Millennials and Meaning

Multiple social studies in the last few years have shown that, as a whole, millennials crave and value experiences over material goods. There have been lots of theories as to why this is, and the readings this week all seemed to scratch the surface of answering that question, even if they weren't written specifically about millennials. I would suggest that there isn't one big, complex answer that completely explains the mindset of the entirety of Gen-X's offspring, bur rather lots of small, simple answers.

Regarding the topic that stretched across all of the readings for this week, millennials as a whole seem to despise traditional American work culture, which in this context, refers to the culturally iconic and stereotypical 9 to 5 white-collar office job of the late century American service economy. It's morning coffee and donuts, white shirts with black ties, gray cubicles, and complete lacking of meaningful purpose. For decades during the latter-half of the twentieth century, this type of service economy career was a staple of American culture and identity. It was success for the average man that was held as evidence for America's success against an otherwise violent and impoverished world. But we don't live in that world anymore, and the traditional icons of respectable careers that echo all the way back from the Cold War don't have nearly the effect on millennials that they had on the generations before them. During the Cold War, having stuff was an indication that you valued the consumerist way of life; that you valued capitalism itself. Having stuff meant that you were successful.

But the definition of "success" to millennials differs from the definitions of previous generations. In the age where everyone's lives are on public display via social media, projecting a life of happiness and excitement matters greatly. We want others to think that our lives are interesting, which in turn makes us want to make our lives interesting. If a person's life seems interesting and fulfilling, they must be successful, regardless of their choice of career or how much stuff they have.

Millennials want to be fulfilled. They want their lives to mean something. For previous generations, having meaning meant having a respectable career, a respectable home filled with stuff, and a respectable nuclear family. That definition fails to apply to a generation that is both extremely diverse and terrified at the idea of being unremarkable. But there isn't something readily available to fill the gap, which is why experiences are so important to millennials: there isn't meaning in acquiring money or even stuff, but by trying new things, going places, and meeting people, meaning can potentially be found.

Video Games are today's Rock n' Roll

Video Games are today's Rock n' Roll

In Brandon Keim’s article “What Science Knows About Video Games and Violence”, University of Central Florida psychiatrist Ryan Hall harkens the fears of violence-causing media effects for children in video games to early panics of morality during each of the respective rises of rock music, Dungeons & Dragons, and comic books. This analogy is extremely apt, and should serve as a reminder that questionable media is rarely solely responsible for influencing children towards violent tendencies. Often, it is the child’s interpretation of that media that can influence them, and interpretation of any and all media by a child can and should be taught by parents.

Beginning in the middle of the century during its inception, rock music was branded as something evil, inappropriate, and culturally abhorrent by the religious right. The media ran stories of how listening to “rock n’ roll” would influence teenagers to use drugs and be more promiscuous, causing parents to associate the genre with anti-christian values and even in extreme cases, with the acts of devil-worship and satanic ritual. This led to a widespread censorship of rock music by parents who did not wish for their children to be corrupted.

In many cases, those who held such beliefs rarely heard or voluntarily listened to artists of the genre, and thus relied solely on the mainstream media to dictate how they censored their children’s exposure to a category of media they too had censored themselves from. In the vast majority of cases, the artists often associated with “satanic subject-matter” were in no way truly associated with such things. Take, for example, the music of Led Zeppelin. If a parent familiar with the works of J.R.R Tolkien had made the effort to listen to any number of Led Zeppelin’s tracks, they would have noticed the obvious connections in the band’s lyrics to subject matter from a children’s book, The Hobbit, and the medieval-fantasy novels, The Lord of the Rings (which includes much allegory to Christian belief, to add some irony). The parent could then relay this information to their child, and the child could then interpret the music for what it really was: songs about fantasy written by musically-talented nerds.

However, by censoring and associating the music with negative values without ever taking the time to interpret it on their own, parents often created a boomerang effect that pushed their children MORE towards not only listening to the music the parents’ feared, but participating in the activities they believed the music influenced them to do in the first place, in large part due to the fact that their parents told them not to.

Instead of fighting a constant uphill battle to limit exposure to media they see as harmful, parents should teach their children to interpret said media in an objective and thoughtful manner.

Video games are today’s rock n’ roll. In most cases, they are harmless, if not beneficial. They certainly have the ability to influence a child towards certain behaviors, including violence, but this can be countered by parents sharing the experience with their child and teaching them the proper way to interpret what they see, hear, and play. Censoring violent video games is more likely to cause violent tendencies in children who will find access to those games regardless and be solely influenced by what they see, rather than interpreting what they see with the guidance of their parent.