{"id":5321,"date":"2010-06-10T06:00:26","date_gmt":"2010-06-10T10:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/?p=5321"},"modified":"2013-04-02T18:04:11","modified_gmt":"2013-04-02T22:04:11","slug":"talkin-bout-y-generation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/anonymous_banker\/06\/10\/talkin-bout-y-generation\/","title":{"rendered":"Talkin&#8217; Bout Y Generation"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Generation Y is sick, yo! We\u2019re 70 million Americans strong, born between 1981 and 1992, and always have the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles\u2019 back:<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/bojx9BDpJks?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Ahhh Generation Y! Our best days start (and end) with Fruity Pebbles. Two 25 year old guys\u2014LeBron \u201cKing\u201d James and Mark \u201cThief\u201d Zuckerberg\u2014are the co-valedictorians of our class. We\u2019re allergic to voicemail, addicted to texting, and checked Facebook twice in the time it took to read this sentence. And studios, if your action flicks don\u2019t have at least three explosions, you\u2019ll be lucky to get an illegal download from us guys. If that.<\/p>\n<p><center><strong>*****<\/strong><\/center><\/p>\n<p>We were first dubbed \u201cGeneration Y\u201d in a 1993 editorial to distinguish us from Generation X (born between 1972 and 1980). It\u2019s only fitting the piece ran in an \u201cAd Age\u201d publication, because we are the most marketed-to-and-researched generation of all time. The problem is \u201cGeneration Y\u201d is a dreadful name: a) it\u2019s not original, b) it\u2019s not clever, and c) it\u2019s dead wrong.<\/p>\n<p>You see, we are nothing like our Generation X brethren. Generation X grew up on MTV and is a little darker. And can you really blame them? Their childhood coincided with their parents\u2019 1970s Me Decade hedonism. Their best video game was Atari (1977). <\/p>\n<p>No, Generation Y admires its grandparents the most, a.k.a. The Greatest Generation. It\u2019s not hard to see why. Our grandparents were born into the Roaring 1920s. They languished through the Great Depression before years of war overseas battling Jew-hating madmen. Sound vaguely familiar? <\/p>\n<p>But there are two glaring differences: <\/p>\n<p>1) Our grandparents were more hardcore. When my grandfather was my age, he survived a kamikaze attack in the South Pacific and spent three days on a lifeboat alone with a gashing neck. (I go to the gym Thursdays. Sometimes\u2026)  <\/p>\n<p>Ornery critics sneer that us Generation Y\u2019ers are soft. That we were pampered too much as kids. We\u2019ve been called the \u201cTrophy Kids\u201d because we were raised hearing \u201cno one loses\u201d. The Clint Eastwoods of the world have a point. When I was six years, I went an entire soccer season without even touching the ball in a game\u2014even though I was starting midfielder. Yet I still won a trophy for \u201cTeam Spirit\u201d. At youth swim meets, the winner got the blue ribbon, but even the fat kid who finished two minutes later got a maroon-colored ribbon just for finishing. (Trust me, I\u2019ve got at least three collecting dust in an attic somewhere thanks to the 25 meter butterfly.)<\/p>\n<p>I can tell my Dad worries that we take HBO\u2019s \u201cEntourage\u201d too seriously. That we think fame and money will just happen. The reality is we don\u2019t look like Vince (even though we\u2019re already better actors), and we are facing years of hard work and \u201clearning the craft\u201d. <\/p>\n<p>2) We got the sweetest toys ever. Our grandparents\u2019 blockbuster new game growing up was \u2026 Monopoly (1935). Meanwhile, Generation Y has enjoyed the fruits and Apple of the exponential part of the technology curve. We\u2019ve gone from blowing on \u201cSuper Mario 2\u201d Nintendo cartridges to make them to work, to \u201cThe Sims\u201d, to \u201cAvatar\u201d in 15 years. <\/p>\n<p>However, this is not to say we were spared by the retail-ideas-so-dumb-they-are-brilliant department. Our aunts and uncles had the Pet Rock. We have the Snuggie:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/06\/snuggie.jpg\" alt=\"The Snuggie Generation\" title=\"Snuggie Picture\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-5324\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/06\/snuggie.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/06\/snuggie-200x200.jpg 200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><!--nextpage--><\/p>\n<p>Actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt may have made the most prescient quote about our generation. The \u201cAngels In The Outfield\u201d kid turned brooding thespian noted, \u201cThis generation is going to blow away every generation ever. Because we&#8217;re the first ones with the Internet.\u201d  And as Social media and wine expert Gary Vaynerchuk pointed out, \u201cThe Internet is 15 years old. It hasn&#8217;t even had sex yet.\u201d (Unless it is European.) <\/p>\n<p>In translation, Mom, don\u2019t even think about taking \u201cWorld of Warcraft\u201d away from us:<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/YersIyzsOpc?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Generation Y is closing in on a quarter-century, and we\u2019ve already seen our fair share of drama. Our \u201cthere is no Santa Claus\u201d moment happened after <a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=KiIP_KDQmXs\">Bill Clinton looked us in the eye and denied he had \u201csexual relations with that woman\u201d<\/a>. Learning Mark McGwire\u2019s 1998 record homerun chase was fueled not by hard work but steroids was our \u201cthere is no Tooth Fairy\u201d epiphany. Columbine was our more fatal Kent State. September 11th, our Pearl Harbor. No WMD\u2019s in Iraq was our generation\u2019s Watergate. The ultimate tragedy is 4,402 (and counting)  of America\u2019s bravest didn\u2019t die after Nixon\u2019s cover-up.<\/p>\n<p>We see Barack Obama as one of us. He\u2019s the cool professor. Obama\u2019s rousing rhetoric, not being George W. Bush, and social media prowess awakened Generation Y\u2019s sleepy political activism during the 2008 presidential campaign. We joined his Facebook group, donated money, and showed up at the polls in record numbers.<\/p>\n<p>Once Obama got elected, however, we hit the snooze button again:<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/1Z9qZzO2UOg?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>We still love Obama but disillusionment is starting to creep in. Change may be coming, but it\u2019s glacially slow. Remember the iconic \u201cHope\u201d poster that was a clarion call for fresh thinking? It was donated to a museum by a pair of lobbyists. <\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Obama Hope and Change\" src=\"http:\/\/farm3.static.flickr.com\/2247\/2231258092_43d8e672b5.jpg\" title=\"Obama Hope Poster\" class=\"aligncenter\" width=\"333\" height=\"500\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Deep down, we\u2019re starting to think we missed the peak of the American Empire by 40 years. We quietly fear Afghanistan, \u201cthe graveyard of Empires\u201d, 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\u2019t understand why \u201cdon\u2019t ask, don\u2019t tell\u201d is still an issue. And don\u2019t even get us started on Arizona:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/06\/no-illegals-no-burritos.jpg\" alt=\"Good Immigration Argument - No Illegals No Burritos\" title=\"no-illegals-no-burritos\" width=\"340\" height=\"474\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-5325\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/06\/no-illegals-no-burritos.jpg 340w, https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/06\/no-illegals-no-burritos-143x200.jpg 143w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 340px) 100vw, 340px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Grown-ups I talk to are befuddled as to why we aren\u2019t 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\u2019s 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\u2019s perniciously high unemployment rates (over 16% for 24-year-olds). He fears for twenty-somethings two years out of work can become virtually a \u201clife-sentence\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Despite all of the turmoil, us Generation Y\u2019ers are still a bubbly bunch. Maybe we\u2019re na\u00efve. Maybe YouTube keeps us happy. Or maybe it\u2019s 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\u2019t 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 \u201cJersey Shore.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Generation Y is sick, yo! We\u2019re 70 million Americans strong, born between 1981 and 1992, and always have the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles\u2019 back:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":12386,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[259],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Talkin&#039; Bout Y Generation - Prose Before Hos<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Generation Y is sick, yo! 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