by Jessica Reed
A quick look at the 00's & youth culture: are we that doomed, or just a bit confused?
Corporate media warns us that networking sites like Myspace or Bebo are dangerous and addicting cyber-spaces full of predators. Opponents (including practionners, researchers and openDemocracy columnists) maintain fear is overblown, and that those sites play a crucial role in the development of social skills during teenagehood. Parents worry about the kids; they end up having more friends on their computer screens than in 'real life'. A new book asserts that our 'toxic culture' is bad for children. Or maybe it's not that harmful, replies a Guardian's columnist today. The Telegraph publishes an open letter signed by dozens of academics warning us against the deplorable effects of 'junk culture and modern life' on our children. A US academics fear "people will interpret it to mean that technology is bad bad bad". And just when books and movies about tragic high-school rampages are starting to use art to comment on Columbine, armed youngsters still kill and injure others. We are the slacker generation, the Internet generation, generation X, generation Y or generation 9/11 - marketing categories youth vaguely understands, but never admits to be part of. Youth culture and its corporatisation is an obsession - Naomi Klein says it has become globalization's most powerful symbol; youth is brainwashed and neurotic and community minded but technology-savvy. We are surrounded by i-pods, mac computers, free music and free movies, but youngsters are supposedly basking in their own ennui like never before.
In a nutshell? Teenagers handle technology & online networking tools better than adults- who are a bit bitter about it; junk food and trash tv = bad, tragedies motivated by social alienation have happened before and will continue to exist, and worrying too much about the next generation = unoriginal.
See? Getting it was easy, and everything is going to be okay...
