Comments on: We Are Generation Catalano

By: E

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 21:54:34 +0000

Born May of 81. This is it. I have a professor who equates us with the micro generation just before the hippies. Just after the Beats and before the boomers. Born in the late 30s/early 40s. Extremely smart and extremely cynical.

By: Haviland

Haviland — Sat, 29 Oct 2011 17:31:41 +0000

Damn, you’re good.

By: captain.crunch

captain.crunch — Sat, 29 Oct 2011 14:58:25 +0000

U ran in2 jared? hooooooboy!!!! wooottttt? & U could escape the gaze from those blue eyes? respect!

By: Alley

Alley — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 19:05:26 +0000

I basically said a big “hell yes” to everything you and Dorree said. It’s like you were writing just for me, which, I guess you kind of were, as I was born in ’81

By: Grace

Grace — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 05:46:36 +0000

Yes! I like this. I would also be down with generation chase or generation angela. seriously, it took me a while to remember who catalano was, but the generation is the same, and i’m all there.

By: Seabreeze15

Seabreeze15 — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 17:35:51 +0000

I relate to this article. Riese you do have a finger on the pulse. I remember the day after the show was canceled kids were signing a petition in the lunchroom to send to ABC. And I also edited with 2 VCR’s.

By: Bonanza Jellybean

Bonanza Jellybean — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 09:29:08 +0000

It goes there.

By: TJ

TJ — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 02:54:49 +0000

Douglas Coupland is amazing. Probably one of my favorite authors of all time ever. I’m very envious of those who can capture the feel of an era just by paying attention to the little things, like TV shows and music, people use to define themselves and identify with their peers.

But what I find most interesting is, even though we feel like things are changing so fast, like, “remember back in 2007 when nobody had iphones? how did we survive?” a lot of things stay the same. I recently reread Generation X, and I was struck by how much I, at 21, identified with the characters who technically belonged to the same generation as my parents. There was so much angst about the future, guilt about the environment and general alienation that feels verrry familiar. Or maybe that’s just me.

Anyways, I guess I should go try to find this show on the internet now..

By: jennifer

jennifer — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 00:30:25 +0000

Omg, yes! I agree with all of this. I turned 30 a couple weeks ago and I was obsessed with My So Called Life when it was first on tv. And I always felt too young for generation x but too old for whatever the younger marketing category was called.

It is weird to have such huge changes over a few decades, to remember 8-tracks and rotary dial phones while now carrying the internet with me all day. And all the changes in social norms and structure that go along with all of that!

By: Carrie

Carrie — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 21:05:55 +0000

i guess my generation could be defined as packaged. to be truthful i really think my time has a schizo identity. not really claiming anything as it own but rather grabbing bits and pecies from past decades. nothing lasts long enough to define any of us because of all the access to things like social networking. the moment anything innovative is done it rapidly becomes old and outgrown.my generation has this obsession of documenting their every movement with tweets and posts as if time is always fleeting and the need to be heard and special is ever more important. such an act really shows how discontent my generation is with the current times and the constant replay of media that fails to grasp that youth can’t be seen as a way of profit.and it’s media that quickly captures our youth, puts it in a package and sells it back to us. therfore if my generation is defined by whats on tv, then it’s even more of an example of how disconnected we have become to our inner self. shows like my so called life foucsed on the mind of a teenage girl in the midst of highschool. and now many shows directed to teens incorporate vampires, witches superpowers, or are about a group of people who binge drink and party without a care of the world. these shows reflect a generation that trys to drift away from the reality as much as possible, ethier because what is happening is too much to think about or as a consequence of growing up in media technoligical envoirnment where things are unstable and new ideas gets constantly created before the old can even sink in. i guess what i’m trying to say in relation to the article is that i find it very interesting how identity is interwined with popculture. and how our need for definement and attachment is always going to be there. i bet when i am older i will still try to look back at my youth and try to to capture its essence or associate it with one thing or another.

By: Ciara

Ciara — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 19:57:41 +0000

So I am also a 1981 baby who, despite being away across the ocean from it, lived and breathed my so called life along with every one of my friends at the time. Not watching it equalled practical ostracism since it was all we talked about the day after it was on. I, as a closeted baby gay, was secretly disinterested in Jordan/Jared but publicly completely obsessed with him along with everyone else.

I’ll never forget the day we “heard” that he died. Everyone cried. EVERYONE. To the point that the teachers nearly had to hold an intervention. There are probably still school desks with the words “Jared Leto RIP” right under “Kurt Cobain Lives On”.

Now you are probably thinking “but…Jared Leto is still alive?” and you would be right. But in the days before the interwebs rumours like this took hold and wouldn’t let go. It was all a bit anti-climactic when suddenly he was on TV again when the next season aired. At that point we had all lost interest in our fickle teenage ways.

By: jj

jj — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 15:39:52 +0000

This could basically apply to every generation ever. Though I guess some shit stinks quite a bit more than others.