2006.09.09
Different Boy’s Generational Identity
A couple days ago Different Boy posted an interesting article which seems to lament his generation’s lack of identity or name. Go read it. I posted a comment you can read after the jump.
I will tell you, though you won’t believe me until you’ve experienced it yourself, that everything you wrote above is real only for those *seeking* group identity. Everything your wrote above applies equally for any generation (barring references to specifics like Sam Jackson, Say Anything and the like).
Of all the generational labels, like “Gen X”, that have stuck the only ones that have any actual meaning are the ones given a generation decades after it would have been relevant. Baby Boomers, the Greatest Generation… these are labels from well *after* they were well established. They came about and were defined by huge events in their lifetimes; those who grew up post WWI and then dealt with WWII, for example.
We, and in this I include you and I both, don’t have this on quite the same scale. Or perhaps we do but we won’t know this until decades down the road. Besides, generational labels as an identity are bunk. Bill Clinton and George Bush were born with 60 days of each other and look how different they are. You can’t assume that everyone in a generation is the same or even experiences events from their time the same.
As for the pop culture your mentioning, don’t look at those who are fed the media but those who create the media. You’re getting all this 80s schlock because the people who are up and coming in controlling the media grew up in the 80s. You are suffering their nostalgia and for that I am truly sorry. While I am mildly surprised that there are people today who haven’t seen Star Wars, it surprises my Dad just as much that there are people like me that haven’t seen big films from when he grew up. In twenty years you’ll be shocked that your kids have zero interest in Snakes on a Plane, even if you think it’s the greatest movie ever.
What I’ve found defines me the most of all is not my generation but those around me of any age that have common interests and goals. My friends, my family, my beliefs, my goals. Search for these, find meaning and happiness in these, and you’ll do well.
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