In middle school, when it was too cold outside, my friends and I would find entertainment with a card game during recess. Our favorite game to play was Bullshit. The game provided an outlet where we could freely lie and deceive in the sake of winning, essentially, one-up one another.

But as I grow older and survey my surroundings, it seems that my generation is continually playing a game of Bullshit. Our parents lived in an age when news outlets served as the herald of undisputed truth. We, however, have grown up in an era where information must be taken with a grain of salt. As gossip is continually packaged and spun to make news, we are forced to consort other avenues in the pursuit for truth.

Much of my generation, though, is reluctant to embark on this journey. Complacent in relying on parents to dictate our lives, we don’t question established mores. Instead we spend our time struggling with our self-inflicted need to measure up to our peers. We are a generation that is more concerned with appearing to have figured it all out, rather than actually doing so. We lack the necessary perspective to decipher what is true and, consequentially, what is real.

It is perspective, no matter how right or wrong, that paints many different portraits of truth and reality from which we can freely pick and choose. Without perspective, we refrain from questioning the hallow columns holding up the society in which we live. Instead, we build to it by adding layers of superficiality through narrow perceptions that remain unquestioned. Without a clear idea of what makes up truth and reality, however, we walk around wearing a shroud of cynicism.

And the Internet only encourages and intensifies this shallow world. Despite our skepticism and discontent for the world around us, though, we’ve become a new, extreme set of self-absorbed egomaniacs. Online social networks, like Facebook and MySpace, have made it easier than ever to draw attention to every petty detail of life via updated profile or uploaded picture. Life is instantly validated with every new endeavor alerted to our social network via News Feed.

This quick and easy process of bragging has increased selfishness while allowing us to further evade perspective. It was once necessary to physically interact with others in order to boast. The Internet, though, has made this connection process obsolete. At least when a friend told of a new job or boyfriend in person, subtle body language could justify or negate our innate skepticism. Now, through the powers of technology, a simple congratulatory wall posting hides an ever-growing desire to yell bullshit.

Julia Pflaum

The first time I heard John Mayer’s song, "Waiting on the World to Change," I was ecstatic. I had a vision of joining together with an intoxicating fervor. Finally, this is the social commentary that would be the spark igniting my peers into action. Instead of waiting for the baby boomers to roll over and relinquish control, we’d rise up and take it!

Well, I couldn’t have been more wrong. Apparently my generation is perfectly content to continue waiting. In fact, I don’t believe many of my peers are even standing in line. I’m pretty sure they’re all out back hiding behind some trees trying to avoid the shift in power all together.

I can’t blame my generation’s shared apathy to the impending inheritance of the world, especially in its current state. Every minute of every waking hour, the media is saturated with images and sounds illustrating death, doom, and destruction occurring on the planet. And as we look around, we can’t help but hold our parents partly accountable for the condition of the world.  

But it’s not entirely the boomers’ fault. They were completely unprepared to handle the globalization that bloomed under their feet. Unfortunately, love isn’t a redeemable currency. So they made choices based on what they believed to be right at that time, and with little regard for the future. Now, they’re slowly coming to terms with those choices.

And it’s not that the boomers don’t want to fix some of the disastrous outcomes of the decisions they made. But, they’re old. And they’re tired. And they’re much more concerned with recapturing the 40-plus years they’ve wasted away at an unfulfilling job. Just as I can’t blame my generation for not wanting to take responsibility for the crumbling world, I can’t blame my parents’ generation for their inability to fix it.

As more and more boomers turn the corner onto the path toward retirement, they are experiencing a second coming of age. New retirees are becoming introspective as they are afforded more time for leisure and relaxation. Seeing the mountains of material things amassed over the years in search of happiness, the boomers are now finding solace in using the fruits of their labor to experience and to explore. And this realization is slowly starting to seep into the psyche of my generation.

As the boomers are running to the finish, my generation is floundering in its first steps. We’ve enjoyed a cushy life free of difficult decisions and burgeoning responsibility. College isn’t the liberating, mind-expanding rebellion our parents experienced. Technology has made it easy to continue living under a shroud of parental influence. And while we hear our parents when they tell us to get a job to make lots of money, we can’t help but squirm a little.

Whereas the boomers experienced a temporary freedom from parental control, we haven’t had the chance to escape. Although I dream for my generation to collectively rise up and demand control, everyone is still trying to figure it out. Defiance will come upon the realization that we are capable of making it on our own without the help of our parents. But until then, I’ll just continue to wait.

Julia Pflaum

There are a lot of things wrong with today’s society. Thanks to my youthful naivety, I look to the future with optimism and hope. However, my buoyancy is conflicted as I am troubled by the next generation. Do today’s current teenagers have the foresight to correct the destruction left behind by the baby boomers?

My uneasiness is caused by many reasons, most of which, though, are clearly illustrated by the MTV series, My Super Sweet 16. Now, I don’t believe Sweet 16 is the root of youth’s corrupted spirit. But, the show’s premise is to showcase parents’ shameless display of extravagance while exposing their shortcomings. This failure in parenting has not only spawned a degenerate generation but revels in exploiting it for entertainment.

Sure, it’s easy to place blame on the parents. They’re responsible for instilling goodness and morality in today’s children, thus providing a strong foundation for tomorrow’s adults, right? That’s certainly easier said than done. I know it’s not entirely their fault that the prevalent parenting method is based in believing love is best demonstrated through gaudy status symbols. 

I can only hope all this materialism in place of parenting will provide fertile grounds for an eventual realization and rebellion. Finding this source of emptiness is what keeps therapists in business, no? More disconcerting than bad parenting, though, is the lack of role models to unearth this discontent.

In fact, Sweet 16 is a show about the inadequacy of current cultural role models. Using the Paris Hilton method of success, anyone with enough money can buy their way onto TV into the hearts and minds of impressionable young ones. And it’s the girls that are suffering the most from these disposable influences.

It used to be that a girl’s sixteenth birthday was a celebration for surviving the unforgiving journey from awkward adolescent to developed adult. But it seems to me that every character featured on Sweet 16 revels in acting and behaving like a spoiled child. In fact, most delight in dramatic tantrums and sinister bitchery for the television cameras.

Regardless of the legitimacy of the dramatics, the show illustrates an unsettling new level of bratty-girl behavior. Whereas boys use physicality and violence to bully, girls have always resorted to verbal attacks to belittle each other. This belittling was once done behind backs and with a slight sense of wrong-doing; today’s young girls are meaner than ever without any sense of remorse.

And this new level of bratty-girl behavior is not limited to extreme insults. Aggressiveness and domineering have surpassed catty putdowns to become the favored form of intimidation. Where did this perverted sense of female entitlement come from? Because I’m pretty sure Paris Hilton wouldn’t instigate, let alone win, a bitch fight with even the most "exhausted" Hollywood starlet.

Julia Pflaum