Talkin' About My Generation

When you're hearing two published authors bag on your generation, it can be a bummer. It can also be illuminating and produce a kind of "ah-ha" moment in which you realize that the irritating and superficial behaviors you've witnessed your fellow Generation Y'ers engage in aren't just insignificant trends--they are part of a larger historical mechanism.

For example, check out this chart:

Who here is being labeled as "Narcissistic"? Who is being heralded as "the 'me' generation"? Despite what Raina Kelley and Judith Warner report about you and your peers, these terms are actually being applied to the Baby Boomers, a group that predates you by almost forty years!

And even though I land on the cusp of Gen X & Y, I relate more closely with Gen X; most of my formative, early memories and family life align with those "defining experiences." Look at how my generation is being labeled: "skeptical," "alienated and confrontational," and "not considered capable of rallying together to improve the state of the world." Doesn't paint a pretty picture. It makes us out to be anti-social a-holes who believe in nothing and can't work with others. If you want a pretty accurate depiction of my generation, here you go. Yet, there are exceptions, just as you all pointed out in your responses to these articles: true sometimes, but not all the time and not for everybody.

So, why do I want you to think about your generation? Part of it is that I want you to consider what it means to be part of something larger--a group, a community, a "time." But, I also want you to feel the freedom to think about and communicate the ways you are different than the stereotype. Ask yourself, "How do I want to be known? To be remembered?"

And just for the record, I never thought in a million years that the 90's styles would become popular again. It all just seemed so atrocious to begin with. I do love it when people make fun of it though, kind of like they do on Portlandia. Like this: