by Cheo Tyehimba



In his renowned 1927 essay, "The Problem of Generations," German sociologist Karl Mannheim adeptly defined a generation as "a cohort of people who collectively feel the force of a historical event and develop a consciousness about it." Folks in the 30's had the Depression, in the 40's they had WWII, and the generations of the 50's and 60's formed their value-systems from their immersion into the political and social cauldrons of that time. But to the post civil rights generations born during the late sixties, seventies, eighties and beyond, a consensus about the measure and meaning of our "historical event" seems to be lacking. Sure there's 9-11, but even this event has seemingly been trumped by something more pervasive: The Digital Revolution.

More than anything else, we've become the leaders of a new age in America. One that holds a kind of limited-liability, need-it-now, option-obsessed mantle above all social and moral concerns. Today, one's e-literacy and/or ability to influence the blogosphere by doing everything from mounting a major online political campaign to nabbing a record deal based a YouTube posting, is a true marker power.

As technology has coiled down our DNA, life has become simpler in some regards. We have more choices than our grandparents or parents ever dreamed of having at our age. On its face, that is a good thing. But our greater problem, "our Vietnam," is that many of us have become like cats stuck in a decision-tree of our own making -- we lack the will of commitment that unified prior generations.

If you think this is another whiny editorial to lament the slackness of our times, you've only got a piece of it. What this is, is an indictment of our acceptance of media violence-as-inveiglement and a broad swipe against how we've tried to make the gears of consumerism work within the context of our inner lives. Have you forgotten the labels that have been slapped on our backs? We've been the Pepsi Generation, the MTV Generation, the Dot.Com Generation, BlackBerry Generation and I'd be willing to bet we're about three months aways from being labeled the i-Pod Generation.

While trading in your Day-Timer for a Blackberry Pearl might increase your options for productivity, exchanging your boyfriend for a more monied or upwardly-mobile version, while once deemed declasse, is now social acceptable. This new tech-etiquette social code no longer requires people to actually hold an eye-to-eye conversations or truly engage in once socially-required pleasantries. Yep, being plugged in out-ranks being pleasant everytime. A couple years ago we joked about being addicted to our "Crack Berry" but the joke's now on us.

"It is like taking a drug," says Robert LaRose, a professor at Michigan State University who studies Internet and WiFi addiction. "There are people who get so wrapped up, and something major goes wrong with their life like they lose their job."

Recent research indicates that computer overuse could also be physiological. Just as with exercise or food consumption, sending and receiving instant messages is a rush to the brain.
It's possible that engaging in compulsive emailing and computer use increases the levels of dopamine, the neurotransmitter associated with the pleasure part of the brain, says Carrie Ellis-Kalton, assistant psychology professor at Maryville University in St. Louis.

Meanwhile, most of us have embraced the technological multi-tasking required when using hand-held devices, cell phones, laptops, MP3 players, etc. even at the risk of behaving badly. Think about it. While driving to a dinner date, you almost crash into the shiny SUV in front of you because you're reading text on your handheld. Once you arrive and sit down, you immediately begin texting a friend on your Treo, then you recieve a call from someone who wants you to check your calendar (on your Treo) for an event but before you can do that you have another incoming call. Then you look up briefly and wonder why your dinner date looks upset. Why is she mad? Not so much because she thinks you're being rude. Nope, never that. She's upset because her cell phone battery just died and she can't call her girlfriend to come rescue her from your boring ass.

But it doesn't stop there. We've allowed this multi-optioned mileu to seep into every faucet of our personal lives. Newly married and not getting along with you're spouse? Divorce him. Have too many "issues" to work it out with your boyfriend but you still long for a bambino? Hit the sperm bank (or find a gay donor and "go half on a kid"). Can't stand New York in the winter but love it in the summer? Join the bi-coastal elite. Don't know how to deal with a geeky admirer? Tell him he's no longer in your Fave 5. Don't get me wrong. I'm a pro-choice kinda guy but something is amiss when "our choices" become so hyper-marketed that we lose touch with our true power of choice (read:discernment). The promise of this brave new century will be made or unmade by things like DNA-testing, cloning, stem cell research, biometrics, solar-energy and space travel but unless we come to grips with the indecision and rootlessness forged by market-driven "freedoms," we may be destined to endlessly "surf" through our lifetimes.

We've either ignored of been swayed to ignore the compelling political and social issues of our times (AIDS, violence, poverty, homelessness, health care, mis-education, etc) in favor of being caught up by the rapture of our disposable pursuits. According to the US Census Bureau, voter turnout among Americans has declined from nearly 50 percent of all eligible voters in 1972, when the voting age was lowered from 21 to 18, to 32.4 percent in recent years. Despite this, I believe we care just as much as our parents did, but we've been blinded by a matrix of options. Call it digital-age dysfunction.

So what's a generation to do? Well, I for one have no need for labels. But as a writer, activist, and non- participatory member of Gen X, I think what has traditionally been our albatross can set us free. A few quick suggestions: Stop holding cell phone conversations in the elevator. Find a way to go a little longer without checking your email (every 5 minutes can't be healthy). If you get a call or a text during a private conversation or intimate moment, don't answer it. That's why you have voicemail, remember? In time, you'll find being unplugged can be just as addictive. Get clear. Know your intention, be it in love, family, money, career, business, or parenthood. Then go after what you want. Stand for something or join the long line of folks juggling (and texting) everything.