Analyzing an entire generation is about as scientific as astrology. I’m more apt to trust a horoscope than someone who claims to be an expert in generation-ology, like the entirely biased experts in the field, Baby Boomers William Strauss and Neil Howe. I probably have more in common with my fellow Libra-Scorpio cusps than I do with the 70 million Americans born in between 1982 and 2001. The ties that bind a generation are constructed from the various narratives of their time: we’re summed up by the cultural, political and technological trends that surround us, whether we have anything to do with them, or whether they’ve been passed down to us from Baby Boomer marketers and impresarios, Generation X culture-makers and web developers.

There’s a faulty logic in assuming that whatever the Gen Y demographic consumes the most reflects an authentic picture of its generation: most of us have just started to mature to the point where our own work has become culturally relevant, where we are speaking to each other instead of being spoken down to. Furthermore, culture has become fragmented into micro-niches faster than market research can keep up with it. Over the next decade, I hope that Generation Y will start to define itself rather than let itself be defined by biased voices from the generations that have preceded it. The lasting damage of our elders’ bitter accusations of “entitlement!” will not be erased without hard work.

In terms of authorial origin, I can’t claim the video at the top of this post (which I appear in) is a step in the right direction. It’s basically a bullet-point rundown of the points outlined in Gen X writer Eric H. Greenberg’s new book, Generation We– a call to action for our generation to change the world for the better. While it may not come from an authentically Gen Y source, the book and the video have a good message, using our generation’s lack of an identity as a call to arms, asking us to carry on the project of liberalism that has finally arisen from the ashes in the 2008 election. Underneath its melodramatic earth-saving surface, the video manipulates our fragmented lack of cohesion to recruit us for the liberal agenda, which, as a supporter of those ideals, I believe is a good thing– yet, as a believer in the importance of our generation establishing self-sufficiency, I can’t help but feel weird about.

Regardless of its authorial origin or agenda, the effort to stimulate, address, or identify Generation Y as a whole is clearly something that young people are yearning for: the “Generation We” video has already been viewed 1.8 million times in little more than a week over MySpace, YouTube and Vimeo (reading the video’s comments on each of those sites is an interesting study altogether on the disparate demographics who log on to each of those forums). Sometimes I wonder if it will ever be possible for us to effect positive change throughout our next 15 or 20 years in the sun. Will we end up selling out like the Baby Boomers in the 80’s, or just say “Whatever” and enjoy ourselves like the jaded Generation Xers before us? Will technology give us the edge we need to change the system and its seemingly impassible roadblocks, or will it just lead us to solipsistic navel-gazing? Or will the entire system collapse under the shifting forces of the global market before we even have a chance to make our mark?