Making my way to my internship this morning, an idea struck me. We (not the royal we, but our generation) are different. We are. We are inherently different.
This struck me this morning as, for what seems like weeks now, people have been talking about or randomly referencing our generation – what year did it start? and the different nicknames and characteristics we have been ascribed thus far.
But you know what? Forget about that. I declare us the Generation Distracted by Shiny Objects.
No, we are not “Generation Y,” “Millennial Generation,” “Internet Generation,” “Information Age Generation,” or even the “MTV Generation” (those are my older siblings – Gen Xers).
As I just wrote, we are different. Growing up in, living and breathing a high-tech society has impacted our socialization process to the roots. We are so different than our parents that we teach them about
technology and society – not the other way around. Sure, our parents/grandparents/elders have taught us a lot, don’t misread me, but think about how many times you’ve taught someone older than you how to utilize new technologies/new media. Life has radically changed since we were born (ok – major over-generalization and really only applicable to the US and select other countries), thus we cannot be labeled as one thing or another.
We, like the constant technologies introduced daily into our lives, are always on to the next thing — distracted by shiny objects. I could maybe back this up with data on the number of us – Generation
DBSO- who have ADHD or ADD or who are addicted to the Internet and shiny objects (okay, I have no idea about that last claim and if there has even been a study done about this) but we are Internet-savvy. We are new media savvy– even if we use it to meet our own needs, we are still always obtaining new and exciting information (I like to acquire trivia bits – just ask the CCT folks and have 8 million tabs open in firefox to keep me engaged). Blackberries, starbucks, ipods/mp3 players are all items extensively utilized by us to keep moving and to let us get distracted by the next exciting and shiny object.
Maybe you disagree? Maybe I am full of fluff? These are just my thoughts this Wednesday morning as I wrap up school for the year and turn to my summer of fun.
cindy
Genevieve
theshrew
Erin
qcpguestblogger
erin f.
4 comments
Comments feed for this article
May 9, 2008 at 4:55 am
Genevieve
I am definitely distracted, as in I started reading this post two days ago, forgot about it before I finished it, sat down to read it this morning between bouts of checking my email to see if I’ve gotten a new message in the last minute, checking the weather, and singing a Beatles song that’s stuck in my head.
An alternate name for our generation: Generation Multi-task!
Because I can no longer walk anywhere for more than 5 minutes without calling someone, because I check my phone for texts all the time, because I always have at LEAST 3 tabs open on Firefox, because I can no longer eat without either talking to someone, watching TV, reading a book, or playing on the internet. Maybe our entire generation needs to learn how to meditate or something.
May 9, 2008 at 4:56 am
Genevieve
Whoo, and while that was uploading I got two new emails!
May 9, 2008 at 7:16 am
cindy
do you think shiny objects are distracting in a bad or good way? it seems about right, all this new technology has also strengthened out multi-tasking abilities (but what about our attention to detail skills)? do you think our parents were ever asked or high-lighted on their resume how great were at multi-tasking when interviewing for jobs? maybe this also indicates a roving eye. we’re always on the look out for the next little gadget (little is key) that will enhance our lifestyles, make life “easier” or at least seemingly more efficient!
i think elizabeth raises some really good and important points about defining features of our generation and what we are influenced by. i think these distractions also leads us to have a difficult time paying attention for long periods of times on any given thing. our need for constant stimulation has been responded in kind by the business world (i’m thinking APPLE right now..)
May 9, 2008 at 7:20 am
cindy
i felt compelled to put in a p.s.
as soon as i commented, i noticed on my dashboard a little announcement. there’s this new thing called sphere that as they put it: “connects your current articles to contextually relevant content from your archives as well as from Blog Posts, Media Articles, Video, Photos, and Ads from across the Web.” hence the little links at the end of each of our posts. how crazy is that? how far has blogging come? much like google, a series of related articles are now being generated automatically based on what technology thinks your post is about. your readers can then get doubly distracted, open up more tabs, and explore more worlds previously unknown to them. mind-boggling, but exciting!