The Now Generation
One of our all-star Sawhorse team members, Natan Edelsburg, gave me a fun challenge by inviting me to write a little essay for his report on The Now Generation. Here it is:
Never trust anyone over 20. We grew up relying on editors to tell us what matters. Whatever was on the front page of a newspaper, cover of a magazine or top of the news hour seemed to be what mattered most.
The Now Generation doesn’t care about pages, digital or print. They start their day with feeds — in Facebook or maybe even Twitter. Their friends tell them what matters by posting links, short messages and photos. That link might lead to a New York Times article, or a Gawker post, or some blog we’ve never heard of before. But does it really matter what it goes to? If it’s bull or boring, it’ll be called out in comments. If it matters, it will be “liked” (Facebook’s term for a thumbs up vote).
These kids with their inane status updates are doomed, right? I’m of the later part of what was called the MTV Generation. As the name implies, we watched a lot of TV. The rise of cable TV had social commentators declaring that we were headed for disaster. Who’s reading anymore? They had a point. TV is a one-way medium. It doesn’t make you a better reader or writer. And most of it doesn’t make you a wiser person either.
Now, to the horror of television executives everywhere, young people are spending most of their time online rather than in front of the TV. It’s easy to forget most of what we do on the web is reading and writing. It’s interactive. And it can be transcendent. The worst of the web is worse than the worst of TV. But the best of the web is far better than the best of television. Wikipedia provides more knowledge to even the poorest kid with internet access than Britannica did to the few who could afford it. Blogs and Twitter provide a platform for self-expression previously reserved for a select few. Facebook provides a window into the diverse lives of classmates, friends and colleagues. Who would have thought in the ’80s that reading and writing would make a comeback in the ’00s?
The Now Generation is no more ignorant than any generation that’s preceded them. They’re definitely savvier and better communicators. I hope they turn out wiser too. But that doesn’t make understanding them any easier. Good luck!
