Homophobia: Our generation is more open about homosexuality than any before us (except maybe those ancient Greeks touching peens left and right). People even 10-years older are shocked when I tell them that my straight male friends hug one another and openly declare their attraction to Ricky Rubio, baffled that a straight man could even discern when another man was good-looking. Our generation is open about same-sex crushes, even among straight people, because we aren’t afraid of being called gay. That’s because more of us than any generation before know that it’s not an insult and that sexuality is a spectrum that we get our 20’s to explore. We’ve all grown up with openly gay friends, and know that it’s perfectly natural to fall outside of picket fence sexuality. (Except those religious weirdos, who don’t read this blog anyway.) Gay marriage will be legal once we take control of congress, I would bet money on it.
Overbearing Intellectual Property Laws: We saw the downfall of Napster, and continued to find ways to pirate whatever we wanted, whenever and however. We have a deep, almost religious appreciation for the Internet and how it facilitates our acquiring of the media that opens up the world in front of our eyes (even the poor of us who can’t afford seasons of DVDs). That’s why we respect that should we create creative content, we will make less money off of it. Internet culture is free and open, and this has done more for creativity than IP law ever will. This has made us more humble about our creative endeavours, carrying them out not for the money but out of passion, not with expensive production resources, but with whatever we can scrap together. We will promote an innovative culture that uses technology to share, remix and collaborate. We will not pass any bills that repress the little guy for accidentally posting an AP photo on their blog.
Old Luxury: In the last few decades, luxury has been about having the “it” designer product, having a pool, having a McMansion, having a shiny car. For my generation, victims of a recession that made those things look laughably impractical and unattainable, those things matter much less. This has even permeated into the rich among us, who choose to show their wealth by bragging about how much time and money they have to reach self-actualization. “Just did an hour of hot yoga after talking to my personal chakra consultant. Now off to Mexico to learn how to basket weave!” Just showing that you have money has gone out of style – now the most admired people are showing what they’re doing with it.
Blind Consumerism: You may not have guessed that consumer responsibility would have anything to do with Gen-Y and Millennials – kids raised on Tamogatchis and Happy Meals – but we were coming of age during an important change in how brands interact with the world. While, yes, we love fast food and Forever 21, our brand heroes are Apple and Facebook. We care more about innovation than sexy spokespeople, and have learned to expect brands to prove that they are doing more good for the world than bad. We want younger people like us to be directly represented in both our brands (Mark Zuckerberg) and our government (Barack Obama), because we know that being in touch with technology is not just an advantage in leaders, but a must.
Our generation, and the ones below us, who are already intimidating us with their spookily instinctual knowledge of iPads, are not just a bunch of lazy cynics who won’t get drivers’ licences cuz we’re too busy doing nothing on Facebook. We are people more empowered than ever by technology who have been massively humbled by wake-up calls about the global economy. The only thing holding us back is the idea that we’re inferior to greater generations, which I’m pretty sure columnists all throughout time have written about younger people. Tell them to suck it while you work 60-hour weeks and enjoy your youthful immortality while you can.
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