Me Me Me Me!

Mark Meador

Jennifer Byrne, in her recent column at PopMatters, posted an excellent piece on the “My” phenomenon that has taken hold of the Internet. The ubiquity of the word struck her as she navigated a “My UPS” page to track a package.

“Out of curiosity, I decided to do a search under the word 'My', just to see what came up. Here’s just a smattering of what I found: My T-Mobile, My New York Times, My Widgets, My Feeds, My Tupperware, My Anime, My Netscape, and My Monster.”

When Apple decided to enable its new iPhone to stay updated with changes made from your desktop, wherever you are, it called it MobileMe. The pervasive use of the word and idea of “my,” Byrne suggests, might be the result of our need to make ourselves stand out.

“Maybe, within the vastness and anonymity of the World Wide Web, there is the need for individuals to stake out their own territory, to greedily snatch their piece of the pie, and to announce it like petulant toddlers. 'That’s My Widget! That’s My Yahoo!'”

This isn't the only sign of childish behavior in our culture. Back in 2004, a new term coined by author Abigail Trafford emerged for the baby-boomers starting to approach retirement age: My Timers. The phrase, to borrow words from Byrne, is saccharine and congratulatory. Trafford describes how she came up with it in an interview with TIME: 

“I went to a college reunion. It was an all-women's college, and we were all in our 30s. We were in that high-stress zone. We were trying to make it in the workplace; we were making it in our marriages; we had small children. We were just torn apart by the demands of our lives. We were trying to make everything work. I remember one classmate stood up and wailed and said, 'When is it going to be my time?'”

It seems the old adage, “with age comes wisdom,” may be wearing thin on Western society. Instead of wisdom, today's culture expects their old age to bring more youth and more freedom. But where is duty in this view? How do our obligations to friends and family fit into a me- and my-centered lifestyle? If we are constantly defining our understanding of life as license to do as we please, will we ever be pleased? These are important questions, not only for current generations but for all. If we spend all our time focusing on ourselves we will not only miss out on the importance of others, we will be blind to all things greater and transcendent.

Mark Meador is a 2008 John Jay Institute Fellow interning with the Trinity Forum.

Fodder, Global Culture, Science and Technology, Thu 26 Jun 2008