The "Me" Generation

     This semester I'm taking a ton of bullshit gen ed classes that Temple makes you take even though it doesn't necessarily contribute anything to what you're studying. Two of them are sociologically/ anthropologically based, and in both these classes, the professor has brought up either social networking or just the way we use technology in general.

     And of course, this gets me all riled up because on the inside, I'm an old person when it comes to thinking about that kind of stuff. It's scary to me how far we've come as a society from the times when people used to all gather around their one black and white clunky television set to watch the same show as the majority of America. If I can recall from my history class last semester, most of America used to watch Miss America in the 1960's. We can't say that anymore about even the highest rated shows today. When I was little, I remember being at my grandma's cottage at the beach and not understanding how to turn on the TV because it had a weird dial on it. It was weird to me then, but seeing something like that in 50 years would probably be so weird that there isn't even a word to describe the caliber of weirdness.

     My youth cultures class was the one where I was told our generation is being called "The Me Generation," even though almost every generation accuses the following generation to be selfish. I think it's the perfect name. When something funny happens, instead of just laughing, I've noticed people will laugh and simultaneously whip out their phones to text someone about it/ tweet about it/ make it their Facebook status/ etc. Why do we feel the need to do that? It just seems normal, but when you really think about it, it makes no sense. Your life will be the same whether or not you broadcasted to your network of online friends that you are going to the gym, tanning, and then doing laundry.

     What's worse, is when people feel the need to share with the world "work at 12," "laying in bed," "going to Starbucks with the girls!!!" Again, why do we feel the need to do that? It's like people think everyone they're friends with online cares what they're doing at all times. On a similar note, it's blatantly selfish when girls include in their about me sections "Don't even try to hit on me!!! I probably think you're lame!" Come on. You should probably just delete that and, instead, say "Hey guys I'm really full of myself."

     Of course I need to mention Tumblr here. I recognize that a lot of things people post on Tumblr apply to human interest - people post certain things because they figure other people will find these things interesting too. But then there's those blogs where people only talk about themselves, which I personally don't have a problem with because there's no rules on what is and isn't acceptable to put on your blog. A blog is a forum where you can post whatever you want to, and posting aimless paragraphs or sometimes even just phrases about your life, pictures of yourself, etc. are all pretty normal things to do, which just adds to the whole reason why people are calling us "The Me Generation."

     If I didn't have a Facebook, I would feel out of touch and just plain bored because I'm so used to having it. It seems like when Tumblr is down it's apocalyptic to some. In no way do I hate technology, nor do I exclude myself from any of the cliches I mentioned. I just find myself thinking about how different it's made communication and how much it's changed how people interact. I'm not sure where I'm going with this at this point because there's just too many reasons to bring up. All I'm saying is that it makes complete sense to me why people are calling my generation "The Me Generation." Trying to explain why turned out to be a lot harder than I thought but I hope at least one person can make sense of my rambling!