JESSICA GIANNONE — Opinions Editor
I’ve always said I should have been born in another decade. Aside from the fact that the ‘90s style was atrocious, it seems like my judgment was right.
It’s not even the fact that I can regretfully recall looking forward to fancying jean trousers, tie-dyed T-shirts and wrinkled jackets tied at the waist (ugh, and those hideous elastic-ankle sweatpants). The slang was humorous all the same. I got rid of my “fat new kicks” years ago. (Did white people actually get away with calling their friends “homies?”)
It’s not the fact that the best music was in the ‘80s either (or, arguably, the ‘60s). And why can’t we have our own Woodstock? It appears that the generations have gotten more and more doomed. Not because of sinking taste but because of sinking options.
This economy confirms my mild resentment of 1990 as a birthday year.
Most of my life has been consumed with confident excitement of my career direction. A wealthy singer/writer? Sure, why not?
How simple would it have been for me to land a vocal career in the ‘20s? Get rid of the edited, marketed singers of today and you actually have a real competition. It sickens me how many people can rise to fame with the click of a few audio buttons and caked-on makeup. And of course singers can now subtract significant income from records, tapes and CDs because of iTunes.
Then there’s writers. I’ve gone from dreaming of published books to fearing the disappearance of paper all together. Maybe this won’t be for centuries, but yet my goals still have to adapt to the online world.
“I’ve always dreamed of writing my own e-book.” What?
Who will want to purchase books by the time I establish my career (a significant amount, at least)? I fear my financial dependence will revolve around online ad companies (and I don’t anticipate the stocks being in my favor either).
I never thought I’d call myself a Debbie Downer. But it’s simply not fair. If only today’s generation could have had the economic and societal opportunities of the past without all this pressure to conform to a new and demanding market era.
Sure, the grass is always greener on the other side. Maybe my ignorance of economics trends taints my perspective of my financial fate, but we can’t deny that times are harder to for professional growth.
But then again, there was the stock crash of ‘29 and the Great Depression. That generation was just as doomed as us, if not, worse. So if they can get through it, I’m sure we can, right? We have more marketing/networking opportunities than ever with social networking.
As much as my slap-in-the-face epiphany about my future deems itself negative, I refuse to admit the depth of challenge this generation brings. Call me bipolar, but screw what the economists say.
If we can’t adapt, what can we do?
For once, I’m hoping my judgment was wrong. Scratch that. I’m counting on it.
HA, if you think being born in the 1990’s is bad enough, come talk to me about being alive in the 1980’s. The 1980’s had the technology revolution along with cell phones, pagers and the internet. I lived through Regan’s attempted assassination, the AIDS epidemic and the Shuttle disaster. I was also born at the time MTV got started. Now, let’s compare that to the 1990’s.