challenge. It is now instinctual to check our phones during class and update our Facebook statuses to reveal what we ate for lunch. Perhaps we are too connected to one another and too attached to emerging technologies; so much for a face-to-face conversation.

It would appear that my generation is doomed having a cynical outlook on government, a narrow-minded worldview and an overbearing attachment to technology and social networking. However, I would argue all of that changed with the election of Barack Obama in 2008. For the first time, my generation believed in the power of government as an instrument of social change. For the first time, students of all ages were excited by a political campaign. And for the first time, we used technology as a means to achieve this new vision for America. Our politics and technology converged on a central principle: hope.

Historically, a generation spans twenty-five years or longer but I believe that we are an exception. Individuals born between 1990 and 2000 are a generation in their own right, and perhaps constitute a transitional period before the next generation emerges. Some have called us Generation Y, some Generation Google but while it may sound cliché, I call us Generation Hope.