The most shocking part of “ Generation Like , ” PBS ’s young Frontline documentary about youth medium culture , come about when a lot of teenagers fink they do n’t jazz what the term “ deal - out ” means . This term , so vital to the identity element of at least three generations that had come before them , did n’t register as something damaging . In fact , it did n’t register at all . If you hear a tawdry crunching disturbance at around 10 atomic number 61 tonight , do n’t vex . It ’s just a bunch of old people wringing their hands in unison .
We ’re all brands now , and this is meant to be terrifying . And it probably is . But the entire documentary is also liberally soaked with a kind of sentimentalisation of the past ; a struggle to understand how America could ’ve produced such a nauseatingly sincere generation of technical school - savvy sell - out . Boomers , Gen Xers and even older Millennials are intend to be scream , HAVE YOU NO SHAME , at their screens — without recognizing that perhaps the result is both “ no ” and “ shame about what ? ”
Douglas Rushkoff , host of the program and author of last year’sPresent cushion , introduces us to a vernal woman who says she ’s been working 4 - 5 hour per daylight liking and retweeting various build of social media for the Hunger Games . “ It makes me feel like a actor , but in the remnant it ’s all worth it because I get more spark , ” she tells us .
Her “ sparks ” are social currency , a bit like thepumpkin pointslampooned five old age ago by The Onion — the same Onion started by a bunch of snarky Gen Xers in Madison and would develop into a major media outlet now dependent upon like and retweets to stay afloat . What does this young cleaning woman get from her hours of clicks ? Sparks . What do sparks get her ? Recognition as a serious Hunger Games fan . And that ’s really all she need out of that relationship .
This young woman is n’t ignorant to the reality of this exchange . For the most part , she understands what ’s go on . And that ’s the interesting part . She knows what her efforts are provide both to her and the studio behind the Hunger Games movies . She just does n’t really seem to care .
The interrogation for the old in the audience then is twofold : 1 ) Why should she care ? and 2 ) Is this deceptive or manipulative when it ’s facilitate by an enormous media company ?
“ I do a destiny of like make integrations whenever it works , but I attempt to keep it minimal , ” YouTube star Tyler Oakley read to a way full of merchandising professionals . “ They can always secernate if a YouTuber is like pushing something . So I sample to keep it transparent and good because they have a go at it it ’s my caper and they cognise that I have to pay up bills . They get that , so it ’s all serious . ”
It ’s that matter - of - fact attitude that ’s so alien to many of us over the years of 25 who are watch at home . “ sell out ” has simply become “ ante up the throwaway . ” It almost feel like they ’re cheating . Who do these young tinder conceive they are to just pass over that step where you welter in a pitfall of self - deception , rationalization , and guilt ?
When I was in high school I find out Rushkoff ’s 2001 Frontline documentary “ merchant of Cool ” believably three or four times . Everyone from my left - leaning Sociology instructor to my right - leaning Health teacher wanted to show us banter how the universe of marketing worked . There were unobserved military unit trying to persuade you , to cajole you , to make you buy thing . For my liberal teachers , it was an indictment of our uneconomical and manipulative consumer polish . For my conservative teacher , it was another lesson of how sex and violence were rust American culture from the inside .
But for me it just served to make me sense wise . I grasped at a kind of faux - intelligence about how things “ really bring ” in that self-satisfied way that a teenager so desperately wants to feel like he knows everything — like I ’d had a peek behind the curtain . Without a dubiousness , this new documentary will serve a similar purpose for a handful of kids today .
“ When we made the Frontline documentary film ‘ merchandiser of Cool ’ back in 2001 the media surroundings was quite different , ” Rushkoff explicate . “ MTV was the mighty behemoth growing rich exploit kids ’ desire to be cool . Corporations were chasing teens down , film adolescent cultivation and selling it back to them . ”
“ Today ’s teens , like this group of high schoolhouse booster in Montclair , New Jersey , do n’t ask to be chased down . They ’re put themselves out there online for anyone to see . They tell the world what they consider is coolheaded , starting with their own online profiles . ”
Rushkoff is absolutely right . But rather than having to waitress a propagation for multitude to ask “ what were you so worried about ? ” the kids in the documentary are already doing that .
At best , “ Generation Like ” serves as a kind of snapshot of the second 10 of the 21st one C . But just as the techno - reactionist protests of 1970s civilisation commentator like Alvin Toffler now seem quaint , one ca n’t help but suppose a world two decades hence that ’s even more awash in likes and retweets . The children of today ’s teen will likely express joy at how unsophisticated and relatively not intrusive our social media appeared .
Much like 2001 ’s “ Merchants of Cool , ” this new Frontline documentary will be demonstrate to teens in any number of high schooltime classes . But also like “ Merchants of Cool , ” “ Generation Like ” will be analyze by bud merchandising professionals , teach shoot for YouTube lead and Marketing major alike how the on-line marketing sausage gets made . Some kids will see it as a warning , still more will see it as a blueprint for success .
Sure , everything is the worst . But it always has been . There ’s almost something tonic about the way that many of these kids go about the ostensibly subtle aspects of twenty-first century selling . They seem less racked with guilt over the lousy realities of the world . They are n’t bothering to squall LET ’S GET THIS DYSTOPIA STARTED , like I did at the blind . Because they do n’t even see it as a dystopia . But as always , only time will tell if they ’re right .
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