The Millennial Generation: The Electronic Communicators

In their book Millennial Makeover, Winograd and Morley call the Millennial generation the new Civic generation in the generational cycle. A Civic generation is "dominant and outerfixated." (Winograd 25) We are problem solvers much like the GI generation of the previous cycle. However, what distinguishes our generation from that of previous Civic generations is the overwhelming boom in electronic communication that has taken place over the past several decades. In fact, if I were asked to coin a name for our generation I would suggest the ElectroniComs.

Winograd and Morley make several points throughout the book suggesting Millennials are making their mark on the political forefront, and in higher numbers than previous generations of voters; however, the impact is achieved in very a different manner. They note most of the information gathered by the Millennial generation is taken from friends and internet sources and combining these two sources sparks even more interest. Through the use of Net sites such as MySpace and Facebook, young voters can network and blog about politics as well as participate in cross country debates.

Clearly these observations have truth to them; however, I do believe the apathetic side of our generation has been overlooked. Family Guy is a prime example of the perspective of our generation. This sitcom, though it may have certain political undertones, uses mostly incoherent, nonsensical, and listless humor to achieve its goals...or lack there of. This invitation towards the asinine and lethargic has become increasingly appealing and has been broadening the gap between the apathetic and politically minded of our generation.

Peace, Love
Evan

Campaign Ads

I recently browsed YouTube for the campaign channels for each of the presidential candidates. Each channel presented a different facade. The Democratic channel featured mainly news reels and amateur videos of speeches by Barack Obama and Joe Biden. There were some polished commercial ads for the campaign, but these were few and far between. The Republican channel featured many more polished commercial ads. These often used emotional themes in attempts to sway the vote. The Republican channel seemed much more biased as opposed to the more objective approach of the Democratic site. The Republican channel also had far fewer videos. The Democrats boasted almost 1,600 videos while the Republicans showed a lowly 309. The Democratic channel was surely the more convincing of the two.

Democratic Channel
http://www.youtube.com/user/BarackObamadotcom

Republican Channel
http://www.youtube.com/user/JohnMcCaindotcom

I also browsed some user generated videos. The majority of these were taped speeches. One video stood out to me. It was in support of Obama.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjXyqcx-mYY

I'm not quite sure how I feel about these videos. Clearly there is some definitive goal to the posting of any of the videos and ultimately bias is inescapable; however, if I were to choose which videos seemed most authentic and genuine it would be videos that were simply of the candidates giving speeches...authentic and genuine are most likely not the right words though.

Peace, Love
Evan