Generation What?
When I get the chance to see my dad, our conversations usually cover all things political; taxes, church and state, the war in Iraq, etc. On one of those visits, while I was looking at my facebook profile and updating my “About me,” my dad asked me “Why do you think people your age aren’t attending church?”
I was ready for this. I hopped out of my desk chair, onto my soapbox and began my sermon on my generation and our beliefs on individual rights. I told my dad that the church as an institution tries to force a collective ideology and morality, rather than respecting individual rights. My dad expressed his agreement over this assertion and I went back to my “About me.”
Later, pondering the conversation, I asked myself, who is this generation that I had described to my father? In a study conducted by the Pew Research Center, “Generation Y,” “Generation Next,” Generation DotNet” “Generation Look at Me,” or whatever you would like to call us, appears to have a greater appreciation of the rights of the individual. In the study “A Portrait of ‘Generation Next,’” released in January 2007, 58% of 18-25-year-olds believe that homosexuality should be accepted and the majority embraces interracial dating. We are also more understanding towards the individual emigrating from a poverty-stricken country; in the same study, 52% believed that immigrants strengthen a nation. In this way, we are leaps and bounds ahead of generations that preceded us, recognizing the beauty of individual identity instead of pursuing a collective mentality.
Yet, in a world promoting a globalized community via technology, we have become isolated. Our interest in the individual has so evolved that we are barely interested in anything else. Websites like MySpace or facebook allow us to publicize our individuality. But, in an effort to keep our profile songs, photo albums and “about me” current, we have little time for such tedious tasks as reading the news. In a culture in which the memoir has become a favorite type of literature, we desperately push for our respective failures and triumphs to be heard by a large audience.
But where will that leave us? Soon enough, our current senators, congressmen, executive branch and Supreme Court will retire or, frankly, die. It will be up to us to make decisions on the current health insurance crisis, international conflict and economic emergency. When that time comes, will we know what to do? The same Pew Research study said that only 33% of this generation ‘follows what’s going on in government/public affairs most of the time” compared with 54% of people ages 26+. When the time comes, will we be step forward and dive headfirst into solving the problems facing our nation with enthusiasm and vigor? Or will we stare at each other and say, “I don’t really know what’s going on. Do you? I was too busy updating my facebook/MySpace/writing my memoir when this first came about.”
Our generation is one in which the cheerleader listens to indie music and is best friends with the punk. The punk occasionally listens to R&B and watches “Grey’s Anatomy.” An evangelical Christian visits a mosque from time to time and people whose daily wardrobe consists of cowboy boots like to go salsa dancing. As every other generation, we have our stereotypes, but we transcend them.
We are the generation that slow-danced to Boyz II Men in junior high, shook it to Ludacris in high school and “walked it out” in college. We made the Real World and American Idol what they are. Fashion trends? Who needs them? Some days, we wear jeans, t-shirts and flip-flops and others we wear dresses over leggings with high heels. We drink coffee and quote philosophy. We play Halo and drink soda. We watch the game with friends and go dancing later. We go to class and then do volunteer work. We like climbing, cycling, boarding, kick-boxing, jogging, spinning, swimming, Pilates and yoga.
We are also the generation that will tell our children, “I remember exactly where I was when the plane crashed into the twin towers.” We are the generation fighting this war. We are the generation that faces a retirement without government aid and possibly health insurance. For that reason, we need a voice. Not a million tiny whispers telling individual stories only to produce a cacophony, but a single, strong voice that will signal unity. We need a voice that is not mine and not yours, but ours.
-Faith Rice-Mills
I sit between two generations conscientiously labeled 'Generation X,' Generation Next,' and most recently, 'Generation Q, the quiet generation.'
-Rebekah Sills
4 comments:
amen, sisters.
that's about all i have in me right now. but thanks for doing what you do.
I'm impressed that you have given this considerable thought. The glory in life is in living it--be the person in the arena. Follow your bliss and engage yourself in something that will change your world, not for the sake of change, but for using your might for right. The old Irish saying is applicable, "Is this a private fight or can anybody join in?". Also, your dad sounds like he uses good grammar and you used an improper contraction "you're" instead of "your" on the first paragraph. I know you will not mind the correction, since you are an outstanding writer. Keep up the good work and "get some glory".
Hold the press there, hot stuff. You've missed the mark in two very serious ways. Any individual who believes our generation is making a name for itself by a significant belief in the rights of the individual must have slept through the post-modernist movement--this generation doesn't hold fast to some Lockean idealism about how the individual should be allowed to be the individual--our generation fails to recognize that behavior is either right or wrong, not simply a personal choice devoid of moral consequence. As a result, members of this generation are apt to vote and profess to support that people have 'choice' and should be allowed to exercise that choice. This is not any sense of elevating individualism, rather it is charging headlong into the river of immoral standing--where the loudest cry you hear over the drowning masses is "You cannot tell me what is right or wrong, only I may decide that for myself." In this and this alone may you see the height of selfishness, thereby ignoring the efforts of the men and women who went before and spilled blood on battlefields foreign and domestic to uphold an explicit concept of freedom and choice, and finding its only final purchase empty. When you claim everything is of equal value, you truly make everything worthless.
What's worse, you (explicitly the writer) have fallen into a trap that so many believing people do by taking a statistic that seems to support your understanding of society and cramming it in as evidence. Instead, you have a non sequitur chomping on your backside. 58% of people 18-25 may indeed believe as Pew publishes, but I also see polls every day suggesting that both Hillary and Obama lead the national Democratic race, and by all that is holy in logic, you and I both know they can't both be true. While you may make the argument that some statistics must be worthwhile, well, I'll agree with you, but you must let the data speak for itself, rather than drawing conclusions to support your belief with no real correlation to the answers provided.
While I laud your attempt to put a finger on the problem, you must look beyond the obvious and identify where the issue began, not where it ended, for only in that can you truly understand how to approach the problem. By suggesting that we want nothing more than the fulfillment of individual rights, you have ignored the greater context of the mindset encompassing the generation that raised us, and the future implications of an apathetic worldview in raising the next generation.
While statistics can always be manipulated for the sake of making a point, what b.d. rowe wrote in his comment fails to make a point. It is quite asinine to make an assumption without having conducted any research and is probable that the writer used a reputable source in order to support her theory. It is possible that the writer used this study to make the point that (as we can already LOGICALLY assume) that this is very much a culture of the individual.
Besides all of this, simply disagreeing with the author on the nature of this generation still does not prove that b.d. rowe knows "how to approach the problem." The problem with this generation is that they do just that, talk. rowe has not offered a suggestion on how this generation overcome any reputation nor has offered any motivation for them to get up and actually do something, but has only proved that,he or she too, has an opinion.
Post a Comment