Here's a link for all the unemployed addicts forced to live on cat food out there, this time from the New York Times:
Generation OMG
Interesting takeaways: for those who like labels, this article calls millennials the "homelander" generation (as in security) and also calls us the next "Silent Generation." The basic thrust of the article is that the generation that lives through the Great Recession may/may not be branded by it, and that we older members of the cohort may prioritize either security/creativity in our jobs/unjobs.
I remember when people were talking about how millennials were going to be the "organization kid" generation and how we were going to do try and do everything before we had mental breakdowns. Now we're going to be like the children who came of age during the Depression? I suspect this is a combination of Great Recession Alarmism and the modern (post-modern?) desire to analyze and categorize in media res.
P.S. Millennials and Homelanders sound like rival factions in a sci-fi novel, no?
Showing posts with label links. Show all posts
Showing posts with label links. Show all posts
Sunday, March 8, 2009
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Today's Links
Here's another link for my fellow unemployed drug addicts out there (coincidentally, again from Newsweek, which is apparently the newsletter of unemployed drug addicts forced to live on cat food everywhere):
Laid-Off Men Don't Do Dishes
The crux of the article is that unemployment affects more men than women, and that while women who are laid off spend a lot more time doing domestic tasks, unemployed men seem to do less, instead dedicating their time to "snacking, sleeping, and channel surfing." Here's the money quote, and the reason I'm posting this link on the blog: "We men today may be taking care of our kids, our skin and our feelings more than Grandpa Ralph ever did, but we still grapple with the same core problem: proving that we weren't just born male—we've become Men. And during economic crises, men humiliated by their loss of work often compensate by reasserting their worst hypermasculine impulses."
Two things:
1) Does the connection between work and self-esteem still apply for millennials? I think of the large number of us who either a)have trouble finding work or b) have trouble deciding what work we want to do or c) just generally prefer to engage in some floating. Are male millennials therefore emasculated, or we just not that focused on it, and (if true at all) this article would only apply to older people?
2) I'd say that the author of the article has diagnosed a general problem with human history not particular to the Great Recession. If men weren't so concerned with proving they were Men, I suspect human history would have a lot less violence and mayhem. Too bad we don't have little LED lights that click on to let us know when we're men, or get a certificate in the mail or something. But again I would ask: Is concern with being Men something else that millennial culture is leaving behind? I feel like the closest I've ever been to anyone worrying about his manhood is a Hemingway story (but maybe that just says something about the circles in which I run.)
Laid-Off Men Don't Do Dishes
The crux of the article is that unemployment affects more men than women, and that while women who are laid off spend a lot more time doing domestic tasks, unemployed men seem to do less, instead dedicating their time to "snacking, sleeping, and channel surfing." Here's the money quote, and the reason I'm posting this link on the blog: "We men today may be taking care of our kids, our skin and our feelings more than Grandpa Ralph ever did, but we still grapple with the same core problem: proving that we weren't just born male—we've become Men. And during economic crises, men humiliated by their loss of work often compensate by reasserting their worst hypermasculine impulses."
Two things:
1) Does the connection between work and self-esteem still apply for millennials? I think of the large number of us who either a)have trouble finding work or b) have trouble deciding what work we want to do or c) just generally prefer to engage in some floating. Are male millennials therefore emasculated, or we just not that focused on it, and (if true at all) this article would only apply to older people?
2) I'd say that the author of the article has diagnosed a general problem with human history not particular to the Great Recession. If men weren't so concerned with proving they were Men, I suspect human history would have a lot less violence and mayhem. Too bad we don't have little LED lights that click on to let us know when we're men, or get a certificate in the mail or something. But again I would ask: Is concern with being Men something else that millennial culture is leaving behind? I feel like the closest I've ever been to anyone worrying about his manhood is a Hemingway story (but maybe that just says something about the circles in which I run.)
Monday, February 16, 2009
Today's Links
For all the other unemployed drug addicts forced to live on cat food out there who missed it, there was an article in Newsweek recently which fits the theme here:
Barack and Michelle: The Millennial's Dream Couple
A lot of people I know do seem a little too obsessed with the President and First Lady, though plenty of them are Boomers or Gen-Xers too. Still, I like taxonomies in general, and I particularly enjoy anything that attempts to classify or describe millennials, so let's add this one to the heap.
(Exception to the rule: the woman I met on Saturday who said, "I hope I'm not being presumptuous, but you look like a millennial," before she told me about the millennials at her work asking about what volunteer opportunities were available and scoffing that the desire to have these opportunities provided seemed to her to be a continuation of the scheduled play-dates with which millennials were raised. Not only has this connection been made before, lady, but I'm not entirely sure you should hold strangers to task for the actions of their larger demographic group. In fact, that may be a definition of prejudice. Plus, no one was talking about millennials; you just brought it up un-motivated, which was conversational awkwardness verging on inconsiderateness. And lastly, not to resort to ad hominem or to be off-topic myself, but I don't think anyone with large, blockish, orange glasses and wearing that many layers or colors -- i.e., someone who clearly goes to such effort to look hipster -- should really be critical of millennials who, when all is said and done, are the preeminent arbiters of all which is hipster.)
Barack and Michelle: The Millennial's Dream Couple
A lot of people I know do seem a little too obsessed with the President and First Lady, though plenty of them are Boomers or Gen-Xers too. Still, I like taxonomies in general, and I particularly enjoy anything that attempts to classify or describe millennials, so let's add this one to the heap.
(Exception to the rule: the woman I met on Saturday who said, "I hope I'm not being presumptuous, but you look like a millennial," before she told me about the millennials at her work asking about what volunteer opportunities were available and scoffing that the desire to have these opportunities provided seemed to her to be a continuation of the scheduled play-dates with which millennials were raised. Not only has this connection been made before, lady, but I'm not entirely sure you should hold strangers to task for the actions of their larger demographic group. In fact, that may be a definition of prejudice. Plus, no one was talking about millennials; you just brought it up un-motivated, which was conversational awkwardness verging on inconsiderateness. And lastly, not to resort to ad hominem or to be off-topic myself, but I don't think anyone with large, blockish, orange glasses and wearing that many layers or colors -- i.e., someone who clearly goes to such effort to look hipster -- should really be critical of millennials who, when all is said and done, are the preeminent arbiters of all which is hipster.)
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