In 1942, a draft was declared in the United States. Democracy and human rights were being threatened abroad and young men no older than us answered the call. They came to be known as “the greatest generation,” and decades later, this era of American history is still defined by its youth.
Twenty years after that, young Americans stepped up once again to write another chapter of American history. Civil rights and war protests were led by teenagers and young adults. Societal norms were overturned and amidst the turmoil, the 1960s and ’70s also gave us, arguably, the best music and youth culture of all time.
Decades from now, what will historians write about our generation? What words will be in bold and defined in the glossary? Snooki? “16 and Pregnant?” Will we be considered “the dumbest generation?”
While our parents listened to Bob Dylan, Led Zeppelin, the Rolling Stones and The Beatles, we will go down in history as the generation that brought the world Ke$ha, Lady Gaga and, of course, Kim Kardashian’s new masterpiece “Jam.”
While Bob Dylan wrote of the grave injustices of society and spoke of the political climate of the day, Ke$ha speaks to those among us who “wake up in the morning feelin’ like P. Diddy.” While Led Zeppelin preformed in basement bars until they were appreciated for their genius and ascended to their rightful place on the world stage, Kim Kardashian is only on the public radar for being a spoiled tramp that made a sex tape.
I am not, however, simply saying that we have entered a low point in music quality (see late ’80s); I am saying that we have entered an all-time low in pop culture quality and esteem among all other U.S. generations.
More than any people that have ever lived, we have incredible access to media and each other. We have lightning-fast global communication, thousands of television channels and millions of websites. What do we do with these unprecedented opportunities?
We have “Jersey Shore,” “Teen Mom” and Twitter feeds to share with anyone that will listen, possibly our thoughts on Ronnie’s treatment of Sammi Sweetheart. Young Egyptians recently used Twitter and Facebook to topple a dictatorship and we use it to tweet that our breakfast made us gassy.
We idolize and obsess over teenagers that are too stupid to use birth control and a group of Italian Americans that are alcoholics by every definition of the word. We make these people famous not because of their talents, intelligence, or accomplishments but instead, for quite the opposite. Outrageous behavior and stupid remarks are all it takes to have wealth and fame in a time of YouTube and MTV.
What I find to be the saddest part in all of this is that I have no advice for our generation. As long as this depravity and stupidity makes millions of dollars for media moguls, there is no chance it will stop. My only hope is that we come up with a cure for some disease and soon. I refuse to go down in history as the dark age of popular culture or as the technologically jaded generation that squandered their opportunities for greatness in exchange for more screen time for Snooki.