meh.

Couple of problems with his article. Idunnonorcare if the link works.

Uno I thought we were "designated" as Generation Y, 'cause we all chawed on Pokemon cards in junior high and listened to shitty pop music before it got all "angsty" right after 911.

I have three younger sisters who at 911 were 13, 11, and 9. Just at the same time that they had the mental capacity to be aware of the nonpersonal entity that is "government" and the world outside their home, political leaders/evilfasicstdummmies (take your pick) were legislatively reacting to 911. The oldest one is only Now entering college and being challenged to think politically about such things (and yeah, probably being told what to think like we all were, but nonetheless), while the other two are bout halfway through high school. (But then they're also Israeli Jews who are used to such things anyway.)

I think this is incredibly different from people our age who got 911 as a senior present basically. If anything, we started our late teens/early twenties in a different mindset, mentally capable of not assenting to the legislative reaction and the consequences thereof.

Additionally, from the time we're about 5 years old we've been pigeon-holed into thinking of only people our age/in our same grade as our peers. Think back to 7th grade and walking home past an elementary school, seeing the 6th graders. Would you have considered them your equals, or were they just kids? The "we learned more/earlier than they" doesn't hold unless you're talking perhaps pre-algebra. You can read "Red Fern Grows" at 12 instead of at 13 and you're still bawling at the end just the same; you read "Animal Farm" before your senior year and nothing's going to happen to you. (Except maybe get paranoid.)

Doso what is his problem with ethanol farmers? I thought we were supposed to be getting away from petrol-based energy? I don't like how he equates "politically active" with "caring about new shiny things like global warming." Does he imply that when he was our age his/their "new shiny political thing" was civil rights and racial integration in college campuses?

So when Friedman categorizes "This generation of college students" I can only hope for the sake of his intellect that he's talking about the incoming freshmen students, and has no idea who those who came just before them.