In this day and age, it is so difficult to not feel like everything one could ever possibly think of or ponder has not already passed through someone else’s mind. And too personally for many, on top of this depressing fact of life, it is also extremely harrowing to not feel like everything one says is whining or pointless babbling. After all, our generation, the Y generation, the “millenials”, we are all too often painted by generations before us and the powerful force of mainstream media as needy, self-centered, and often left wanting because of unrealistic expectation due to over-inflated egos as children. A simple Google search of the term “generation Y” bears these exact phrases within the first few results. Perhaps it is that those who feel their words possess no meaning in the sea of all these other voices, that because they have never fit these stereotypes, their very mundane existence, and their potential recognition of any negative or even positive aspects of their life, make them egocentric individuals by nature. But how can this be? Certainly, our generation is not the first to experience disillusioned dreams and distinct lacks of emotional fulfillment due to the selfish nature of American culture. It is as if these generations before us who have so many negative things to attest to our generation never read such classic works as The Great Gatsby, a work that quite literally centers on these themes in a wonderfully written story by F. Scott Fitzgerald. So what is it that makes the millenial cry different than all previous cries of disillusioned generations?
It is that our voice is louder. More omnipresent than all voices before us, thanks to the advancement of the internet and social media. Because of these elements, the acceleration of our modern culture is happening on a literal minute-by-minute basis. A tweet from the front lines of a culturally shifting, possibly traumatic event, can be viewed by thousands within seconds. A new trend can be started, worn out, and deemed “old news” within minutes thank to Instagram/tumblr fashion bloggers. Negative information about any place or person can be shared with thousands in a matter of minutes thanks to any number of social media outlets, perhaps all used simultaneously, which is actually very common with our generation. We try to make our voice as updated and as present in this space of time as possible, viewed by many people, shared by the most people, etc. What generation before us can boast capabilities even remotely comparable to these?
It is not that generation Y is more ego-centered, more whiny, more needy, more negative than generations past. It is simply that no one before us is used to being as openly exposed to this whole wide world as we millenials are. They are not used to having powerful information so easily accessible. And they certainly are not used to being exposed to all the potential evils in this large and too often cruel world in real time, as well as all the oddest extremities of modern culture to date. Who can blame these previous generations for expressing an almost envious negativity toward our generation as whole? These people certainly cannot be blamed for their confusion as to why most of our generation takes full advantage of every social media possibility. Naturally, it would look selfish to people from a time of receiving news and cultural updates by strictly newspaper or magazine, a few channels of television, perhaps the radio.
But there is one thing that these generations previous to the millenials often leave out of the equation of the power of social media; indeed, they underestimate even the power of a pointless but interesting piece of content to brighten ones day. Think of a cute kitten video, a funny meme, an extremely bizarre YouTube account. Our generation views content like this more as mere entertainment. All too often, for me personally, it can be something like these that is the only thing that makes me smile in a day. And yet previous generations call us numb-minded and wasteful with our time for participating in the promotion of such harmless content. And why? There really is no explanation for this. Mostly, it’s all in good clean fun. Why be such a collective spoil sport, old people of America? It would take less energy to join in the fun or at least stand by indifferent, than to to take the time to vocally deem our generation’s brand of humor and choice in engaging content as “garbage”. In our minds, and even before our very eyes, almost anything has a use. In our relatively short lifetimes, the internet has rediscovered, resurrected, and recycled the most freakish and unknown corners of the modern world, often within the context of things venturing to be humorous. Literally, who can determine what the modern age will find hilarious next? Hell, it is half the fun to wait and wonder in amazement.
I say all this, to say this to my fellow millenials; do not take the words of those before us too deeply to heart. It is extremely difficult not to believe that they mean to be so cruel, but this is the truth. It is not that they are mean, or that we are selfish and lazy. It is that we hold immense power as a generation, power that these previous generations have never seen, and can therefore not be expected to fully understand.
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