They Just Like the Attention

For those who do not belong to my generation--Generation Y, the Millennials, the Echo Boomers, whatever the hell we call ourselves--you have not been granted license to comment on, criticize, justify, analyze or define what we do as a collective market demographic in any way, shape or form.

My opening statement seems harsh, but all too often in the press I have to listen to the commentary of sources who are interested in studying the behavior of all of us born between 1980 and 2000 and only sparingly finding those born within these decades to actually provide appropriate perspective.

All of this bile comes from an Orlando Sentinel story about the web-cam suicide of Abraham Biggs, a Broward College student who intentionally overdosed on benzodiazepine and opiates in front of an online audience. Click the title "They Just Like the Attention" above to read for yourself.

After reading the story, I immediately thought of the 1987 suicide of disgraced Pennsylvania treasurer R. Budd Dwyer, when he held a televised press conference to shoot himself with a revolver in front of the press and a live audience.

These stories are more different than they are similar, I know, but from the research I've done, the story of Dwyer's suicide never highlighted how his generation had "a penchant for sharing intimate details about themselves over the [television]."

The quote from 38-year-old Montana Miller, assistant professor of Pop Culture at Bowling Green State University, is disconcerting, if not downright insulting: "If it's not recorded or documented then it doesn't even seem worthwhile. For today's generation it might seem, 'What's the point of doing it if everyone isn't going to see it?'" As a source, her commentary is anecdotal, providing no factual evidence for the wildly broad generalization she has assigned to this particular group of individuals. And as a journalist, I would have no use for this source's commentary in the case of this 19-year-old's death.

I'm sure that many Millennials have taken flak from journalists and experts about how privileged we have been during our coming of age, what with our computers, iPods, cell phones, five-year on-going wars, four-dollar gasoline, our luxuriously high cost of education and high parental divorce rates. There's a lot to be jealous of, I know, but that's not our fault.

It was the hippies that created the internet. We just learned how to use it. Sure, the web, still only in its infancy, has revolutionized practically every facet of our lives in the last 8 years, and as a generation, we do have a strong dependence on it for information and entertainment.

But being quoted as saying that, as a generation, we would find a public suicide on the internet to be "not shocking, given the way teenagers chronicle every facet of their lives on sites like Facebook and MySpace," is wrong. It's undeniable that Miller, in her expert opinion, could have easily found sources born between 1980 and 2000, from an eight-year-old to a 28-year-old, who could provide plenty of evidence to the contrary.

Fun Fact: Wikipedia has a link to the video of R. Budd Dwyer shooting himself in the head. Will I not be shocked when I view it in this revolutionary 21st Century media outlet?

No. We watched two buildings fall in New York City. Duh. Everybody knows how passé that has become.

I also think my 11-year-old cousin, Jenna, would echo my callous dismissal of the melodrama that is broadcast public suicide.