From the Baby Boomers being remembered as the rock and roll generation, Generation X being known for testing the limits and being anti-establishment, what is Generation Y going to be remembered for? Those of us who are millennials have grown up during a time where technology has been rapidly accelerating, but is this a good thing or a bad thing? Honestly, I believe that Generation Y’s obsession with technology and the inability to detach from it is unfortunately what we will be remembered for.
Millennials are obsessed with technology and social media, we all know that. With new advances in technology released on a daily basis, we eat it all up. There is a new iPhone version released practically every six months, even if there is nothing wrong with the current phone people have, they will rush to buy the new one. We use the Internet as a way to divert ourselves from our problems. Everywhere you look there is a screen, and these touch screens are making us lose touch with each other.
Those who are from Generation Y are all about social media. A person’s self-worth has been lowered down to the amount of likes received on an Instagram post, how many followers they have, and how many re-tweets they can receive. We are so engulfed in our online lives that we neglect those right in front of us. With large lists of friends on Facebook, how many of these people are actually our friends?
So what will Generation Y be remembered for? Will we be called the Generation of social media?
We will be remembered for walking with our eyes focused upon our phones, only making eye contact through a picture or through a video chat that we are afraid to make eye contact with people right in front of us. We sit at a dinner table and no one is talking because we are all scrolling mindlessly through Twitter. We lack the ability to converse with people because we use Snapchat as a form of communicating through pictures that can only be up to 10 seconds. Instead of a girl getting asked on a date, she gets asked to “Netflix and chill.” We feel that we are entitled to everything and when we don’t get it we aren’t afraid to hop onto Facebook to show our disapproval. The standard of a compliment has been lowered to a series of emojis at the end of a text message. Do we even know how to actually hold a relationship? Lying down next to someone and their arms are wrapped around me, but it isn’t me in their hands, it’s their phone. Rather than talk to those right in our very arms we would rather communicate in 140 characters or less.
How can we fix this? It's quite simple actually, put the phone down. Live in the moment. Instead of watching a concert through your phone screen while you record your favorite song, turn your phone off and open your mind. Look at what is right in front of you. Don’t be so engulfed on documenting a moment that you don’t actually get to experience it. Enjoy the company of those around you and not those in your phone, because one day you will regret not letting your eyes leave the screen. Hold that person who is in your arms and turn your phone off or at least put it down on the table.
Will you help change what our generation leaves behind?
