Talkin’ Bout Y Generation

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Images

Actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt may have made the most prescient quote about our generation. The “Angels In The Outfield” kid turned brooding thespian noted, “This generation is going to blow away every generation ever. Because we’re the first ones with the Internet.” And as Social media and wine expert Gary Vaynerchuk pointed out, “The Internet is 15 years old. It hasn’t even had sex yet.” (Unless it is European.)

In translation, Mom, don’t even think about taking “World of Warcraft” away from us:

Generation Y is closing in on a quarter-century, and we’ve already seen our fair share of drama. Our “there is no Santa Claus” moment happened after Bill Clinton looked us in the eye and denied he had “sexual relations with that woman”. Learning Mark McGwire’s 1998 record homerun chase was fueled not by hard work but steroids was our “there is no Tooth Fairy” epiphany. Columbine was our more fatal Kent State. September 11th, our Pearl Harbor. No WMD’s in Iraq was our generation’s Watergate. The ultimate tragedy is 4,402 (and counting) of America’s bravest didn’t die after Nixon’s cover-up.

We see Barack Obama as one of us. He’s the cool professor. Obama’s rousing rhetoric, not being George W. Bush, and social media prowess awakened Generation Y’s sleepy political activism during the 2008 presidential campaign. We joined his Facebook group, donated money, and showed up at the polls in record numbers.

Once Obama got elected, however, we hit the snooze button again:

We still love Obama but disillusionment is starting to creep in. Change may be coming, but it’s glacially slow. Remember the iconic “Hope” poster that was a clarion call for fresh thinking? It was donated to a museum by a pair of lobbyists.

Obama Hope and Change

Deep down, we’re starting to think we missed the peak of the American Empire by 40 years. We quietly fear Afghanistan, “the graveyard of Empires”, is our Vietnam. Domestically, 15 months of filibustering and partisan infighting over health care reform reminded us why we hated politics in the first place. We don’t understand why “don’t ask, don’t tell” is still an issue. And don’t even get us started on Arizona:

Good Immigration Argument - No Illegals No Burritos

Grown-ups I talk to are befuddled as to why we aren’t angrier. My Dad emails me gloomy Wall Street Journal articles enumerating the mountains of debt his Baby Boomers are putting on our tab. My dad laments that unpaid interns are conquering the world. He’s not alone. Economists whisper that, thanks to the protracted Great Recession, we are showing the symptoms of another Lost Generation. My school Dean Glenn Hubbard worries about Generation Y’s perniciously high unemployment rates (over 16% for 24-year-olds). He fears for twenty-somethings two years out of work can become virtually a “life-sentence”.

Despite all of the turmoil, us Generation Y’ers are still a bubbly bunch. Maybe we’re naïve. Maybe YouTube keeps us happy. Or maybe it’s that the world has doubted American generations since our Founding Fathers. And never before has the world seen a generation with our tolerance, creativity, and innovation. It won’t be easy. But I have no doubt we have the vitality and ambition to become the Sweetest Generation. And perhaps one day our grandchildren will marvel at our achievements against tall odds. Even if they never get our love for the “Jersey Shore.”

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  1. alec says:

    I lost my virginity when I was 12, and I was a late bloomer.

  2. kjr2110 says:

    This is fantastic. I stumbled upon this blog via some old “depressed pug” pictures a friend sent me, and after browsing I have to say, well done. About this post specifically, I think you’re spot on with most points– “everybody wins”, how important the internet is for our generation and that we’ll never fully appreciate how since we know nothing else (and btw, I think it has a lot to do with our apathy, everything is so global and accessible that we feel we don’t need to deal with much because we can always get away from it…can always go teach English somewhere). I’d like to hear more about unpaid interns conquering the world– because they’re doing work that should be paid for, and done by older people? I definitely think it has irrevocably changed our generation’s attitude toward work, careers, and success. Anyway, great job! Thanks especially for the link to the MRS degree video, my friends from school (CC ’08) are going to get a kick out of it.

  3. mathew says:

    you are great, greets from austria!

  4. Jay says:

    You might want to read up on Vietnam and the connection to Kent State and Nixon. Please don’t compare them to Columbine and the WMDs in Iraq.

    Nixon resigned in disgrace largely because of a public outcry (absent with Bush) that had roots in the Vietnam war. As with WWII, the war media you consume is largely controlled. Ours was not. We heard the daily body counts on the news. We knew what war was really about. Death and destruction for both sides. It’s not a game.

    The mass murder at Columbine, while horrible, was committed by children against children, not military representatives of the Ohio state government against adult civilians exercising free speech against the Vietnam war. The students at Kent State were part of a genuine grass roots movement, unlike the astro-turfed teabaggers of today.

    Some of the “greatest” generation were all too willing to let their sons die by being drafted into a needless and illegal war. Except for the draft part, perhaps some of you do have some commonalities with your grandparents.

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