Column, Generation Y

The art of the film list

In August, the musician Frank Ocean self-distributed a 366-page zine called “Boys Don’t Cry.” Alongside photography and poetry, the zine (an album release tie-in) made room for an unannotated list of Frank Ocean’s 100 favorite movies—although it wasn’t numbered, so […]

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Column, Generation Y

Quit gawking

People in their late 20s and early 30s are able to determine which of their peers are attempting to become “real adults” by checking for an array of telltale signs: a marriage, a mortgage, a Costco membership, a firm support […]

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Column, Generation Y

“Second Amendment people”

By implicitly encouraging “the Second Amendment people” to assassinate presidential rival Hillary Clinton—lest she appoint Supreme Court justices who would take away their right to bear arms—Donald Trump has produced one more opportunity for Democrats to condemn him on purely […]

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Generation Y

Should we stop celebrating birthdays?

I write this column on my younger brother’s 20th birthday—happy birthday, Zach! For me, naturally, this occasion of my younger brother’s aging out of adolescence has led, with predictably anxious self-centeredness, to reflections on my own increasingly ancient status within […]

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Generation Y

Gen Y: On marriage

Most of the young couples I know who have recently gotten married lived together for a couple years before becoming engaged. For two people who have cohabitated romantically for an extended period of time, their daily routine no different from […]

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Generation Y

My presidential endorsement

By Brett Yates At the end of primary season, politicians who initially opposed their party’s nominee are forced either by fear of the other party’s nominee or by a need to preserve their own standing within their party to fall […]

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Generation Y

Gen Y: Our safe spaces

Recently, a Facebook friend posted some clickbait from The Atlantic called “A Dialogue With a 22-Year-Old Donald Trump Supporter.” In my prone-to-distraction feebleness, I actually read the whole piece, in which the reporter Conor Friedersdorf exchanged messages with a white […]

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Generation Y

Gen Y: Take Two

Longtime readers of “Generation Y” are aware that, in addition to being a wildly successful newspaper columnist, I’m also a wildly unsuccessful fiction writer. Periodically I mention this hobby in the hope that some editor from Random House might own […]

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Generation Y

To the graduating class

In the second half of May, colleges let out, and graduation ceremonies are held—it’s commencement speech season. I’ve long had a particular interest in this genre of essay, if it can be called that, in large part because, like wedding […]

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