MTV ERA

Here is a piece I wrote to be considered for the Opinions desk of my school's newspaper concerning my generation and the media. I saw this image today on tumblr: that just summed up what I am trying to say oh so well. Credit to: No Cats on the Blog (http://72dotsperinch.blogspot.com/) for this perfect image.

Here is the piece:

MTV-Era’s Effects Run Deep

My generation: media-ridden, media-driven, life in bullet points, text/call/IM, constant updates, internet based, internet run, reality-TV, apathetic except in beliefs, in the present, slowly acceptant of the seemingly dismal future, a vague spirit of revolution, it’s all up for grabs.

While these are just bits and pieces of a characterization of my “MTV-Era” generation – because really, can one characterize an entire generation? – these qualities all come from the same place: the media’s dominant role in our lives. Quick, easy access to a breadth of information constantly at our fingertips has created the recognizable effect of people interested in exactly those things they are interested in and ignorant of everything else. This effect is inevitable considering the everyday bombardment of media, but the ignorance it creates has undeniably marked our generation. We are told our whole lives to be “well-rounded” individuals, but concerning American culture, how many people do you know could have equally stirring conversations about politics and entertainment? “Going green” and religion? Science and the economy?

When looking back at older generations, of parents and grandparents, it seems that their lives were not so regulated through the lens of the media. They didn’t know the minutiae of the wars, never saw the process of presidential debates and elections as in depth, were not so celebrity-obsessed and had more interest in what was happening in their lives. I know it’s easy to romanticize the past and I’m not suggesting life is better without the internet or the other aspects of our generation that make it the most technologically advanced. Instead, I want to emphasize that these things that construe our present can easily overpower our roles in defining it, which is a bad thing. Because at the end of the day, I want to be able to tell my kids and grandkids that I spent my time doing things I cared about and actively participated in my life, not that I spent three hours a day checking e-mail, facebook and twitter, two hours watching TV, one hour watching the news and spent my spare time shopping for products I saw advertised all day. Somehow these things because they have become necessary, but in the process there has been a loss of the “real”, things that “matter.”

Perhaps the most obvious “real” thing that our generation has changed is the quest for love. Dating websites are increasingly popular and successful and it’s no longer “weird” to explain that you met on the internet. Even our version of classifieds, the website craigslist, has an entire section dedicated to romance, beyond personals, including “missed connections” and “rants and raves.” Have we really become so far removed from human interaction?

Listen, I don’t have the answer. I’m not writing to make you feel bad about anything because I am just as entangled in this web as anyone else. Really, we are all guilty because we are simply by-products an atmosphere ingrained with media, telling us how to live, what to like, what to do, where to go and what to think about. In order for any sort of freedom from that power, this issue needs to be addressed more clearly than it ever has before. Perhaps the next time we log onto facebook we can decide to call or visit a friend, the next time we open our homepages we can enter “world events” into the searchbar, or the next time we’re watching TV and think, “Wow, this is so stupid,” we can actually turn it off instead of finish out the hour. I can’t pinpoint exactly when it became more difficult to stay grounded and interested in which directions our lives are headed, but here we are, and here’s hoping we start to fix it.

I haven't heard back from the paper yet for Opinions, but I have heard from the Arts & Features desk, which is something I really want. I'll know by the end of tomorrow whether or not I get the job, so it's kinda scary but I am excited and happy to have experienced the process of this either way, whether I get it or not, because I think it will prepare me adequately for whatever career paths down which I choose to go.

Also, if you are interested in more of my take on the media in blog-snippet form, head on over to http://centerofthecookie.tumblr.com.