Adolescents
Gen X

It seems like a lot of people are worried about Generation X growing into adulthood. The bored, cynical, nihilistic attitude adopted by so many of today's young people seems to be a symptom of a depressed generation. But a better understanding of the nature of depression can help us identify who is really in trouble in Gen X, and who is not.

Cynicism can be a healthy adaptation, especially in today's culture. We live in a society where we are defined as consumers; we are marketed and manipulated 24 hours a day; in this context a certain amount of skepticism is good self-protection. Many of our values and institutions seem to be breaking down. Our leaders don't lead but instead follow the ratings. Older ideas of the dignity of labor seem quaint: anyone who works hard today is a fool, and the smartest person makes the most money with the least effort. The family itself is a disappearing institution, beset by divorce and two-career marriages. We try to avoid reality by tuning into a mass culture which presents a false image, by trying to pile up personal wealth which may insulate us. We can drive in our air-conditioned cars from our burglar-proof houses in our gated communities to the mall, and back again, and try to avoid awareness of the world in between. We seem to have bought the idea that government hurts more than it helps — we accept the idea that there are no real solutions for social problems. There are no heroes, everyone is out for himself. There are no careers, you go to college and end up working at a McJob.

This is indeed a sad and scary picture. The popular culture of our time is shallow and narcissistic; those who are immersed in it will become depressed when their sources of gratification dry up — when they grow old, when their money or drugs run out, when they can't be successful any more, when they wake up alone.

To my mind, Gen Xers have perfectly legitimate reasons for keeping a safe distance from a consumer society. They have been lied to all their lives — by political leaders, by advertising, by a war on drugs that treats marijuana the same as heroin and criminalizes one out of three young black males, by their parents who have been fooled so often themselves — why should they believe in anything? At least these young people seem to be willing to acknowledge reality.

There is an important difference between cynicism and despair. Most of the young people I know, even those who put on a bored and cynical pose, still seek out new experiences — partly to be sure that they do feel. Despair is the loss of hope. Generation X hasn't lost hope, it never had the kind of hope those of us in our fifties are familiar with. Generation X mourns the absence of that hope. It longs for love, for a they-lived-happily-ever-after ending, but it recognizes that people and society are damaged and may not be capable of fulfilling that wish.

The trouble is that illusions help us get through life. Facing life without them is tough. Many young people may not be able to sustain the energy of Generation X — that's when depression, or drug addiction, or belief in some new illusion may set in. Generation X demands a lot from its members - a black humor, an extreme of self-conscious hipness, a fierce independence, a willingness to experiment - it's the young people who begin to find it hard to keep up with those expectations, who begin to feel that their own generation has nothing to offer them, who are at real risk for depression.