Jim has never been arrested for a violent crime, nor has he been arrested for drug use, but he noted that fear of legal ramifications was one of the reasons he sought treatment at an outpatient facility. “I knew that if I didn’t stop, I was going to have run-ins with the law,” Jim stated, adding, “There were periods during my use that I felt watched and that I was being followed. My job and livelihood and drugs didn’t work together and if I didn’t fix it, they wouldn’t work together at all.”

We can look to the War on Drugs as, in many ways, a product of the counter-culture. Before the hippie movement, the birth of free love, and all the other things our parents got to enjoy but we didn’t, recreational drug use wasn’t common among the middle class. But slowly, it seeped into our consciousness in a way few will soon forget, and somewhere between heroin-addicted soldiers returning from Vietnam, the Manson family , and Altamont, America got scared of drugs corrupting youth and society, Reagan took office, the War on Drugs was born, and now the youth of today live with things like D.A.R.E. and mandatory minimums.

Many would point to Jim’s fear of the law as a motivator for quitting drug use as a demonstration of the effectiveness of strong drug laws. However, the cost of that deterrence comes at a high price: In the year 2000, almost $24 billion went to the costs associated with incarcerating non-violent drug offenders, and fully 76% of the increase in prison admission came from locking up non-violent drug convicts. The staggering increase even led to one former drug czar to refer to our country’s penal system as the “American gulag.”

What’s more, the War on Drugs has affected young non-violent drug offenders especially hard. Because, more often than not, drugs are first introduced to people during adolescence, it only makes sense that young people should have to deal with the legal ramifications of drug use. However, the cycle of penalization for drug deterrence takes a toll on our generation.

Overdoses among young people have often been shown to be a result of resistance to seeking medical attention because of punitive action. Penalties for drug use also can affect young people’s ability to get college loans or employment in a big way, paving the way for a cycle of recidivism.

What’s more, excessive sentencing has led to a host of young people seeing their lives taken away because of drug laws. In 2003, a 23-year-old woman with no priors was sentenced to 20 to 40 years in prison just for being in an apartment where there was drug activity. One 28-year-old woman with no priors was sentenced to 15 years in a conspiracy charge because her boyfriend was a drug dealer.

The War on Drugs has been time consuming, a waste of resources, and has brought a tornado of suffering upon the lives of countless people. As long as people have certain appetites, there will be drug abuse, and to try to eradicate it is to try to eradicate an incremental part of human nature.

“I think that as human beings we have the human right to choose what we do to our bodies,” Jim said. “I feel, if I want to do drugs, that’s my choice. I think that if the government would focus on more important things, we would do better as a society.”

Photo by Jewfro-Macabbi

In theory, it’s a winning idea for all involved. Young people can drink earlier in their lives, which promises more of the freedom from judgment and reason teenagers desire. Parents can believe their children are getting important early experience that, as in any other sport, helps them become better players—and helps them get a head start on the 10,000 hours of practice Malcolm Gladwell says are necessary to become an expert at something. And the data shows many European and American young people are already well on their way.

But the evidence also suggests the differences between how young people drink in Europe and the United States aren’t nearly as great as we imagine—and the generational changes are tremendous. By most measures, European youth actually drink more, get drunk more, and do so earlier in life than their American peers (though in certain settings, such as colleges and universities, American youth still lead the drinking world). And there’s surprisingly little evidence that introducing young people to alcohol earlier or lowering the drinking age does anything except lower the age at which young people start to drink.

“The number of British, German, Scandinavian and other teenagers stumbling into hostels at 5 a.m. in London, Paris or Prague is pretty overwhelming,” said one American college student traveling in Europe, who asked not to be named discussing drinking. “Lax drinking laws, a low drinking age, and a plethora of discos, bars and clubs give kids a lot of opportunities to get totally out of control.”

Survey data and the concern of European officials support her observation. A 2008 survey found that “while young people in most European countries are drinking less frequently than their parents and grandparents, they are consuming more alcohol each time they drink,” which is similar to the U.S. trend of infrequent but heavy drinking. Data from major surveys compiled by the U.S. Department of Justice found that the U.S. had lower rates of drinking and binge drinking among 15-16-year-olds than every European country except Turkey (which, as a predominantly Muslim country, has strong cultural stigmas against alcohol).

“Drinking to get drunk” has become much more common in Europe over the past two decades, with several surveys reporting a growing number of teenagers and young adults who say they drink for the “buzz” or to “get [insert your favorite term for drunkenness].”

“Binge drinking culture is definitely growing in Europe, and alcoholism has always been a problem,” said Charles Pellegrin, a French graduate student who has lived in several countries.

Traditionally beer-oriented countries such as the UK, Ireland, Denmark and Germany lead the statistics on youth drinking, drunkenness and alcohol-related problems—but wine countries appear to be catching up as French, Spanish and Italian young people choose beer and liquor over wine, and choose it in larger quantities.

Several Spanish and American students I interviewed discussed the trend of “botellon,” (literally “big bottle”) where Spanish teenagers sit outside in parks or on the street and drink together. This summer France has been overrun by the phenomenon called “apéro géant” (“giant aperitif”), where thousands of young people gather in flashmobs in French cities to party and drink very, very heavily.

All of this suggests that the merits of a lower drinking age and of early familiarization with alcohol might be something of a myth, too. In many European countries, the discussion about binge drinking is focused on 13-, 14- and 15-year-olds, not college students. Many European authorities are encouraging parents to take a more active role in educating their children about, and discouraging them from, drinking.

“I think that a lower drinking age just causes binge drinking a little earlier,” said one American student who studied abroad in Spain.

The evidence suggests that the differences in drinking culture between American and European youth aren’t as tremendous as we often assume. And in a globalized world where you can buy a Bacardi Breezer in 30 languages, that isn’t surprising. The differences seem more subtle, more cultural.

“Much like in the U.S., there are parties that result in people being a little too drunk,” said the American living in Switzerland. “I think that is the same across the globe, but here in Europe, alcohol is less frowned upon. But I can say for sure, when kids celebrate their sixteenth or eighteenth birthday over here, there is no focus of, ‘Yes! Now we can drink!’”

What are your experiences with European and American drinking culture? What are your thoughts on the drinking age?

Photos by Fernando Ariotti (top) and pixel0908 (bottom)

So how does this disgraced president fit into the grand scheme of our daily lives? Right now, despite our dire economy and record unemployment, we are spending hundreds of billions of dollars every year to continue a failing crusade against drugs, primarily marijuana. And despite the public outrage over the moral indecency in Richard Nixon’s political practices, the drug war continues to administer his distorted sense of justice.

We brainwash our kids.

If it’s one thing I hate, it’s propaganda. Manipulating the emotions of your audience in order to con them into believing a weak argument is despicable, and thus I wasn’t the only Millennial to grow up weary of anything the government passes off as truth. I never had the privilege of having a locker-to-locker marijuana salesman in my middle school (see video below), but as I grew older, I started to recognize that these public service announcements relied more on sensationalism than conveying truth. In an inevitable teenage rebellion against the world, I eventually tried smoking marijuana. It didn’t take me long to determine that a majority of what I was taught in the D.A.R.E. program was bullshit.

If you visited the D.A.R.E. website today, you would find a sparse page on marijuana, consisting of 119 total words. Furthermore, it takes the stance of not recognizing any medical applications of marijuana (supporting it’s federal classification as a Schedule I drug). Perhaps it’s time we stopped having drug education come from people who have an economic incentive for the drug war to keep failing. Indoctrinating children with the “horrors” of marijuana is more damaging for our society than skipping evolution in science class. Behold the real horror of the Drug War: this SWAT raid in Columbus, MO turned up two grams of marijuana and cost the lives of this family’s dogs. Heart wrenching? Definitely. Sensationalist? Absolutely! Real? Unfortunately.

We’re making money on hypocrisy

The video below (WATCH IT) sums up too many amazing points to recap, but the key takeaway here is that as we’re spending ourselves into the ground, organized crime is thriving. This country has spent half of the past 40 years failing at trying to stop people from relaxing the way they want to. In doing so, we’ve created an outrageously profitable industry for actual criminals, while we pay companies to continuously build prisons to lock up copious amounts of (otherwise) law-abiding marijuana smokers.

Over time, people noticed the trend of minorities disproportionately being incarcerated for marijuana arrests, as our current drug laws reflect their racist origin. A century of propaganda has made America forget that our roots are made of hemp, as marijuana is once again our nation’s number one cash crop, despite being illegal. The most supreme of hypocrisy is that we have presidents who would be incarcerated if they were held to the same standards as black youths.

This is the reality

A Brighter Tomorrow?
California is poised to make world history, as it is looking at becoming the first place on the earth to fully legalize marijuana. By doing so, the state would also be thumbing their nose at the federal government’s failed 40-year attempt at marijuana prohibition.

A Survey USA poll done on April 20, 2010 found that support for marijuana legalization in California among blacks was at 67%, which was the highest level of any major ethnic group in the sample. Whites were second with 59%, followed by Asians at 58% and Hispanics at 45%. Most shocking in these numbers was that 75% of people surveyed under the age of 34 felt Marijuana should be legalized. There is a clear correlation between younger generations being more supportive of marijuana law reform. A Gallup poll on legalization released last year also supports the fact that Generation Y is most likely to favor marijuana legalization. It should be noted that despite the miasmatic state of the Californian economy, the medical marijuana industry has been booming.

California will also be embracing an already booming industry, and open the various non-recreational uses of the original American staple crop to modern (dare I say Gen Y) entrepreneurs.

It would truly be poetic if the same state that gave us Nixon’s political career was the first in implementing safeguards against his flawed legacy. One thing is for certain: support for the costly and ineffectual drug war is dying as the younger generations gain political power, and soon we may just solve the drug problem – all we need is logic and reason.

Photos by legalizefreedom (top) and cracked.com (bottom)

Read the other perspective: Keep weed illegal! Here’s why

While I have never smoked pot, and I’m not likely to seek out the company of people who do, that fact has very little to do with what I know – pot should stay illegal in the United States. This is an incredibly difficult position to take, because drug use is extremely subjective.

But I do not think we can comprehend the immediate dangers that surround the drug trade. Even the simplest habits like marijuana use are unarguably part of a larger web of narcotics. Take a few minutes to watch the incredible investigative journalism piece by Current TV, on their show Vanguard (below). Does legalizing drugs make the United States a better place to live? Like many other subjective questions, there are trade-offs to both sides. The legalization of pot in the United States wouldn’t solve the huge problem facing Mexico – if anything, it would draw less attention to the larger issues at hand.

Often, first-hand experience, like that seen in Vanguard, is hard for Gen Y to come by. There is one step that we can take to understanding why pot should not be legalized. That involves comprehending the facts around marijuana in regards to its medicinal use and reach in this country.

Let’s take a second to look at the facts, here:

• We have made significant progress in fighting drug use and drug trafficking in America. Now is not the time to abandon our efforts.The Legalization Lobby claims that the fight against drugs cannot be won. However, overall drug use is down by more than a third in the last twenty years. Cocaine use has dropped by an astounding 70 percent and 95 percent of Americans do not use drugs. This is success by any standards.

• Smoked marijuana is not scientifically approved medicine. Marinol, the legal version of medical marijuana, is approved by science. According to the Institute of Medicine, there is no future in smoked marijuana as medicine. However, the prescription drug Marinol—a legal and safe version of medical marijuana which isolates the active ingredient, THC—has been studied and approved by the FDA as safe medicine. The difference is that you have to get a prescription for Marinol from a licensed physician. You can’t buy it on a street corner, and you don’t smoke it.

• Drug control spending is a minor portion of the U.S. budget. Compared to the social costs of drug abuse and addiction, government spending on drug control is minimal. The Legalization Lobby claims that the United States has wasted billions of dollars in its anti-drug efforts. But for those kids saved from drug addiction, this is hardly wasted dollars. Moreover, our fight against drug abuse and addiction is an ongoing struggle that should be treated like any other social problem. Would we give up on education or poverty simply because we haven’t eliminated all problems? Compared to the social costs of drug abuse and addiction—whether in taxpayer dollars or in pain and suffering—government spending on drug control is minimal.

This stance is sure to upset many of my peers. It is a personal choice to use recreational drugs, and I’ve made mine. However, I will not make the final decision on legalization. While I, like many others in the United States, would prefer to keep marijuana illegal – it would be ignorant not to acknowledge that our country will progress in whatever way best fits society.

Read the other perspective: Legalize! Why it’s time to end Nixon’s legacy

Disclaimer: This article is not meant to bash straight-edge in any way. It is simply an explanation of my experiences being straight-edge and my reasons for breaking edge. I fully respect anyone who chooses to be straight-edge, as well as those who do not.

Tuesdays are my favorite night of the work week. Why? They have $.99 margaritas at Señor Cactus.

Two years ago, you would have never heard me say that, but not because I wasn’t 21. Two years ago, I was straight-edge.

In my experiences, only about half of my peers have ever heard of straight-edge, and of that half, very few have any real idea of what it entails. Essentially, straight-edge is a sober lifestyle, but the reasons for assuming this label run much deeper than simply not drinking or doing drugs.

The term “straight edge,” often abbreviated as “sXe,” allegedly got its start back in the 80’s thanks to a song called “Out of Step” by the punk band Minor Threat. The movement was fueled by rebellion against the norms of that day and that scene, namely drugs and alcohol. Straight-edge has transformed over the past three decades, so for Millennials, it might also include other aspects such as vegetarianism or veganism, abstaining from promiscuous sex, and advocacy in political and environmental issues.

It’s difficult to say how many people claim edge because straight-edge isn’t an organized body of any sort. It’s a lifestyle, a mindset, a philosophy. It means different things to different people.

Back in the day, sXe people stayed connected through self-published “zines” distributed at their local punk and hardcore shows. With the advent of the Internet, some straight-edge information became available online. But if you Google “straight-edge,” you’ll quickly see that the sXe community hasn’t exactly made the most of the Internet as a resource. There are a few outdated sites out there, but that’s about it.

Personally, I was involved in one of the more popular online communities,  xsisterhoodx, which had over 22,000 members. Here’s an excerpt from my old profile, explaining why I claimed edge:

“I decided to become straight-edge the very minute I set foot on my college campus in freshman year in August of 2007. My background: I grew up in church, went to a Christian school, and hung out with teens in the youth group. Drinking and drugs were never a thought in my mind. I also have a family history of alcoholism, and it hurt to see the ones I love in a constant battle with this disease. So why did I need to label myself as straight-edge if I was already living the lifestyle? I believed straight-edge would be the ultimate commitment to myself. Not to any religion, not to my friends, not to my family. It was about self-respect and self-empowerment.”

So, what changed? Well, my first year of college ended, and my convictions for being edge remained strong. Sure, all my friends drank, but it didn’t bother me. I’d see all their sloppy photos on Facebook the next day and I’d just sit back and smile, proud of myself for being “better than that.”

But about half way through my second year, things changed. I ended a one-year long-distance relationship. He had always been supportive of my straight-edge lifestyle, but I now realized that was because it gave him one less thing to worry about when we were 200 miles apart. I wasn’t out drinking and partying with boys.

With this new freedom, I found myself thinking about a lot of things, including those Facebook photos of my friends who seemed to be having the time of their life. Then something in my head clicked: I want to get drunk. No, actually, I’ve WANTED to get drunk!

The first person I told was my roommate at the time. Her response: “YAYYY!”

The second person I told was my best friend back home. Her response: “YAYYY!”

So it was settled, and I was excited. That weekend, I went home for spring break, and I got drunk.

Looking back on it now, I find it all very ironic. I said that I decided to be edge out of “self-empowerment,” but in hindsight, I know that I decided to be edge out of fear. I was trying to protect myself from something that I had never experienced or understood, and I was lying to myself that I wasn’t curious.

Since that time, I’ve learned a lot about responsibility. I didn’t need to live an extremist, straight-edge lifestyle for the self-empowerment. Moderation is the key, and that’s something that straight-edge doesn’t teach. For me, “breaking edge” was the real act of self-empowerment.

As a generation, we are at a crossroads of sorts when it comes to our alcohol consumption. Many of us are leaving behind the days of college, and drinking the cheapest rubbing alcohol isn’t as appealing as it once was.  A bigger portion of our generation is now working, and has a higher level of disposable income.

Now, we can either buy larger and more copious amounts of rubbing alcohol and beer-flavored water, or we can spend money on something more “classy” and start drinking real alcohol like the rest of civilized society.

We’re finally wising up and choosing the latter.

Because we are finally spending more money on higher-quality alcohol, it is important for alcohol companies to target us effectively and maintain a brand that we feel comfortable with and enjoy being a part of.

Alcohol brands themselves sometimes carry more weight than the actual product, so it is important for companies to understand what Millennials are looking for in a brand of booze and why we like the brands we do.

Dos Equis

The “Most Interesting Man in the World” (TMIMITW) could be one of the greatest ad campaigns of the past 20 years.  TMIMITW single-handedly turned Dos Equis from just-another-Mexican-beer-you-bought-when-you-couldn’t-afford-Corona to a favorite brand for beer drinkers. Every brand can learn from Dos Equis and implement some of the strategies that have made them so successful.

First, TMIMITW is the perfect example of the personification of the brand. He portrays characteristics that everyone can relate to and wishes they had.

Second, they not only write genius copy (“At museums, he’s allowed to touch the art” and “His mom has a tattoo that says son”), but also successfully integrate the campaigns through every communicable medium. Their TV commercials, radio commercials, and online presence are consistent and help Dos Equis build their brand equity.

Corona

If Dos Equis is the new hotshot kid on the block, Corona is the established legend. Their commercials portray one idea, one feeling, which Corona has come to embody. The idea of a fun and relaxing tropical beach is something everyone needs. Corona tries to give you a little piece of that feeling in everything they do. When someone says “pool party,” Corona is always the first beer that comes to mind, and if you are attending a pool party or going to the beach, chances are someone has brought Coronas. This is the proof of a job well done. They have successfully adopted an emotion and transferred it to their product. Gen Y-ers need a break now and again, and Corona wants to be that little vacation we can take wherever we are.

Captain Morgan

The Captain can be considered the grandfather of TMIMITW.  What Dos Equis has accomplished in the past few years, Captain Morgan has been doing for a decade. Their leverage of The Captain, his excitement, fun, and the charisma he brings makes the rum that much more loved. The easily recognizable Captain “pose” has been done (and photographed and put on Facebook) by pretty much anyone who has walked into a bar. Also, the Captain was real! Captain Henry Morgan was an honest-to-goodness buccaneer, a pirate of the Caribbean.

Grey Goose

It is the ultimate luxury brand in alcoholic beverages.  Why is Grey Goose so admired and loved by Gen Y?  Because it is so damn expensive! The aura around Grey Goose stems purely from its price and luxurious image. Most people subscribe to the idea that if something is more expensive, it is probably better. This is what the Grey Goose brand stands for; because it’s so expensive, it has to be good. This unattainable image makes everyone want it.  It does help that it is tasty, but Grey Goose’s calculated positioning as the luxury brand in vodka makes it a brand to be respected and looked up to.

Whether you consume alcohol or not, you have to tip your hat to alcohol companies. They have mastered their craft over the decades and our generation is a big fan.

What are your favorite alcohol brands and why?

Photo by The Adventures of Kristin & Adam

Do you feel upset when you’ve had a bad day?

Well, you’re in luck, because there is a pill for that! In fact, there are pills for almost everything now, be it a real or imagined aliment. According to a new study by the CDC, almost 130 million Americans take prescription drugs at least once a month.

On top of the number of people taking drugs is the massive swelling of number of prescriptions given. IMS Health, a pharmaceutical consulting company reports that over the past decade, those levels have increased by two-thirds, equaling a staggering 3.5 billion prescriptions a year.

That is almost 12 prescriptions per American!

And the numbers for Gen Y prescriptions are frightening, to say the least. In 1990, 5.6% of people between the ages of 18-44 reported being on three or more prescription drugs, by 2003 that number had nearly doubled to 10.6%.

Are we supposed to believe that people are just getting sicker? Or could it be that we are all just being told that we are sicker?

According to Dr. Macia Angell, former editor of the New England Journal of Medicine, “[Americans] are taking way too many drugs for dubious or exaggerated ailments. What the drug companies are doing now is promoting drugs for long-term use to essentially healthy people. Why? Because it’s the biggest market.”

We are all aware of just how profitable the prescription drug industry can be. It is projected that by 2014, global drug sales will top 1 trillion dollars!

The over-use of medication has become standard in the Millennial social fabric. It has been ingrained in our nature that the first line of defense for any ill-feeling is a pill, or shot, or nasal spray of some kind. Social critics have deemed this the signature response of our time—“the urge to manage psychic pain through substance use.”

This is really our generation’s problem. It all started 12 years ago, when the FDA allowed drug companies to advertise on television. Being avid TV watchers, we become constant targets for these advertisements.

The availability of new “wonder drugs” and “miracle pills” has, of course, improved the lives and livelihoods of millions suffering from long-term illnesses such as HIV/AIDS, diabetes, and other diseases. However, for other conditions such as high blood pressure, obesity, and depression, patients are often under-diagnosed and over-medicated.

The use of anti-depressants in children under 18 has been a hotly contested issue in medical journals and the mainstream media. Focus continually reverts backs to the dangers of these medications when monstrous events occur, such as we saw when it was revealed that Columbine gunmen Eric Harris had been on anti-depressants prior to the 1999 massacre.

The debate is now turning its focus to drugs like Ritalin and Adderall, which are continuously given to children who show symptoms of ADD/ADHD. While these drugs can be helpful, critics warn of their potentially dangerous and damaging side effects when taken at such a young age.

There’s  a reason that the generation of children coming up after us is being nicknamed Generation Rx.

For us Millennials, the use of prescription drugs for recreation (those extra Vicodin after wisdom-tooth extraction, or a few Adderall before that big Calculus final) isn’t something that we shake our heads at. It has become a normal part of the adolescent experience, something we’ve all had experience with.

However, if the number of  drug prescriptions keeps going up, it will not be unauthorized use or abuse that we’ll have to worry about.

Soon, we won’t be borrowing prescriptions from friends, or buying them on the street corner. We’ll just make an appointment, invent a symptom, and walk away, poison and pleasure in hand.

As a student of public health, the increased availability of prescription drugs is both a miracle and a curse. Doctors and health practitioners are now able to extend and improve the quality of life in ways that we never thought would be possible.

However, with increased use comes increased abuse, and as someone who knows just how much of an impact drug abuse can have on the greater public health, I find myself torn.

Medicine and its administration should be left to doctors and health professionals, it should not be acceptable, advisable, or even allowed to demand a certain medication from a doctor, simply because you believe that you or your child have a certain condition.

We, as students in this field, are first and foremost taught to do no harm, and that all drugs are poison. Maybe it is time we start treating them that way.

Our parents had it ingrained in them that they could lose their jobs and the Depression, Part II could happen at any moment.  A steady career was a life essential.  If you happened to love your career, it was just an added bonus.

Now, after decades of a relatively stable economy, the young generation can put those Depression fears aside and actually enjoy life and work.  And, we get criticized for it.

“Generation Y is entitled, lazy, selfish, tech savvy, and incompetent,” wrote New York lawyer and not-Member of Generation Y, Scott Greenfield.

Some of us have been spoiled and told we’re special, so we deserve better when it comes to careers.  Some of us remember seeing Mom and Dad come home exhausted after work and don’t want that for ourselves.

But all of us are used to change – rapid change, at that.  We grew up rewinding Boys 2 Men tapes and now we download our music. We went from using technology to creating it for ourselves.  We went from thinking Presidents could only be old rich white men, then Barack Obama appeared.

So the thought of slowly degenerating in a six-by-six cubicle, processing status reports every Friday afternoon for the next twenty years, answering to the old man who didn’t get the memo about suspenders going out of style, and attending company Christmas parties isn’t exciting to us.

It may be stable, but it’s not fun.  Change is fun.

Maybe switching from job to job means you’re looking for change – or maybe you’re still searching for life’s purpose – or maybe you really are a “deadbeat” and you just haven’t realized it yet.  But whatever the reason, it’s not just our ADD tendencies to blame – it’s the other generations’ influence as well.

We switch from job to job because our college applications told us we needed to be well rounded.  Because the restaurant manager said we needed experience just to seat people to their tables.  Because our parents told us they wanted better for us than what they had.

“Whatever it was that influenced us, it is time for us to start our own journeys, make our own mistakes, and eventually give the generation after us their very own list of problems to avoid!” said Gen Y entrepreneur Tina Paparone on Under30CEO.

So maybe we won’t work for The Stable Work Corporation, Inc for 30 years or sign up for the 401K plan. But we’ll come for two years, open our mouths with fresh ideas that will help the company grow, and when we leave you can just say, “She’s young, she just needed a change, but she sure did a helluva job while she was here!”

Photo Credit: Beverly & Pack

He’s right, our country is in cultural decline. And while many find it easy to point the finger of blame at contemporary youth, with the texting, and the facebooking, and the childhood obesity, don’t forget that the path downhill was paved by our forefathers (Sorry, Dad).

Many people today bemoan the lack of loyalty among contemporary youth when it comes to employment. Back in the day, your career was more than a means to an end, it meant you were part of an organization. You gave your labor, and they gave you a living wage. Why is it kids these days jump so quickly from job to job?

Maybe because “back in the day” was before Enron, and Madoff, and Goldman Sachs, and the culture of greed and robbery that contradicts everything we were taught about America growing up: that success comes to those that work hard. Or maybe it was because we saw our parents’ jobs shipped overseas. Maybe the culture thought, “If my company isn’t looking out for #1, someone has to.” Or maybe more and more people are starting to find out life wasn’t what they bargained for (raise your hand if you graduated from college and are still unemployed).

Critics bemoan youth’s obsession with the lifestyles of the rich and famous. The Paris Hiltons, Spencer Pratts, and Kardashians of the world are no longer the examples of ignorant, spoiled spawn of the privileged that were meant to be greeted with scorn, but rather idols that are worshiped at the temple of excess. Instead of holding onto time-tested family values, our generation hails materialism and shallow superficiality. See if your grandparents can stomach one episode of The Hills or The Jersey Shore.

But look closer and you’ll find that America’s obsession with wealth and glamour has always been there. Yeah, rappers have songs about fancy cars, but so did Janis Joplin. Contemporary culture may worship Brad Pitt, Miley Cyrus, and the other empty vessels of Planet Hollywood, but how is that any different from America’s obsession with Marilyn Monroe, Audrey Hepburn, or the Rat Pack? This country has always held up wealth and fame as the most important of values.  The only difference is that thanks to louder broadcast media, today it’s more obvious.

Another consistent complaint is the lack of interest the youth of America have in politics. People in the 18-29 demographic consistently come out in low numbers in elections while the older crowd consistently shows them up. It’s gotten to the point where we have Puff Daddy on TV telling America’s future leaders that it comes down to vote or die. The generation of our parents had the anti-war movement, the civil rights movement, heroes of activism that changed the world for the better. How come kids these days just don’t care?

Maybe because our generation grew up with the candidates who answered to lobbyists, the cable TV mudslingers, a media that seizes on sex scandals instead of tackling issues, and a litany of toxins that has bred cynicism among an entire mass of Americans when it comes to politics. It’s not just young people who say they hate politics and politicians these days, it’s everyone.

No matter what era it is, society will constantly bemoan the decline of youth. Whether it be Elvis, or the hippies, or video games, or MTV, or just general anxiety about the future, someone will always be asking, “What’s up with kids these days?” But youth is a reflection of society, and as our culture free-falls into a downward spiral, so do we.

Photo by peopleofwalmart.com (top) and Brian Auer (bottom)

It’s one thing to watch our favorite celebrities on TV and find out what’s going on in their lives through their publicists or in a television interview, but following them on Twitter gives us a more raw view of who they are, what’s important to them, how bad their grammar is, and if they’re really worthy of our attention. Nowadays, we can keep up with our favorite celebrities in real time through their own 140-character-or-less expressions…for better or worse.

For better: I’ve always hated his music, (“Your Body is a Wonderland?” Come on!) but following John Mayer on Twitter has made me appreciate who he is as a person and a musician. His tweets range from philosophical to acutely observant to artistic to downright funny, as you can see in the following screen grab.

For Worse: I was really disappointed to find out that Jim Carrey, an actor I’ve always admired and imagined would be a really cool guy, is a total nut job – and not in the good way. For those of you who haven’t already made the mistake of following him, this screen grab will provide you with a comprehensive idea of what his Twitter feed looks like. Sorry Jim, you were hilarious in Ace Ventura and brilliant in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, but I don’t know what the hell “BOING” means, and those smiley faces you add to the end of every tweet make me feel like I’m 14 years old again.

But even cooler than being able to get to know celebrities through their own words, is actually getting the chance to communicate with them.

Last year, as I watched my beloved Boston Celtics take on the Orlando Magic in the 2009 NBA playoffs, I had my first brush with a celebrity on Twitter. Remember those annoying Comcast commercials featuring Ben Stein and Shaquille O’Neal in which Shaq would place his name into words? For example, he suggests making a movie called “Shaqenstein.” My conversation with Shaq stemmed from that.

Unfortunately I was wrong, and Orlando did indeed win. I guess he’s not a “shaqological” liar, after all. But the experience of looking at my @ replies and seeing a response from Shaq (even though it doesn’t make any sense and his grammar is practically non-existent) was pretty damn exciting!

Although celebrity interaction seems like a Millennial’s dream come true, Twitter usage stats show that the average user age on Twitter is 39.1 years old and more than 60 percent of all Twitter users are 35 or older, begging the question, is Gen Y even listening?

Late last year Miley Cyrus announced she was quitting Twitter because she had “stopped living for moments and began living for people,” a sentiment many Gen Y-ers can likely relate to. Before he was “canceled,” millennial favorite Conan O’Brien devoted an entire segment of the Tonight Show to disparaging the mundane nature of celebrity tweets on a segment called “Twitter Tracker.”

Conversely, news of Cyrus’ departure from Twitter quickly sparked the trending topic #mileycomeback, and now she’s back on Twitter. Further, Conan O’Brien now boasts upwards of 1.2 million followers and has tweeted once a day, every day since February 24 (though he does not speak with fans and follows only one person).

Perhaps celebrities will help push Gen Y onto Twitter, rather than the other way around. And, despite our love-hate relationship with Twitter and social media in general, Gen Y certainly isn’t above the entertainment, infotainment addiction of our age.

Twitter gives us the opportunity to really get to know celebrities’ inner thoughts and daily minutiae, something that no television show or gossip website can offer. And, in some cases, it even gives us the opportunity to personally connect with them. What more could Perez Hilton readers and Rock of Love viewers ask for?

Have you had any interactions with celebrities on social networks? Please share them if you have!