So earlier a guy who I am friends with on Facebook as the poignant question 'What do you think our generation will be remembered for?', to which people immediately replied in a typically negative manner. Answers included the Hashtag, Social Media, lack of social awareness and the like.
To preface we are in are in our early twenties. The crew born in the early nineties, just finishing up university. We are, without a doubt at a strange point in our lives. We are not old enough to have yet made any historical impact on the world. Yet we have lost the naivety of childhood.
We have the spent the better half of a decade, our adolescence in a seemingly negative world. Post 9/11, through the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and having witnessed the uprising of the Middle East. We have spent years living through economic recession, being repeatedly told that it will be obscenely hard for us to find good jobs. But we have survived.
Every generation feels the same sense of entitlement, that we, as a race, are getting worse as time goes on. That we had a tougher up bringing.
But this isn't true.
Ultimately, a generation is rarely remembered for what it didn't do right. It instead is remembered for what it did well. The people saved.
So to answer his question, how will we be remembered? It is almost impossible to say, after all we still have approximately 70 years to go.
Moreover, the question should be how should young people in 2014, be remembered.
We are the generation with a voice. We have taken social media as our own. Commandeered the Hashtag. Mastered the blog. Used YouTube to speak out. Where other generations have said nothing, we have chosen to tell the world how we feel. And as such we are changing the world.
We are the generation with a heart. Raised on the back of successful celebrity endorsed philanthropy, such as Band Aid and Children in Need. Charity is always at the forefront of our minds. We do crazy things to collect pennies to help those less in need. Or we quietly fill out a subscription form to sponsor a child. You may even find we drop our lose change in the charity bucket. We don't forget.
We are the generation who is equal. We stand up for the marginalised. Try our best to not group people. Because to us, everyone is the same. We don't care what colour your skin is, or which team you bat for. We can't fathom why the world would mind.
We are the generation who keeps in touch. We don't forget our friends from High School, they appear on our news feeds every time we check our favourite social media site. We can reconnect at the push of a button, and are not afraid to say hi. We are the generation who can't lose touch with people. We are the generation that sticks together.
We are the generation that is independent. We may care about fashion but we won't all be dressed the same. Vintage is cool, and so is the latest garment. We dye our hair, and paint our nails; or maybe we don't. We get tattoos that we may regret, and pierce more than just our ears. We all listen to different music, the internet has made accessing more than the top 40 so much easier. We are the painted generation.
We are the gap year generation. Full of travellers and world explorers. Volunteers, Scuba Divers and Beach Bar Workers. We have seen the world, and want to see more. But don't worry, we will come home for a good roast.
We are the 2K generation.
We are us.
And we are here to stay.
