From a psychological point of view , in what concerns ways of life and self-experimentation, Centennials personalities have not that much to expand when compared to “Boomers’ superegos”. This generation experiment a world without boundaries where everything is connected. It is more about finding resonance to internal experiences hard to define or admit. The “sharing nature” of web life enabled and strengthened small groups whose criteria for belonging was sharing emotional difficulties and finding support on the group. And the shame or exclusion coming from these difficulties, slowly becomes part of self- perception. These groups define themselves as minorities[1]. Emotional sufferings turn into a cause and give them a sense of belonging to these groups, whose goal is to advocate for a cause. Egos’ strength is a result of this sense of belonging, that works as a “psychological Place of Speech”[2]. We are using “Place of Speech” as a metaphor because, different from psychiatric categories, belonging to a “mental health cause” is, in a way, standing for a position in a fight for respect for singularities. A fight for dignity in cases usually associated to deficits. Some examples are: 1) (within) Autistic Spectrum- High functioning autistics would claim they are not mentally ill, they are different (neuro atypical); 2) more recently, within the LGBTQIA+ people community, their usual claims for diversity (respect/inclusion) are added by the struggle for dignity for transgenders. These are Millennials’ achievements, which are taken for granted by Centennials. Being able to put yourself in the others’ shoe regarding mental health issues becomes also a social expected behavior. Empathy turns into a very popular word to generally refer to being or not kind to others. Thus, on the one hand, we see more sensibility and tolerance towards individual experiences such as in sexuality and freedom: for instance: gays’ marriage and gender equality. On the other, we still find a feeling of insecurity in what concerns future perspective, in part, because of the increase of unemployment and economic recession, but also due to the wide range of possibilities to find what really motivates them. This is, in brief, the contemporary socio cultural picture. And what about “Centennials’ Ego”? The generation born in the social media era has given birth to “uninterrupted content producers(…)”. Communication happens through brief content and images and this is why they love Snapchat and Instagram[3]”. Attention is brief and pervasive. The New Zeitgeist has had the ‘side effect’ of massive production of ADHD kids. Furthermore, it has the challenge of offering identity models among ephemeral idols.
To be continued on the next Post
[1] I will concentrate in groups linked to mental health suffering. Firstly, because the topic extend our knowledge. Secondly to keep the focus on our goal, which is to understand how new egos and symptoms are effects of cultural changes.
[2] ‘Place if Speech” is a concept with multiple sources that are used in different contexts. In “Analysis of speeches”, a field from French philosophy, it is used by authors such as Bourdieu, Foucault, Butler and Orlandi. These authors refer to speeches as ‘relations of power ‘ according to the place and the ways they will be announced by the speakers. In Brazil the term has become popular through the work of Djalma Ribeiro: “(…) a black philosopher and feminist writer to emphasize the necessity to give black people a say about their own suffering. It alludes to the fact that academic and intellectual production about black social conditions would be written mainly by white thinkers”. In http://en.wikipedia.org
[3] From Baby-boomers generation to post-Millennilas. 50 years of change. Capa, Robert, in www.iberdola.com
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