Ep. 38: The Media's Bogus Generation Obsession

“Baby Boomers are bloating the social safety net!” “GenXers are changing the nature of work!” “Millennials are killing the housing market!”

The media endlessly feeds us stories about how one generation or another is engaging in some collective act of moral failing that, either explicitly or by implication, harms another generation. It’s a widely-mocked cliché at this point, namely the near-constant analyses detailing what Millennials have “killed” or “ruined” lately - everything from Applebee's to diamonds to top sheets to beer to napkins.

The first rule of drama––and by implication, the media––is to create tension. But what if tensions that actually exist in our society, like white supremacy and class conflict, are too unpleasant and dicey to touch––upsetting advertisers and media owners who benefit from these systems? To replace these real tensions in society, the media repeatedly relies on dubious and entirely safe points of conflict, like those between two arbitrary generations. It’s not the rich or racism that’s holding me back--it’s old people running up entitlement spending or lazy youth who don’t want to work! 

In this episode we talk about why this media trope isn’t just hacky and cliche, but also subtly racist and reactionary. 

We are joined by Adam Conover, host of Adam Ruins Everything on truTV.

Guest

Adam Conover is a comedian, writer, and the creator and host of Adam Ruins Everything on truTV. Follow him @adamconover.

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Show Notes

Millennials Don't Exist!

Adam Conover | March 19, 2016 | Deep Shift

Generations Are an Invention—Here's How They Came to Be

Sarah Laskow | September 11, 2014 | The Atlantic

This word ‘generation,’ I do not think it means what you think it means

Philip M. Cohen | October 7, 2014 | Family Inequality

Every Every Every Generation Has Been the Me Me Me Generation

Elspeth Reeve | May 9, 2013 | The Atlantic 

Move Over Millennials, Here Comes 'iGen' ... Or Maybe Not

Annalisa Quinn | September 17, 2017 | NPR

Are Smartphones Destroying a Generation, or Are Consultants?

Malcolm Harris | August 28, 2017 | New York Magazine

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References

The Iliad - Homer (c. 750 BCE)

Rhetoric - Aristotle (c.350 BCE)

Democracy In America - Alexis de Tocqueville (1835)

Illustrated London News - G.K. Chesterton (1922)

The Problem of Generations - Karl Mannheim (1923)

Millennials: The Me Me Me Generation - Joel Stein, TIME (May 20, 2013)

Here Is When Each Generation Begins and Ends, According to Facts - Philip Bump, The Atlantic (March 25, 2014)

The Homeland Generation - John Herrman, The Awl (October 10, 2014)

Your generational identity is a lie - Philip Bump, The Washington Post (April 1, 2015)

Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation? - Jean M. Twenge, The Atlantic (September 2017)

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Transcript

For a full transcript of this episode, go here.

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