Internet generation

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

U.S. Generations * = dates disputed, ^ = Strauss and Howe This box: view • talk • edit
Term	Period
^Puritan Generation	1588–1617
Puritan Awakening	1621–1649
^Cavalier Generation ^Glorious Generation ^Enlightenment Generation ^Awakening Generation	1618-1648 1648-1673 1674-1700 1701–1723
First Great Awakening	1727–1746
^Liberty Generation ^Republican Generation ^Compromise Generation	1724–1741 1742–1766 1767–1791
Second Great Awakening	1790–1844
Transcendentalist Generation ^Transcendental Generation ^Gilded Generation ^Progressive Generation	1789–1819 1792–1821 1822–1842 1843–1859
Third Great Awakening	1886–1908
^Missionary Generation Lost Generation Interbellum Generation G.I. Generation Greatest Generation	1860–1882 1883–1900 1900–1910 1900–1924 1911–1924
Jazz Age	1918-1929
^Silent Generation Beat Generation Baby Boomers Generation Jones	1925–1942 fl. 1950s-1960s *1940s-1960s 1954–1965
Consciousness Revolution	1964–1984
Generation X ^13th Generation MTV Generation Boomerang Generation	*1960s–1980s 1961-1981 1974–1985 1977–1986
Culture Wars	1980s–present
Generation Y ^Millennial Generation Echo Boom Generation Internet Generation ^New Silent Generation	1970s–1990s 1982-2000 1982–1995 1994–2001 1990s or 2000s-?

The Internet generation is an emerging term in theoretical and popular discourse to denote the American sub-generation branching off later-born members of Generation Y and early born members of The New Silent Generation , immediately following the Echo Boom Generation.^[1] Born since the explosion of the home computer market in the mid-to-late 1990s, the defining cultural-historical event to distinguish this cohort is that its members spent their formative years in an age of the rise of the World Wide Web. Thus, the Internet Generation usually has no recourse to a memory of (or nostalgia for) a pre-Internet history. The "iGeneration" ^[2] or "MySpace Generation" ^[3], as it is also called, takes the Internet for granted as part of the 'natural order of things,' accepting the utility of services such as internet forums, email, Wikipedia, search engines, MySpace, Facebook, imageboards and YouTube.

This emergent media ecosystem is a key factor in the historical formation for this cohort. One can compare this situation to those who grew up with TV versus those for whom TV was a new development (which they could choose to watch or ignore so that the statement "I don't watch TV" becomes a relevant identity marker). Emerging within a paradigm shift that changed how humans relate to each other and how both virtual and real communities form within globalization, the Internet Generation therefore cannot be lumped together with previous generations. The term "iGeneration" (a phrase said to be coined by underground rapper MC Lars) draws from the popularity of technologies such as the iPod and connotes the paradoxical simultaneity of both 'ear bud insularity' and relatively blasé attitudes about the loss of private space since the rise of the Internet and, in particular, YouTube, where Andy Warhol's '15 minutes of fame' prophecy has been literalized. Tellingly, "You" was voted Time Magazine Person of the year for 2006 while You Tube was named Invention of the Year.

New York Magazine's report on the Internet generation emphasized their lack of privacy, expectation of speaking to an audience even in personal communication, and a familiarity with harsh, anonymous criticism.^[4] While there is no consensus on what to call this generation, if the terms are combined, there is a pervasive sense in the media that the generation is distinct from Generation Y. Other terms that have been used in conjunction with this generation include: