Perhaps I’m as self-centred as all those pundits say I am – as a member of Generation Y, I perhaps have a bit of a preoccupation with how awesome I can be. All I can say is that it feels a lot better than having a preoccupation with how doomed I am, because I imagine that the problems the world will be facing 10 or 20 years down the line when I’m 30 or 40 might be helped by the fact that I bothered to believe in myself to do some kickass learning and connecting when I was in my 20’s. Added to that, for some inexplicable reason, some really smart, awesome people who are older than me and who have done a lot of stuff, have been actively nourishing this belief in me, and, well, I have the makings of getting really full of myself.
I find this faith charming, but odd sometimes. Wasn’t I just yet another Communication student in 2005, with a fascination with blogging and geeky tech stuff? How did I end up running Transit Camps, when there are still more days than not when I find myself too shy to talk to more than 5 people in a single day? I’m not used to all this civic-ness that people attribute to me. My self-image has yet to catch up with the stuff I’ve actually done.
I like David Eaves’ post about ChangeCamp and the long tail of public policy; I think it explains where I am and how I’m liking my politics at the current moment. We could chalk it down to me being too Canadian, or highly representative of my demographic (under 25, non-white and female), but I’m typically unable or unwilling to assert my ground on what I believe until pushed, and definitely afraid to put these ideas on paper (even in this virtual realm) most of the time. (Joe Clark will call me “not a writer” for this reason.)
I’d rather my politics be based around having fun, but the fun makes the painful parts worth it for those going through it. Someone’s got to do the heavy lifting: the stats crunching; the policy paper/thesis writing; the evaluating, the 2-hour meetings in windowless rooms; the protests in the freezing cold; the applying for insurance and road closures; the set-up and the take-down. I like the idea of developing participation methods engaging to anyone no matter where they are in the spectrum of time to give and willingness. It acknowledges that everyone, by virtue of being a member of the community, is welcome to participate in whatever capacity they can or want to, and that even those participating in less intense ways can still bring value, while gently insisting that richer, more involved participation is always possible and needed.
What does this have to do with Generation Y? I’m thinking back to Civic Life and the Information Age by Stefanie Sanford, the book I read during my research, and the picture it painted of Millenials and Tech Elites. The task at hand is to know the rules well enough to bend them, reconcile the values behind them with the ones we’ve learned for ourselves (in collaboration with our peers), then to synthesize the new solution that truly makes use of and capitalizes on the technology we know.
I see myself as a bit of a use-case for how someone goes from being observant and well-informed, to becoming active, engaged and exercising empowerment in a meaningful way. (At least others find it meaningful; I have quite the chip on my shoulder about it all, really.) And I don’t think the journey is complete by any means; and it is likely a journey without an end destination. The narratives about how one goes about affecting change remain as muddled as ever. It also happens to overlap nicely with the Gen Y search for meaning, enjoyment and creativity at work.
In other words, just as there is no use in me asking someone to create my dream job, there is also no use in me asking someone to create the government I want to interact with, and I’m still young and idealistic enough to want to do more than just whine about it.
4 Comments
Great post! As a fellow member of Generation Y, much of this resonates with me. I think everyone who has some sense of purpose wants to learn how to get to the stage where they are engaged and feel empowered in a meaningful capacity. But is there not an initial missing gap from a desire to engage to observant and well-informed?
Cheers,
Ben
Ben,
Thanks for the comment!
Certainly; it’s not entirely unlike Jeffrey Moore’s “Crossing the Chasm” in some ways either. I envisioned it as something akin to showing people who haven’t been exposed to the technology what the benefits are of connecting with people through tools like Twitter. The benefits need to be articulated as both the positives for expressing, posting, updating, as well as what can be gained from listening – that’s the part that I think people are nervous about.
As a complete aside, I was actually a bit surprised by how much attention and fascination people have with Twitter during NetTuesday and ChangeCamp. Not in the negative sense, in that I don’t think it deserves it, but the collective handwaving – especially now, having used Twitter for the better part of 2 years – is surprising, but I can see how in light of recent events (like #ChangeCamp becoming the number one Twitter search on Saturday) people are really enthused about what we can do with it. Also, Twitter didn’t make sense for me before TweetDeck.
I actually like the self-centredness of Gen Y. In a world where so much has changed lately and lots more change lies ahead, conventional wisdom isn't that much use, and searching (for how to effect change, for meaning at work, etc. etc.) is essential. Gen Y-ers will find the answers that need to be found.
Rohan (pre-Gen X)
yes – I think the web has the ability to bring the issue to ME, to contextualize it, spread it throughout society quickly and effortlessly to the individual(s) who are interested in it, thereby increasing the chance that it will reach critical mass. Or at least decrease apathy by making politics about an issue that matters to you, rather than the amorphous mass of confusion of say, today's budget.