I vote ignore it. A character is an organic entity, not a collection of "trends." And I give about zero credence to what the HuffPo puts out these days.

I think you have to be somewhat aware of what's current or believable - if you wrote a 20-something character who didn't know about Facebook, for example, it wouldn't be believable unless you accounted for it. But constructing a character according to a template HuffPo puts out - shortcut to cruddy character work.

A better source for research might be one of the pop-sociology books (there were a number of them put out a few years ago) that compares and contrasts the various generations that are today's market: Boomers, Gen-X, and Gen-Y.

Heh... one glance at that list and I sneer, "what a whiny bunch of selfish bastards!"

But then, of course, the prior generation said the same thing about me.

Nothing changes. Cyclical as always. Keep your eyes open, record everything, covert to Final Draft. What more can we do?

That should read "CONVERT to Final Draft," of course...

@Jeffrey, I agree, it's absolutely cyclical. There was a cover story in TIME or NEWSWEEK in 1990 that said exactly the same thing about my generation (which may be yours too.) I actually feel pretty badly for young people coming up - the job market was bad when I graduated college in 1990, but nothing like today - now it's like there isn't a job market at all. Anyway, one more reason why articles like this are almost always useful only for fertilizer.

Deaf, we are pretty much of the same generation, to be sure. I believe the marketers, courtesy of the great author Douglas Coupland, called us the generation of "X," no?

And I must agree with you. As "faux-bleak" as things appeared back when we were coming of age, this batch of young youngsters has a much more landmine-laden field to navigate through.

Dare I submit that this current breed will be a much superior batch of folk, mettle-wise, than us? They certainly have more terrifying realities to contend with...