Our Integration into the Microwave Generation

By: David Miller

Monday, April 1st, 2013

            This blog aims to explore the concept behind the “Microwave Generation” and how it has become deeply correlated with modern society’s current social condition.  At this point one may ask, what exactly is the microwave generation?  To this question I acclaim that the microwave generation is term used to describe society’s fascination with immediate gratification.  This can be understood by breaking it up into two separate components that have been identified by Matt Burris and Bryan Veloso. 

The first aspect of the microwave generation refers to the reliance that individuals have developed in regards to the consumption of technology in every aspect of their daily lives.  Without the use of technology, society would be rendered helpless and placed in a state of shock.  The second aspect builds off this previous notion by advocating that society has lost its patience and seems to want everything in terms of immediacy (in about one minute or less).  However, the consequence inherent within society’s integration into the microwave generation suggests that we have become too reliant on technology.  Our obsession with technological innovation has terminated everyone’s attention span and has gotten society fixated upon fads.  These “fads” seem to fall in and out of fashion faster then anyone may have anticipated, and for this reason, multitasking and the termination of the common individual’s attention span seems to have embodied our current social condition. 

In response to this conceptualization of the microwave generation I, along with my team of three other Wilfrid Laurier students (Adam Abelson, Jessica Tessier and Sean Ryder), have constructed a video and uploaded it to YouTube.  This video seems to work in a self-reflexive manor, as we aim to make a comedic parody of some of the various fads that our society has obsessed over.  Through reenacting the Harlem Shake, Psy’s “Gangnam Style,” several gross food challenges, a flash mob and so many other sensations, our group aims to shine light on how our existence within the microwave generation has become predicated on the immediate consumption of fads.  We aim to prove that our constant consumption of new technologies and fads has successfully terminated our attention span and, thus, integrated us into loyal supporters of the microwave generation.

On a side note: please watch our video! Here’s the link! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ci3n3pBzciE