Where I come from, baked goods are a gesture of kindness. My Midwestern upbringing taught me that whenever you want to make a good impression, brighten someone’s day or simply put your procrastibaking to good use, a tray of homemade cookies is a great way to go. This is why I chose to deliver freshly baked chocolate chip and pecan cookies to my downstairs neighbor. She had moved in recently and word got around that she was filing complaints about my dogs. I thought that surely this was a situation where a few cookies could at the very least not hurt.
Imagine my surprise when the cookie plate returned to my
doorstep two days later, holding a neatly folded letter. That letter, typed single spaced, outlined all the horrible
things we upstairs residents had done. My neighbor – let’s call her June - used
an impressive amount of spite and malice while ending with the accusation of us
being “infuriatingly entitled.” So much for a good impression.
I can cut June some slack. She’s surely been under a lot of
stress while dealing with the fact that she bought a downstairs condo despite her supersonic hearing and hatred
of shared walls. It’s a tough spot to be in, and I empathize. But I’d be lying
if I said her words didn’t sting a little bit.
The mention of the E-word might send chills down any Millennial’s spine. I and all my fellow Gen-Y’ers have been dodging shots at
our work ethic, personal values, acceptance of technology and differences in
consumer behavior for years now. We’ve been accused of killing everything from
the housing market to Applebee’s. And the truth is that all we’ve done to earn
these accomplishments? It’s the same exact thing I’ve been doing in my upstairs
condo that’s driven June insane: simply living.
Millennials, myself and my husband and our two dogs included,
are not out to ruin anyone’s day (or industry, or...exorcism?). The point of contention lies in
the fact that we are new, we are not like the ones before us, and our decisions
about daily life don’t always make sense to older generations. In the midst of
advancing technology and evolving societies, things are going to look a bit weird
for a while. They always do.
This might not seem connected to the conversation of Social
Media and Culture at first glance. However, I challenge you to recall one of
the very first points we covered in class this fall and continue to bring up at
every topic. The thing we see happening with, being predicted, and being feared
is the same time and again: change. It is a constant and yet a point of trepidation
at every turn. It’s a classic case. Before society feared the social network, it
feared the newspaper. Before the newspaper was the printing press. Before the
press, the pen. It’s cyclical and yet unrelenting.
I’ve been coming back to this concept quite often lately. Upon
reading Astra Taylor’s recap of the slow disintegration of the art of
professional journalism, I found myself mourning the loss of what used to be a truly
great art form. It was a reminder that things are always changing, and
sometimes that brings discomfort. As the internet gets weirder, the news gets
faker and the neighbors get more and more incredulous, I remind myself that
nothing about this is unprecedented. What will replace journalism, or Facebook,
or any SNS currently in use, might truly be the best thing yet. It's a future we can only hope for.
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