So, let's begin with a simple question: what the fuck is a post-modern generation? The word is thrown everywhere in all sorts of academic papers and discussions; it's a wonderful word that says everything but really means nothing. So what is "post-modern"?
Let's tear the term down to see what we can squeeze out of it. The word "modern" is sort of straightforward, but it also begs the question: "modern" in reference to which year? The word's etymology can be traced back to the 1500's, and "modern art" as a label was first used in 1807. Both of these time periods are definitely not by any means considered modern any more. Strictly, the term refers to the time that is current; in a more technical, cultural sense, however, "modern" also refers to a style of art or music or dance that is characterised by "modern" concerns such as minimalism, industrialisation, and urbanisation. Modern theatre, for instance, frequently includes plays that deal with the isolation of people in an urban world and their struggles to cope with a world that has shifted from the traditional to a free-for-all society.
Literally, a post-modern society refers to a society that has progressed from a "modern" culture. To see the term "post-modern" this way, however, is to be superficial and simplistic; the "post-modern" world, in fact, is much more than that. The post-modern world is a world that has all the trappings of a modern society, complicated by the rapid progresses in technology and culture that have been made since the creation of the Internet. Certainly, the alienation caused by the sight of a sprawling city has not entirely vanished; at the same time, however, the mega-verse that lies behind the pixels on a screen has compounded the problems and questions that modern alienation poses to humankind.
What my generation represents, therefore, is the children that were raised under the shadow of these post-modern problems. The "post-" in "post-modern" doesn't refer to what comes after but is rather an extension and extrapolation of the society that was considered "modern". The pace at which the world is expanding (figuratively and literally) and developing means that those of my generation see the world very, very differently from our parents. The ideas that we have about life and about our society are shaped by the gaps that rapid cultural and technological advances have placed between us and our parents. We don't realise it, but we are truly a very different society indeed. And this blog is an attempt to express the world as we see it through our very post-modern eyes.
