As I sit at my desk, reflecting on The Lion King, listening to the soundtrack from Final Fantasy 7 and being devoured by social networking I begin to wonder who am I? Not in some deep philosophical way, but in terms of my generation, what defines us...
So naturally, like any good 20-something, I googled generations. Wikipedia told me that I was "Generation Y," part of something called the "Echo Boomers." What the holy heck is an Echo Boomer? So naturally I clicked the little blue echo boomer link and stepped into the vortex of Wikipedia. Having been through a generational blender of user submitted facts and doctoral anecdotes, I still have come to no definitive conclusion.
Somethings made a lot of sense to me though. They say my generation is counter-counter culture, which is a confusing way to say we rebelled against the guys rebelling. They say we are more civic minded and less cynical. I couldn't agree more, we live in an Anne Frank idealistic world where people are generally good at their core. We see an act as good until the intentions are made clear, and that really speaks to me. I have always been quick judge something as genuine until proven false, I am the guy who watches Law and Order and when the bad guys says he didn't do it I believe him. He seems to have a good story, don't be so harsh Mr cop guy, what if he really is innocent! I think this comes from a childhood devoid of real evil, but a teenage reminder that real evil exists. I know it made me really examine why some people do such terrible things. It is true, the road to hell is paved with good intentions... and honestly that I see that as an extremely uplifting statement.
The phrase "Peter Pan" generation struck me as interesting. Apparently we take longer to become adults then before. We live at home longer, we hold onto things from our childhood with greater reverence then in the past. Most of the describers seem to miss the point though. One entry commented that this generation is learning for the mistakes of our forerunners, that we see all the failed careers and marriages as something to be avoided. So we take our time. I don't think that is completely true either, I have a much more romantic view on this subject. We are a generation of dreamers, of imagination and great personal self worth. We don't cling to the youth years so much as we celebrate them. I sit here writing this listening to music from Super Mario 64, essentially well organized digital bleeps, but I cherish this music for it's role in shaping who I am today, it allows me to look into the past and imagine the future. If everything is cyclical then we simply looked so far ahead, we saw behind us.
They also say my generation is overly self entitled. It stems from childhoods where everyone got a trophy just for showing up. Saying everyone is special is just another way to say no one is. I think that has stuck in our collective cultural subconscious, we dream big, we have the loftiest of goals, and so much of that goes unfulfilled. Psychiatry will be a very booming business in 20 years. This, I think, might be our greatest identifier as a group. We grew up with so much promise, we witnessed the birth of so much amazing technology, so many leaps forward in such a small amount of time. To us, there is no impossible, and that is a dragon we might be uniquely qualified to slay. This generation is poised to do great things, advance in ways that only our children will comprehend.
So what does that make us? Not Generation Y, that is too easy, too derivative. The Echo Boomers? No we stand apart, we love our parents but that's them, we are us. I know some refer to us as the Millennials, and that makes sense for right now, but honestly I think we should go unnamed for awhile, I don't think we have trully discovered what this generation is. I asked who am I, generationally speaking, and the answer I found is that we are still looking for the answer. Only time, and our even more amazing successors can truly be the judge.
