What is the Internet Generation?
better yet what does it really mean?
Fuck you Media Machine, you fooled Homie Pants but not ThaGierk
I get stuck working with fools that make no sense. Chicken Man was one and now Homie Pants is right behind him doing him in the cornhole. The other day Homie Pants comes to me for directions. I quickly point him in the direction of the Thomas Map Guide. A simple map book of the surrounding SF bay area. He has no idea how to use it. Starts talking about how he's the internet generation and doesn't read books unless he has to. Which means he only reads when told to. What a good dog. Doesn't read the news, only the sports section off the internet. I don't think he's ever picked up a paper in his life. So when I try to talk with him about events outside his little world he has no clue. He just stares at me with a blank face waiting for the answers. I have been part of the computing world since the early 80's my first computer being an Atari 800 then Amiga 500 then into the PC world. I have some Mac experience as well as Red Hat and Mandrake. So I expect when talking with someone that says he or she is part of the internet generation they have some clue what that means. The when I thought about it. All of my friends that program/write code would never say such a lame thing. So I suppose what Jr. was saying was this, his generation doesn't read books but gets everything from the internet? But even that I over thought. Internet Generation is/was the buzz word for the mid to late 90's. A way for the media machine to marginalize and label a certain group. Another FUCK YOU IN THE ASS stereotype that I now have to work with. Thank you for another LABEL you ASS CLOWNS. It's good for homie pants to put himself in a certain group of people, because he feels he doesn't qualify for the I DON'T READ BOOKS UNLESS I HAVE TO group. But sense the media brought up the Internet Generation stereotype, let's talk about what it means.
Is it as simple as defining a group of people just happening to be around when the internet became a buzz word for the masses?. (Remember the internet does go back 30 or so years)
The word generation basically means people that are born in a certain 10-20 period. In my case Grandma and Grandpa are a generation most of the time being referred as the being born around the time of the Great Depression. Then my Parents being referred to as the Baby Boomers, then myself being referred to as Generation X.
So WTF is the Internet Generation. If a generation is defined as being born at a certain period of time then how can be that if you're a kid growing up in a house with access to the internet makes you the internet generation. The internet for the most part started in 1973. http://www.isoc.org/internet/history/cerf.shtml formed by DARPA. Just because you had access to it does not make you part of it. It's like calling me a baby boomer. I grew up around baby boomers but doesn't make me one of them. Lets say you still want to argue the point that because a generation had access to it still makes it theirs. Wrong again. How about the scientists from around the world who used it to exchange information on a daily basis before it became a buzz word. There is a whole generation a of scientists that used it before the quote "Internet Generation" came along. To be truly part of the internet generation you had to be there when it really came out. As it is now, there's like a 30 year gap from when it was formed to the time it became a catch phrase.
Here's the answer, YOUNG is cool when it comes to advertising. You tell bone heads like homie pants that this truck is the best, these pants are the best, these 90 dollar sunglasses protect you better from the UV rays then those, it's cool to buy this, it's cool to buy that. This LCD screen DVD player is great for your TRUCK!! (wtf is that all about, like there's not enough distraction as it is. Drive your god dam car mother fuckers, don't kill me because your sporting a woody thinking about how your going to toss your load when driving and watching a freakin porno at the same time IE this news bit)
"A driver in Schenectady, New York, was arrested last month after rolling past police with a DVD titled "Chocolate Foam" playing on the passenger-side sun visor in his Mercedes-Benz, authorities said. The movie also was rolling on screens set into the car's headrests. The driver was accused of breaking state laws prohibiting watching TV while driving, as well as another law making it illegal to exhibit sexually explicit material in a public place." http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/03/10/drive.by.porn.ap/
You tell them, they are the "Internet Generation" because it's cool. Can't code one line of html code, but that's ok, because you are young and hip now buy this. You have disposable income, come buy our shit. We want your cash!! Give it to us. We will make you cool. The dot com crash, that's not cool, even though you're the internet generation no blame will come to you. Come buy our snake oil, it will make you cool. See that video on MTV or your favorite Artist wearing those jeans will make you cool. You think your smarter than that? Your wrong, we want your money were hungry for that. We'll now just flash shit on your now cool HDTV screen at one second intervals so fast that you think you understand but your parents don't. Which means you get it, and mom and dad don't which makes you cool. Cool to buy what we want to sell you. The word cool is no longer cool? We will give it a new name just for you. Now we tell you, that instead of cool you are now PROGRESSIVE. You are now part of the Progressive Generation. If anyone tells you that you are not, you can tell them that's because their not Progressive and can't understand.
It's now Progressive to buy things you see on TV. Cool is not Progressive. Progressive is Progressive. PUFF, PUFF GIVE MOTHER FUCKER, PUFF PUFF GIVE!!!
Yeah, it makes that much sense, much like my web pages. If
you still don't understand, that's because you're not PROGRESSIVE.