The Archive Generation

Millennials and the Goldilocks era of the internet

Hi Shelfers,

As I’m sure you’ve also experienced, there’s been a lot of blame-gaming in the wake of a very disappointing election. One group that seems to be consistently coming out on top in the discourse is millennials. We’re surprisingly resistant to the right-wing misinformation that has mesmerized much of Gen Z, and less willing to turn conservative like our Boomer parents as we age.

Maybe this all has something to do with millennials growing up in the Goldilocks era of the internet.

As Alice Wolfe explains in our latest piece, millennials had the unique opportunity to explore their identities and interests in public, without the monetized pressures of today’s platforms. Today’s teens aren’t so lucky, pressured to create a polished alter ego that determines their digital value and social clout. Their unedited selves are relegated to a labyrinth of camera rolls and private accounts, where they are rarely shared or seen.

For better and worse, we’ll never recreate that era of song lyric status messages and un-choreographed dances, but there are a few lessons we can work to pull forward to our internet lives today.

Read the full article here.

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