This doesn’t mean that there weren’t great 80s tunes. But almost always, there is something about the way they are played/produced, that take away their soul. My chief annoyance (not just in the 80s, but certainly prevalent in that era) is the use of the volume knob to end a song. Nobody believed they could get away with that at the beginning of a song; why did so many think that was okay at the end?

I should also add, that my experience is music in Britain, so I don’t know what you had state side. But I guess it was similar, based on the movie soundtracks.

(On a side note, I’m not sure why your name isn’t linking to your blog properly. I’m guessing there is WordPress bug in there somewhere.)

In our generation, even the least qualified among us must be a revolutionary, because we have no choice. In all past generations, we had the choice to follow the paths that had come before. We only had to fight through the wilderness if we chose to. Now, there is no path. It will be interesting to see how it all ends up.

Great thought-provoking post!

So, as I was saying, many gen y-ers are poor communicators and lousy employees. But, just as many are stellar workers — inquisitive, energetic problem-solvers who multi-task like fiends and are always in search of a new project.

I don’t think it’s ever really productive to impose labels on generations, or on the individuals who make up those generations. But, I do think there are lots of really lovable Gen Y-ers who bring a lot to the table largely because of when and how they were brought up.

Peace out (see? i’m obviously no gen y hipster)

I completely agree that gen y-ers possess unique perspectives and opportunities, based largely on globalization and unprecedented access to technology. If anything, these opportunities and perspectives should translate into better ability to communicate, but as you said, many gen y-ers entering the workforce are difficult to deal with, lack respect for management, and don’t do what they are told.

…change: You know, I can’t actually argue with you there. I think you are right. Which is a bit annoying. Though I don’t think it completely destroys my point. Maybe one day I will reply properly to that.

…BBS/newsgroups: My interest-bias is when something goes mainstream. Of course the precursors are important to that happening.

…The things you’ve seen: Yes, I believe you.

…Inversion: Somewhere on a past blog I think I made the argument for why this is true. And it does need a proper argument to defend it.

Amen. Sometimes I’ve found that a job title actually will make me lose respect even quicker if you’re a dumbass. I don’t do stupid, especially from management.

>>> We watched the internet arrive. Slowly at first (28.8 kbit/s).

My first Compaq was a pre-pentium 486 and a 14.4k modem. Did I ever get online at 14.4? Hell no – slower (9600 avg.) I think that whole time is why I absolutely hate AOL now. They had horrible pron.

>>>It was the dawn of MTV, but they hadn’t yet worked out how to make great music videos

They never figured out how to make great videos. Hell, they had to stop playing videos and go to “reality” which is so far from reality its almost funny… but not really.

>>> We are the channel-flipper generation not because we have a low attention span, but because we have a low tolerance for the rubbish

The best part about it is most of us will look right at you, tell you your product is shite and then make sure we tell a few others just how crap it is and not feel one bit sorry for it. Stop making crap and we’ll happily spread the word too.

Anyway, great write up. As Mike said – there was an internet before AOL and 28.8K modems. They did many things long before we even considered them, but for the most part as I was reading it definitely hit a few points that I think fit my description of me! Well done.

>>>We are the first generation that grew up with perpetual change.

No. Every 20th-century generation has been. In fact, I’d argue you’ve had actual *less* change — simply new packaging (digital v analog) and refinement of technique (such as organ transplants; I recall the first ones!).

>>>We watched the internet arrive. Slowly at first (28.8 kbit/s). We entered chat rooms on AOL, set up home pages in the Geocites. We were the generation that stole music using Napster and called it ’sharing’.

The Internet is only BBSes finally done properly. And I was online when it was a dreadful 300bps and all of it was ASCII. And I got MP3s way before Napster, via Newsgroups — I was among the first to see MP3s being traded online that way.

>>>We have seen just about every fetish you can think of and many more you couldn’t.

Dear god, I never thought of the things I’ve seen online.

>>>Recently some of us even started producing, starring in and sharing it… not for money but because we like to create. If we seem more immoral than previously generations, it’s because we don’t repress and hide it. We believe that makes us more moral.

That is a very, very strange inversion. No other comment on that.