January 25, 2013
"Why parents are afraid to talk to their kids about sexual orientation: They’re either religious (in which case they should get over themselves about the whole thing) or stupid (in which case their wishes regarding the education of their children should be ignored). Why parents are afraid to talk to their kids about sex: They follow an absurd system of morality that claims that being human should be a source of shame. Advice to all of the above: Get over it. You live in a society that is moving forward, and you’re stuck in the 1950s. Re-examine your morality, because if you seriously think that two consenting adults being in love is somehow wrong, you are the problem. And if you’re the kind of person who thinks that it’s better to have abstinence-only education or none at all, thereby causing massive teen pregnancy rates, then you’re not the kind of genetic line that should be continued."

— New York Times writer John Schwartz’s Son, Joe, on Growing Up Gay in 2013

10:14am
(Notes: 1,132)
  
Filed under: LGBT Gay rights Politics Health Youth Education Religion 
December 10, 2012

Behold, the First Video-Game About the Millennials

Brody, the hero of Ubisoft’s commendable new shooting game Far Cry 3, is unmistakably a Millennial, that subject of a thousand unsatisfying think pieces in a hundred magazines. I am a Millennial. We have: soaring self esteem that shatters on the beach break of employment; no chance in the global job market; great debt; no religion; a robust social media presence; access to a baffling array of subcultures; no idea when to get married; an unacceptably extended adolescence; the tatters of the American dream clasped like a talisman to our overprivileged breasts; a rotting Earth. Or so you’ve heard

Read more. [Image: Ubisoft]

Critics have argued Far Cry 3 is rife with sexism and Orientalism. Can video games and other forms of entertainment be characterized as “Millennial” without being progressive?

11:10am
(Notes: 142)
  
Filed under: Video-game Millenial Youth Art Technology 
November 1, 2012
China Has Hipsters, Too It’s happened all over the world, and it’s happening in China, too. As the country’s middle class swells in number — and its people discover the pleasures and disappointments of a life spent pursuing material comfort — there has come the emergence of a distinct counter-culture. In Chinese, they are thewenyi qingnian (文艺青年), orwenqing for short, literally meaning “cultured youth.” It’s China’s closest equivalent to the alternately beloved and reviled English word, “hipster.”  What does a typical “cultured youth” look like? Baidu Baike, China’s version of Wikipedia, contains an entry on the term that quotes writer and musician Guo Xiaohan: “I’m a very typical wenyi qingnian. I like poetry, novels, indie music, European cinema, taking pictures, writing blogs, cats, gardening, quilting, making dessert and designing environmentally friendly bags.”  Read more. [Image: Weibo, Tea Leaf Nation]

China Has Hipsters, Too

It’s happened all over the world, and it’s happening in China, too. As the country’s middle class swells in number — and its people discover the pleasures and disappointments of a life spent pursuing material comfort — there has come the emergence of a distinct counter-culture. In Chinese, they are thewenyi qingnian (文艺青年), orwenqing for short, literally meaning “cultured youth.” It’s China’s closest equivalent to the alternately beloved and reviled English word, “hipster.” 

What does a typical “cultured youth” look like? Baidu Baike, China’s version of Wikipedia, contains an entry on the term that quotes writer and musician Guo Xiaohan: “I’m a very typical wenyi qingnian. I like poetry, novels, indie music, European cinema, taking pictures, writing blogs, cats, gardening, quilting, making dessert and designing environmentally friendly bags.” 

Read more. [Image: Weibo, Tea Leaf Nation]

3:06pm
(Notes: 239)
  
Filed under: China Hipster Music Culture Youth 
August 24, 2012
"Wanting to not be reliant on a car is a big part of the reason I moved into the city in the first place. I did the calculation many years ago, and figured out that even from a purely financial perspective it’s better - the rent’s higher, but cars are impressively expensive to own, fuel, and maintain. And there are a bunch of other financial perks. Living within walking distance of numerous bars saves a mint in cab fares, for example. (Not to mention that suburban taxi service tends to be an enormous PITA.) Living or working in the ‘burbs is absolutely not an option for our household. The reason is quite directly that we don’t want to be reliant on a car. - bunderbunder"

— One of your responses to this month’s business column. “The Cheapest Generation,” asked whether twentysomethings putting off cars and houses represented a Great Recession trend or a new normal for young people. 

12:56pm
(Notes: 72)
  
Filed under: Economics Youth Cars Transportation 
August 24, 2012
"Our generation’s culture is being defined by our obstacles. By the time things turn around and improve we’ll be so used to our current way of living it will be instinctual to live the way we do: nomadic, tribal, tech-savvy vagabonds eschewing permanent ties to ownership. If I hadn’t bought a home a year ago and was asked to consider it now, I would not. In fact, I’d love to be rid of mine. I can’t fault myself for making the best decisions I could at the time I made them, but the truth of the matter is no matter how much I’m trying to rush into adulthood (like I was told I should do while I was growing up) I am a Millennial. — thenewnero"

—

One of your responses to this month’s business column. “The Cheapest Generation,” asked whether twentysomethings putting off cars and houses represented a Great Recession trend or a new normal for young people. 

Read more.

11:59am
(Notes: 103)
  
Filed under: Politics Youth Culture Housing Economics College 
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