Generation me

Killian Doheney
Generation TV To assist in defining this generation, a quote could be found in a classic film know as Fight Club, where a character played by Brad Pitt says "We're the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our great war is a spiritual war. Our great depression is our lives. We've all been raised on television to believe that one day we'd all be millionaires, and movie gods, and rock stars, but we won't. And we're starting to figure that out. And we're very,very pissed off." Despite Brad Pitt being a movie god himself, one could define another person by the way that they were raised, so therefore we can define our generation as being the generation that was raised by television. Within in the mordern home of today, A televison or two can be found in some shape or form. It can be an old hunk of rust that plays the out-dated form of media known as VHS, or it can be the stylish flat screen TV that plays all the latest movies on Blue-ray. In whatever form of electronic structure comes in, it is still an unremovable object from that house. Back in the days of "black & white" television, It was a luxory to have at least one television within a home. As of now, one can find a multiple televisions in a household. They can even be found installed into the tiles of a shower, so that the owner can enjoy whatever piece of media that they enjoy during. With so many televisions installed in one house, it would be difficult for a child to miss a favorite TV show while growing up. Most of today's generation could say that they were subjugated to learn their alphabet and numbers from a big yellow bird and a goofy looking vampire. From the televised broadcasting of Sesame Street a child could be educated on proper ways to be polite, and also how to believe in one's own self. Which may help define our generation as being self-centerd because at a young age it is being taught on a daily basis to believe that they are very important. It wasn't just Sesame Street that motivated childern to work hard and to create dreams, but instead it was a multituted of shows that made this generation believe that they can be anything they want as long as they work hard. At a young age, one couldn't understand what it truly means to put in the effort for hard work, but a child would understand one day once they ascended to an older age. As this generation's children grew, they would watch TV celeberties catch their fame and glory, that one can only dream of obtaining. From superstar athletes to gorgeous celeberties, they all have a certain style that makes a viewer of television want to replicate that style, so that one day they can be famous too. Earlier generations were not fortunate enough to have television advise them what fashion trends were being made by E! Channel, or have what brand of shoes will make you perform better in sports from the commercials of ESPN. They were however fortunate enough not be given false dreams in making big like the celeberties you see today supporting those fashion trends, or starring in the dramatic commercials trying to sell a certain brand. Which is unfortunate for today's generation because most people will take a certain amount time before they figure out that they well never be that celeberity starring in that multimillion dollar commercial. In the book Generation Me, Jean Twenge says," It has always been normal for kids to have big dreams, but the dreams of kids today are bigger than ever. By the time kids figure out that they're not going to be celebrities or sports figures, they're wll into adolesncence, or even their twenties."(129) Even when their goals have been crushed by reality, they still look towards television as a guide to the daily life. Television has mostly been know for entertainment purposes, but has been progressing in other purposes too. For example, one can learn how to make a nice well cooked dinner from any sort of food channel they could fine. If one does not wish to cook, they could fine a commercial for pizza delivery, and call the number on the screen for a delivery. Once that person feels obese from ordering all that pizza, they can change the change the channel to a fitness channel, and learn a few exercises to burn those calories that they have just gained. There are even channels that marketing campaigns that sell items that will make this generation feel better about themsleves. Either it be a new workout device that can make people lose tons of weight, or it can be a campaign on animal cruality, and how someone can save an animal's life if they donate money to a certain program. With all the progress made in television today, this generation tends to relate the past by tv shows they were raised on. There was once a time where the channel MTV played music videos of the current music artist of that time period, but now what most find on the channel known as music television is a bunch of reality TV show like Teen Mom's. A saying that some of the elder generation say that when they see these reality TV shows is " I'm glad I wasn't raised up on this trash you watch today". Different age groups can differentiate themselves from each other by how the quality of graphics in TV shows are made with, or what type of products are sold during the commercials, or even how by how many channles one could choose from when watching the TV. All of them can be used a form of measurement of how technology has progressed throughout the generation. Although with all this progress made, some parents in this generation try to look past the technology, and try to raise their children without any form of TV. With all the random television shows today, some may find a few of the shows to have the ability to decresea one's intellectual prowess. One can only assume that with those shows, parents keep their children away from television so that they could have a better learning enviroment. Though an issue to that type of raising is that the parents can only control the enviroment of the house that they live in, and not everywhere else a TV can be found. Which in case, TV's can be found at resturants, on the streets of cities, in most doctor offices, or even at schools. A parent can shelter a child from TV for so long, until TV takes a part in the child's life. As that child grows up, they could have the fortune of saying that they were raised in a household with no TV. As time goes on, so does the progress of technology. What will come of the future of television? Will there be TVs floating infront our faces like the Pixar movie WALL-E, which changes society into a consuming organism? Or will it unite everyone within all the nations by broadcasting a program that will help people understand each other and their religions? No one can really answer those question without knowing how that generation will be defined as. One can however answer a question of "how would today's generation be defined as?" by simply looking back on the media this generation was raised on.