By Megan Tripp, Staff Writer, Emerson College
On a daily basis I check Facebook anywhere from 8 to 20 times. Between logging in on my computer at work, using it to procrastinate on homework on my laptop in my room, or scanning it on my phone while I wait for my drink to be ready at Starbucks, I probably spend more time on Facebook than talking to people face to face.
Whether intentional or not, Zuckerberg started a social media revolution by inventing “The Facebook.” Never before has a generation been so singularly obsessed with each other’s lives. Facebook statuses, tumblr posts, and Tweets have become almost as addicting, if not more so, as tabloid headlines and People’s Sexiest Man Alive issue.
So in the midst of all this information that we absorb everyday via social media, where can we hope to find individual identities? Or an identity for our generation?
Our generation has been dubbed the Technology Generation and without a doubt we have lived up to our name. But compared to the sixties’ generation of flower children and hippies and the eighties’ generation of gritty consumerism, what mark will we leave on history? Would you want your last Facebook status or Tumblr picture to be left on your gravestone as your legacy?
Sometimes I think we’re another Lost Generation. However, instead of being lost as a result of a worldwide war, we are lost as a result of the endless amount of Tweets and statuses and blog posts. We collect and post quotes and song lyrics more than we create our own original ideas, it seems. Are we somehow using the Internet to create a life made up of bits and pieces of other peoples’ lives? It seems that way to me. Whose status we like or blog we follow defines us to the world, and to ourselves.
Creating something from nothing and establishing a firm identity both individually and as a collective generation is terrifying. Maybe we attempt to get around that by reading Facebook statuses, and quoting Voltaire and John Green on our blogs, by watching TV shows like “Girls” about someone else’s twenty-something experience. Does this make us another Lost Generation? Perhaps.
But, ironically, our generation also seems to be firmly grounded in the idea that we will achieve our long-term, permanent goals . Even those without a solid Emerson-esque career vision want something to come of their lives. It’s very American of us, isn’t it? To want to create lives for ourselves on our own terms, to become people that stand out and do things that mean something in the long run.
So have we found ourselves in that aspect? Are we simultaneously the Lost and the Found Generation? That sounds very obscure and hipster of us, doesn’t it? Less like a Hemingway quote and more like a quirky Lena Dunham Tweet.
Megan Tripp is a junior WLP major who loves coffee, Gilmore Girls, and sparkly things. Her first piece of writing was titled "Miranda and the Purple Stone" and she is still quite proud of it.
On a daily basis I check Facebook anywhere from 8 to 20 times. Between logging in on my computer at work, using it to procrastinate on homework on my laptop in my room, or scanning it on my phone while I wait for my drink to be ready at Starbucks, I probably spend more time on Facebook than talking to people face to face.
Whether intentional or not, Zuckerberg started a social media revolution by inventing “The Facebook.” Never before has a generation been so singularly obsessed with each other’s lives. Facebook statuses, tumblr posts, and Tweets have become almost as addicting, if not more so, as tabloid headlines and People’s Sexiest Man Alive issue.
So in the midst of all this information that we absorb everyday via social media, where can we hope to find individual identities? Or an identity for our generation?
Our generation has been dubbed the Technology Generation and without a doubt we have lived up to our name. But compared to the sixties’ generation of flower children and hippies and the eighties’ generation of gritty consumerism, what mark will we leave on history? Would you want your last Facebook status or Tumblr picture to be left on your gravestone as your legacy?
Sometimes I think we’re another Lost Generation. However, instead of being lost as a result of a worldwide war, we are lost as a result of the endless amount of Tweets and statuses and blog posts. We collect and post quotes and song lyrics more than we create our own original ideas, it seems. Are we somehow using the Internet to create a life made up of bits and pieces of other peoples’ lives? It seems that way to me. Whose status we like or blog we follow defines us to the world, and to ourselves.
Creating something from nothing and establishing a firm identity both individually and as a collective generation is terrifying. Maybe we attempt to get around that by reading Facebook statuses, and quoting Voltaire and John Green on our blogs, by watching TV shows like “Girls” about someone else’s twenty-something experience. Does this make us another Lost Generation? Perhaps.
But, ironically, our generation also seems to be firmly grounded in the idea that we will achieve our long-term, permanent goals . Even those without a solid Emerson-esque career vision want something to come of their lives. It’s very American of us, isn’t it? To want to create lives for ourselves on our own terms, to become people that stand out and do things that mean something in the long run.
So have we found ourselves in that aspect? Are we simultaneously the Lost and the Found Generation? That sounds very obscure and hipster of us, doesn’t it? Less like a Hemingway quote and more like a quirky Lena Dunham Tweet.
Megan Tripp is a junior WLP major who loves coffee, Gilmore Girls, and sparkly things. Her first piece of writing was titled "Miranda and the Purple Stone" and she is still quite proud of it.