Generation Gap?

I don’t belong.


According to ThinkQuest.org, there are 6 current generations living. (Quick aside: depending on your source, the date of births vary slightly.) There’s the GIs (born 1901 – 1924, known as high achieving, fearless, but not particularly patriotic or morally conscious). Following the GIs were the Silents (born 1925 – 1942, known as cautious, unadventurous, and for being without a cause). After the Silent Generation came the Baby Boomers (born 1943 – 1960, known for their high self-esteem and high self-indulgence). The Boomers gave way to the Generation Xers (born 1961 – 1981, known to be irresponsible, reckless, and to care only about one’s self). Next came the Millennials/Generation Yers (born 1982 – 2003, known simply as the generation of hope). Finally, the Futuristics (born 2004 – now…mostly known for crying and pooping in diapers currently…also looking for a better name since Futuristics will be a bit outdated in 2075).


Now, according to the ThinkQuest dates (and confirmed by Wikipedia, because if it is on there, you know it’s true…and yes, that was a direct jab at the site, and no, you’ll never, ever find me using Wikipedia as a source for anything other than laughs), I’m just barely a Generational Y (or Millennial). Using the typical checklist found on many sites, I certainly appear to fit many of the “defining” characteristics (ie, I author my own blog, I own a computer, I own a cell phone, and I use the web as my primary source of news). So, according to the sources, I ought to feel connected to my generation, right?


It certainly would seem so. After all, there are entire websites devoted to dealing with the differences between generations, essentially suggesting each generation is a different slab of meat – needing a different cooking temperature for different altitudes but that’s about it. I disagree.


If anything, I would argue that Generation Y/the Millennials is a myth. As a whole, my generation has no coherent vision, only cynicism. In fact, we might as well be called the Jaded Generation. We’ve watched our sports heroes turn into criminals (OJ, Michael Vick, etc), we’ve watched our elected politicians be impeached (Clinton) and shoot their friends in the face (Cheney), we’ve watched our cities tumble (New York), our “generational brothers” shot (Columbine, Virginia Tech), and witnessed countless atrocities at home and abroad (suicide bombers, the Iraq Wars, Afghanistan). We’ve had entire sports shaken to their core (baseball and cycling with steroids, basketball with gambling) and politicians lie to us and get many of our fellow gen Yers killed (Iraq). We’ve watched social figures fall from grace (Martha Stewart) and we’ve seen the Doomsday Clock get closer to midnight than ever before. We’ve lost tax money to pay for Social Security that most of our elders tell us we’ll have no chance to see when we retire. We’ve paid thousands of dollars more for schooling than any previous generation, but our student loan payments don’t go down as the cost of living goes up and the job market shrinks. Finally, we’ll vote 97.5 million times for American Idol because we think our vote counts but we will barely bother with national elections and wouldn’t know a local politician if they punched us in the nose.


Given the social, political, and world instability, it should be no surprise that my generation wanders aimlessly. Politicians try to court us during election season, they get angry when enough of us don’t show up to vote on Election Day, and finally they ignore us for another 4 years. We’ve grown up in a country that constantly tells us “we’re the best country in the world” and then proves during the 6 o’clock news nightly why we aren’t. In fact, if we say we are going overseas on vacation the older generations tell us to “wear a Canadian flag pin” because no one likes us since we are Americans.


We, as a generation, are confused. We value our privacy, yet post everything about our lives on Facebook and blogs. We carry our phones with us everywhere, but only to send text messages and pictures. We jump though the hoops required by Title IX, yet see racial profiling by “officials” on a daily basis. Nothing we see makes sense if we think too hard about it, so we end up multitasking and contemplating little on the larger issues. We know a little about a lot of things, but there are few things we know a lot about (and almost none of those things occur outside our political borders).


My generation is a generation in name only. We’ll never have a coherent identity because we don’t have any coherent plans ourselves. (For instance, the biggest Ron Paul supporter in my generation that I know in my generation moved to Korea.) I don’t feel like I belong to my generation because my generation doesn’t feel like it belongs anywhere.


Perhaps, twenty years down the road, I’ll look back and say something different. Perhaps my generation will be affected by something in such a way to unite as a group (much like the Vietnam War did to Generation X). Perhaps we’ll escape the cynicism and unite to improve our towns, states, countries, and world. Perhaps we’ll harness our multitasking tendencies long enough to improve the welfare of our country’s citizens. Perhaps we’ll contribute to the greater good in unforeseen ways. Perhaps, just perhaps, we’ll live up to our moniker as the generation of hope. Of course, being a generation of cynics, we kind of doubt it…


Image source:
http://www.smh.com.au/ffximage/2006/02/13/cheneyrifle_wideweb__470x407,0.jpg