The “ME” Generation.
Photographers for days, musicians as far as the eye can see, artists bursting forth from every direction imaginable - enter, the internet. We have become a self-examined generation because we see so much of ourselves, I mean who needs a mirror when you just face timed for 2 hours and spent the majority of the time looking at yourself? It’s easy to recognize the difference from one generation to the next, we are easily dissatisfied with ourselves (in some cases, maybe most) and we struggle with identity issues like never before. I think the problem is obvious, we are comparing ourselves with the entire world.
Everything we want to see is at our literal fingertips, in seconds, the newest sensation can go from nothing to something in a matter of hours now! And the next big thing could be hours away from the previous, worldwide coverage of everything and everyone and we just want to be included in it. Photos immediately uploaded from the latest social gathering, or even status updates and twitter feeds, can leave you feeling ousted and cast out. In an era where name dropping has become all the rage, the old saying “it’s not what you know, it’s who you know” couldn’t be more appropriate.
The internet offers up possibilities without consequence, information without responsibility, a breading ground for predators and cowards. We can say what we want, post what we want, and we even plagiarize unrecognized. Profile pictures have become an attraction, status updates have become a social symbol of importance, and blogs (go figure) have become an online scrapbook of hours wasted away searching for image after image. Cameras probably take more photos of their owners than any other subject, and if we’re lucky we’ll get someone to tag in it for more to see.
The adventurous dare to dream outside of a processor, they long to look beyond a screen, but sometimes we get caught on YouTube watching instead of walking and participating. We share our passive-aggressive beliefs, or we shout vulgar comments and followers roll their eyes or “hide all from this user” or maybe even - dare I say - UnFollow. Mark Zuckerberg made something incredible that connects people in the most artificial way the world has ever and MAY ever know, and Google took the value of a college education and turned it into a piece of letterhead saying “this kid stuck it out, and now he’ll be in debt for the rest of his/her life, so by-god you oughta hire ‘em.” These are generalized statements of course, but think about it for a second.
I haven’t stood on a soap box in a while, and if you read what I write often you know I don’t exclude myself as an audience member simply because I wrote it. I’ve been wrapped up in this struggle of my own, where sometimes virtual reality penetrates everyday life and sometimes it becomes the center of how we communicate and the determining factor in coping being alone. My advice would be this, find the balance - the less you think about “me” the less time you have to criticize yourself - or anyone for that matter; because you just might be content.
