GENERATION WHY?: Stuff Y people don't like

Several recent editions of Generation Why have addressed "Stuff Y People Like", including college, free stuff, and terrible band names. This week, I thought I'd address the opposite end of the spectrum: some things my generation really can't stand.

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GENERATION WHY?: Stuff Y people don't like

POSTED: Tuesday, September 6, 2011, 12:00 PM

Filed Under: Critical Mass

Matt Cantor puts Gen. Y-ers on blast ...

Several recent editions of Generation Why have addressed "Stuff Y People Like", including college, free stuff, and terrible band names. This week, I thought I’d address the opposite end of the spectrum: some things my generation really can’t stand.

Privacy We do not like it when people don’t know our business. That’s why we love Facebook and Twitter — they allow us to make sure everyone knows what’s happening at every moment in our relatively boring lives. We complain bitterly about Facebook’s limited privacy settings, but we keep right on using the site no matter what. We keep blogs revealing our everyday lives in intimate detail, for anyone to read. When we’re seeking apartments, Craigslist lets us visit the homes of total strangers; when we’re trying to rent out rooms, Craigslist lets us invite random people into our homes to see if they’d like to shack up with us.

Being behind technologically It’s incredibly embarrassing for any member of Gen Y to be seen on the subway with a Discman. Even an iPod is starting to look passé — I mean, when did those things come out, like 10 years ago? How can you use anything that old? Really, the only thing that’s acceptable right now is an iPad, and we’ll give those about another three months before we decide they’re from the Stone Age.

On the other hand, a segment of Generation Y is fighting back against the cult of the brand-new. Our generation has also heralded the return of the turntable. I’m a sucker for vinyl, but I draw the line at cassette tapes. Records sound good and they spin and they have big cover art. But tapes are a pain to use, they don’t sound great, and their covers are even smaller than CD covers. Basically all they have going for them is that they’re defiantly old.

Making decisions The New York Times loves talking about how our generation is slow to leave the nest and start careers; this week was no exception. At this point in their lives, many of our grandparents had “real” jobs. But we require at least 15 dead-end jobs before we settle on a career path; a long-term decision like that is a life sentence to us.

We also hate making decisions on a much smaller scale, like figuring out whether to go to another bar or go home. Nobody ever wants to admit that they have a preference in these decisions. We don’t want anyone to be unhappy with our choices, so we foist the decision on others. For our generation, winning an argument is usually about the other person getting their way.

(matt.cantor@citypaper.net)

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