Y

Defining and Defending Gen Y

Every time we pull Generation Y out of the memory hole, Gen Y deniers come out of the woodwork to parrot Madison Avenue's gaslighting against it. Not that it mattes. Because the establishment sources they cite just end up defining and defending Gen Y. Frequent readers may remember the AdAge…
May 23, 202419 Comments
1990s TV

Watching the 90s Watch the 90s

Opining about the 1990s is all the rage in the internet salons these days. If you haven't been following the debate, it may come as some surprise that nostalgia for the final decade of he twentieth century is now a subject of controversy. The disagreement arises between those who want…
May 20, 202426 Comments
Nostalgia Room

Nostalgia in Light of Generation Theory

Over the years, I've dedicated what feels like miles of page inches to nostalgia in light of generational theory. Other counterculture figures have gone to great lengths showing how the outdated demographic models fail to account for the increasing rate of social change. It's not hard to understand. If your behavior…
May 10, 20245 Comments
2013

2013: The Year It All Changed

Our previous post about members of Gen Y facing the choice of growing up or becomig a byword gave rise to incisive commentary. Here, in no particular order, are the editor's pick of the comments. First, a diagnosis of what ails Generation Y by author JD Cowan: When I wrote…
May 8, 202410 Comments
Warning to Others

Generation Y: A Warning to Others

A valued reader writes in with a generation Y cautionary tale: I wanted to share with you a tale of a real life classmate of mine. We’ll call him Pat. Pat was a member of Gen Y. We met in the early 2010s during our time in law school. We…
May 7, 20248 Comments
Tolkien Long Defeat

Fighting the Long Defeat?

Spend some time scrolling through dissident Twitter, particularly those corners favored by more traditional Catholics, and you'll soon run across references to J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis. Both are the subject of myriad BrainyQuotes and, especially in Tolkien's case, movie still memes. There's no denying that the works of these…
May 1, 20246 Comments
Kids TV 1980s

Gen Y and the Pre-Internet Age

Getting mugged by reality is a definitive experience of Generation Y. The last cohort with personal memories of the pre-9/11 world, Ys have entered middle age in a state of deep confusion regarding their place in society. So far, the story of their lives has been “Stuff yourself on fast…
April 30, 202419 Comments
Whirlwind

Millennnials: Reaping the Cultural Whirlwind

A recurring theme of this blog is the widening gap between Baby Boomers and Millennials in terms of wealth distribution and cultural inheritance. The data paints a stark picture: Baby Boomers, through a combination of historical windfalls and economic expansion, have accumulated unprecedented wealth, wielding significant power and influence that…
April 29, 20247 Comments
Pump Up the Volume 1

Pump Up the Volume, Pump Up the Jam

A Gen X introvert's Baby Boomer dad uproots their family from New York and moves them across the country to a prefab Arizona suburb. Gifted a short-wave radio to keep in touch with his friends back east, the isolated and disoriented Mark finds an outlet for his existential angst as…
April 26, 202416 Comments
Stage Three Cancer

Nostalgic for Stage Three Cancer

A common obstacle to communication that can crop up between people with different outlooks and motives is the risk of talking past each other. This kind of miscommunication can arise on any subject. No topic of conversation is immune. Take Dunkaroos, for example. One man might point out that they…
April 12, 202426 Comments