Until I have the heart to tell you that the picture that you just drew wasn't me.

Here is a list of the reasons why I am a product of my generation:

1. Every word that comes out of my mouth is an abbreviation for another word.
2. I have been broken up with over the Facebook chat.
3. I have sexted. (Sans pictures, guys; I'm not that much of a perv.)
4. I cannot drive anywhere without google maps.
5. I'd rather watch a film that's up front about its gratuitousness and manipulativeness than one that tries to hide it.
6. I listen to playlists way more than I listen to whole albums.
7. I consider Daniel Craig the best Bond.
8. Every time my iPod skips, I die a little.
9. I am perpetually hounded by guilt over the impact that each of my actions has upon the environment.
10. I am growing increasingly disillusioned and apathetic about politics.

Let's talk about this last point.

When I was in high school and even before that, I couldn't get enough of politics. I watched the confirmation hearings of Justices Roberts and Alito with intense, if not obsessive, interest. I volunteered for the Kerry campaign once a week for two months and personally knew the staff of the Waukesha branch of the Democratic Party. I watched the West Wing with fervent adoration. I loved politics; I felt chills down my spine when a Senator or Congressperson said something I totally agreed with, and adamantly agreed with what almost every member of the Democratic Party said.

But today, as I watched Meet the Press for the first time in a year, I was totally and completely annoyed. I missed almost all of the interview with John McCain, but I caught the whole of Chuck Schumer's commentary. Everything that came out of his mouth was simultaneously so loaded and so vacuous that absolutely nothing was said. Democrats are not required to agree with Obama; Republicans are not required to hate him. The stimulus isn't working as planned, but punditry, denial, or exaggeration is doing nothing to address the problems that our economy faces. We looked to Obama to change the way politics is done, but what I think I failed to realize is that this is completely impossible. Obama isn't Bartlett, and the world isn't written by Aaron Sorkin. And while I don't want to speak for the generation that created me, I believe that, until the people who are supposed to be our representatives stop bickering about which president is to blame for this crisis and actually address the issues that are being left for us to deal with (the environment, the war our generation is being forced to fight, the recession), it's too overwhelming and disheartening to care.