This decade and my teen years will always be one and the same to me. I came into 2000 as an eleven year old kid about to go to middle school and will leave it as a twenty one year old “adult” about to spend a semester abroad in Europe during his junior year of college. During that time, my life (and the lives of millions of people around the world) has changed in every way imaginable.

Things like “iPod” and “Social Networking” didn’t exist in 2000. Now, they are a deep part of the pop culture lexicon. Although the internet took off in the late ’90s, it wasn’t until now that it is an essential part of everyday living. Everyone from grade schoolers to grandmas rely on the web for seemingly necessary daily tasks. I, for one, love what the internet allows us to do. When I’m in Rome, I will chat “face to face” with my grandparents in Toledo, Ohio. I will fix their computer from my own laptop, without every having to get up from the cafe I am sitting in drinking espresso. Ten years ago, these things would have been impossible. For that, I am grateful.

Not all of the advances, however, have impacted our society in a positive way. Text messaging makes communication easier, but it certainly has its negative consequences. Twitter has brought new ways to consume and reflect on information, but now we have become a people that isn’t willing to read more than a sentence at a time. Books? Very few people my age read books for personal enjoyment. Advances in technology are meant to enhance current behavior. In reality, they tend to change it. The iPod/iTunes era, as much as I love it, has turned people against “the album” and toward consumption of individual songs. One could argue that this is a good thing, just as someone else could argue that it’s killing music.

I would be remiss to exclude the impact of September 11th on the world and our country in particular. That event will certainly define this decade whether we like it or not. I’m of the belief that no one was prepared to deal with a situation like that, and therefore has to be cut at least some slack. I don’t think President Bush was a very good president, but I don’t doubt even once that he acted in a way that he thought would help this country the most. In that sense, I think history will prove to be kinder to him than what society believes now. But I digress. Just as World War II put the US in a place of power from an international standpoint, September 11th and it’s derivative events have and will define our place in the world in the next decade and beyond. For me, that’s a scary thought. An event in which we had no control over will affect the near and distant future of our lives.

It may seem as if I am negative about where we are now and where we will be, but I’m not. I am quite hopeful, actually. I think there is more opportunity now to succeed than ever before. There will be inventions and evolutions that have a great effect on the way we live. There will be some unintended side effects, but we will adapt and push on. As long as there are people that strive to learn more and are willing to think for themselves, we will continue to grow. Some worry that this country is losing it’s place as the world’s only superpower. Only time will tell, but I don’t think so. Never underestimate the power of what good people living in a free and open place can do, both for themselves and for people who aren’t granted the same freedoms. Please don’t sell my generation short. The future is in good hands.