An open letter to my generational elders:
Refer to the water cycle, Chapter 10 in your textbooks. As water rises higher and higher it is absorbed by clouds like a sponge. Eventually, these clouds reach their saturation point and can’t withhold any more water. The saturation is released as rain. Conversely, my generation–not quite old enough to bear the Gen-X name, suggestions welcome–is really the first to have to deal with a similar saturation point. We’ve been molded into a pill-popping collective of zombies with no idea of scope. We walk around in a melancholic haze, sending the psychologists to the bank happy, barely making it through college with the slightest of effort. Our attention spans have been whittled only to the length of the latest flashy commercial. We are unprepared to accept the reigns, I’ll readily admit that.
Unfortunately, we’ve been born and raised under the warmth of neon lights and harmful rays. At all times, from all angles–TV’s glow, computers are constantly running, fluorescent bulbs blanket us. We’ve been saturated with propaganda and synaptic carcinogens–billboards, commercials, pop-ups, carefully researched demographic material, multi-million dollar marketing budgets. Yes, you’ve experienced it with us–but the sterile specter of big business had as much a part in our upbringings as our parents did. Ask someone my age about their childhood, they’re more likely to tell you about what TV shows they watched and toys they had before they mention their family.