so now there’s a thing called millennials magazine, a blog with a mission statement to, in their words, “help us define ourselves.” a sort of “by us, for us” cyber-publication — if “us” is hopeful internet writers, it would seem. i read a few of their pieces and they did not convince me to read more.

of course, they’re young, and still getting their heads around things like clauses and the difference between essays and journal entries. nothing unforgivable — i’m sure anything i wrote at 22 was equally worth reading, in that it probably wasn’t.

being right on the cusp at the oldest end of the millennial span (or lowest of gen x, depending on which cutoff you go by), it’s hard to say which set of generational values i share more, and it’s with much amusement that i read investigative pieces on either age range and the unique challenges they think they face. but this new outlet is most interesting in that it exists at all.

it seems that no generation has been so fully defined and sold to marketers as a packaged idea than this one, who then in turn sell the idea of millennial-ness back to its constituents, who are apparently more than happy to accept it as a label for their special take on the world — as long as their special-ness is widely agreed upon.

was there a boomer magazine in the 60’s/70’s? a gen x one in the 80’s/90’s? these were terms applied from outside, not worn as badges, right? people were busier being interested in things like rock music (or civil rights) and defining themselves by those interests, not sitting down to brainstorm what it means to be part of a demographic.

that’s what’s so odd about this project, as well-intentioned as it may be. i’m sure it might help a few young writers practice, get better, get some attention, maybe get a writing gig at some point. but the surreal part is that this super-savvy generation is so fluent in the language of marketing, they’re self-applying it and even trying to help it along themselves as a project in self-discovery. they see the wild rush of everyone a few years older to ‘understand the millennials’, that they figure there must actually be a big truth there to uncover, and “by golly, shouldn’t we be the ones to solve the puzzle ourselves?”

but come now, we all know there’s no answer there. there’s not a code to crack or a consensus to be reached, just a bunch of young people trying to figure out how to be happy, just like anyone of any age. doing marketers’ job for them by ‘defining your generation’ comes off more as attention-baiting for media types than serious reflection. but hey, maybe that’s a sign that they really do have it all figured out, and are just playing the older crowd as saps?