Internet buzzkills
For quite a while now, I’ve been hearing outbursts from IU students making one particular argument that I’ve felt amounted to little more than sensory judgment. The argument is easy to identify by its high ratio of name-checked cultural fad terms to actual argumentative content, and by its inevitable brevity, as it’s hard to say a whole lot about something you haven’t thought out past your instincts. It sounds something like this: “These days, it’s like, everyone’s logging onto MySpace, Generation Y needs constant stimulation, everyone’s taking Adderall and people just want to read about Paris Hilton.”







