Gen Y Needs Passion
vYbe is Cool Cleveland's focus on Gen Y, people born in 1979 through 1995, igniting the Cleveland Gen Y scene, tipping off 20-somethings to some of the coolest events, alt culture, music, personalities and slammin' pursuits. vYbe is connecting our region's talented youth, their contributions and tracking their future in Cleveland.

This week, Cool Cleveland vYbe commentator DJ Hellerman explores his age group's lack of passion, and questions the direction of their future.

The absence of passion among Generation Y is a frustrating phenomenon I've experienced with my peers in Cleveland. Without a passion there is nothing to keep one motivated and progressive, and the result is Gen Y engaged in mindless activities of smoking and drinking. It's a mindset that doesn't stretch for possibilities, doesn't want or need to improve or move beyond anything other than using brainwaves for work and little else. To my disappointment, this kind of thinking is holding up my generation's progress.

Passion can manifest itself in belief systems that values either a community endeavor, a political movement, personal lifestyle or religious affiliation that generates a revitalized interest in life and how one perceives it. When this expansion of thought is nurtured, it inspires the individual to look beyond the shallow surfaces of the self, to embrace and process new experiences which may lead to some other involvement or passion that engages the individual with a higher level of existence, e.g. operating on a level that surpasses the self-oriented mentality.

I've observed the lack of vision and passion in my peers as we hang out at college, or while we go out on the weekends. We perpetuate our own disenfranchisement by not involving ourselves in discussions or activities that provoke thought which leads to questioning our positions in life. Another culprit is nonproductive associations with friends or individuals we spend time with. The media also plays a big role in the disillusionment of Gen Y with marketing that attacks our Achilles heel: the media feeds off impressionable youth, who are easy to mold into young consuming machines who buy, sell, and buy again. The constant pressure to look cool, get laid, purchase the right stuff and you can obtain the two main objectives of looking cool and getting laid! This way, Gen Y is set in a cycle of materialism that keeps our minds preoccupied with consumerism and image, which distracts us from focusing on our personal growth, passions, and direction in life.

Deeper into the issue, the foundation of the affectability of the media and its advertisements lies in the realm of education, and the constant presentation of information as fact, fact, fact. It then requires students to simply spit the "facts" back on paper without the encouragement to stop and analyze the situation or facts that are presented from a “reliable” and “non biased” source. Advertising that preys on Gen Y would not be as accepted, if only critical thought was encouraged throughout students' educational experience beyond the post-secondary level and into their professional careers.

Gen Y is so far removed from what really matters, and maybe this is partially due to society's inability to engage them into deeper thought processes that directly impact their ways of experiencing life. The lack of both personal and artistic inspiration emanates from my generation; there's also a general malais and lack of awareness of how to hold oneself to a higher standard of living and existing. Since we do not recognize that life has any intrinsic worth, we're refusing to be held responsible for "making a difference," whether creatively, professionally, publicly or personally.

It seems the only passion possessed is the desire to drink, have sex, buy the best of everything and don't forget the most important part...flaunt your material goods. These actions are presented in such a way that leads one to believe conforming will then catapult one to the highest possible societal class based on acquisitions. The struggle of finding a belief system that instills worth, inspiration, or passion that allows one to transcend the boundaries of the surface appeal of a particular person or society is the intangibility of that lifestyle. The accessibility of "what really matters" is not as simplistic and easily accessible in regards to how one should be and act. Simple mindedness and self-orientation are easy - she has this so, I need this; he has that so, I need that; she does that so, I'll do that, etc. It's a level of existence that fuels a mindless and endless game of no thinking, conforming, and follow-the-leader mentality.

Individual thinking is also derailed from artificial exterior identities that are embedded within us from childhood; the acceptance of a “role model” encourages youth to follow another's identity before developing their own. This ideology insists that youth latch onto a person and develop ethics and morals similar to the chosen role model, it establishes the belief that it's acceptable and productive to “model” oneself after another person. This way of thinking is warped in such a way that youth are bombarded by images of cliché, female/male pop stars, and society allows this emulatation process. Unfortunately, it eliminates a child's option to think independetly without someone else’s influence or appearance to conform to. Within kids' social structures, value is not given to a young person for being unique or free from mainstream influence. The desire for challenging the mainstream, exploring and developing personal passions, and a unique and individual identity separate from “everyone else” simply has not been solidly established within the youth culture.

In my own life, my passion for art and people is one that was established without my control. Throughout my life, it has become more and more evident just how powerful of a belief system it is. It was not until my recent backpacking trip to Europe that I finally realized how powerful my passion for art had become. This occured at the Picasso museum in Paris. While Picasso is not one of my favorite artists, he is on my like list. And it wasn’t viewing his paintings or walking through Paris, instead, it was the entire visual, emotional, psychological, and social experience of the art itself. The opportunity to talk with people so moved by his particular work that their entire life evolved around it, and the energy that the working artists were producing in the front court yard had a powerful impact on my life, so much that I spent three days returning to the museum to submerge myself in every possible visual experience. This passion for art is constantly developing, morphing, and hurling my life in directions that are unfathomable to me. Because of this passion, I feel disconnected and, at times, isolated from other Gen Y’s. There are few within my immediate age group who possess passion about something, and I notice the overall feeling of a lost and stagnant group of people.

The lack of passion in Gen Y is an issue that frustrates and challenges me. I feel that our generation needs something to obsess over, to value, something that makes us feel alive and vital - a directive that is the center of our lives and hence becomes our raison d'etre. It must be something other than products the media forces on us, and it must be separate from predetermined social standards that discourage our search for identity. When will Gen Y become so pissed off or so in love with something that our generation becomes active, alive, and aligned with a mission and a passion to oversee change or a major transformation? from Cool Cleveland contributor and Gen Y'er DJ Hellerman DJ_Hellerman@yahoo.com (:divend:)