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Young Millennials Are Changing The Game Of Life

Mon, 16 Nov 2015 00:00:00 -0500

Young Millennials are Millennials born after 1990, who entered college after the beginning of the 2008 financial crisis
Studies have shown that there are significant differences between Young Millennials and older Millennials
Many Young Millennials are disgusted by the stereotypes associated with older Millennials, and wish to distance themselves

"In TV shows and stuff, there's this idea that our generation is really incompetent and unrealistic," says Anton, Melissa's boyfriend, or 'bae', as she calls him. "But I don't think that applies to people like us, who are still in college. We're different, I think."

"Being associated with Millennials is so embarrassing."

Anton's statement echoes claims made by other young Millennials and the marketing professionals that study them. A number of breathless articles in publications like Elle, Forbes and the New York Times have recently proclaimed a "generational divide" between younger and older Millennials. The divide between younger and older Millennials is more than manufactured hype: pollsters focused on the upcoming primary elections have discovered striking statistical differences between the two age groups.

If September 11th was the defining disaster of the older Millennial cohort, the 2008 Financial Crisis was the defining moment for Young Millennials. During their formative late teen years, Young Millennials witnessed the crash of a housing bubble that few even realized existed. Their parents, many of whom participated in half-baked, abortive attempts at revolutionary culture during the 70's and 80's, gave Young Millennials pragmatic advice about preparing for a career in a difficult economy.

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Instead of growing up during a period of hysterical American exceptionalism, Young Millennials grew up during a time when dealing with economic and foreign policy realities finally became unavoidable. The failure of the War on Terror and the financial crisis firmly reminded Americans that the 'American Century' was over.

If September 11th was the defining disaster of the older Millennial cohort, the 2008 Financial Crisis was the defining moment for Young Millennials.

Some portraits of Young Millennials focus on the goal-oriented, intense, and pre-professional nature of the group. "We are especially impressed to see how Millennial teens are resiliently and optimistically responding to adversity and preparing to win in the game of life," said Stephen Friedman, President of MTV. Other portraits have focused on the fact that Young Millennials are the first true digital natives, and seem to handle the ambiguities and stresses created by the Internet with more aplomb than their older Millennial peers.

Over the last half decade, popular and alternative culture has shifted to reflect the changing Millennial mindset. Indie rock, pop punk, and the poppy hip hop tracks of the early 00's are gone, replaced by trap, EDM, and aggressive superstars like Taylor Swift, Nicki Minaj, and a rebranded Kanye West. According to the editor of a lifestyle branding company, Young Millennials are more likely to understand "irony and identity crossover" due to their experiences with culturally saturated Internet environment.

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In addition, aspirational movies and TV shows like "The Social Network", "Gossip Girl", "Suits", "Girls", and "Mad Men" have helped to craft a psyche keenly aware of unequal distributions of wealth, happiness, and beauty. Young Millennials grew up with characters willing to sacrifice their own mental health and happiness for a chance at success. Perhaps for this reason, a

However, Young Millennial males are not complete reactionaries. According to the study, "young millennial males find it easier to talk about subjects like relationships, health and insecurities that not long ago were considered too private or 'unmanly' to share with guy friends," when compared to older Millennial males. Writers like Jennifer Chan have posited the emergence of who combine the best features of alpha males and beta males, without all of the baggage of obsolescent modes of masculinity.

Young Millennials grew up with characters willing to sacrifice their own mental health and happiness for a chance at success.

Critiques of older Millennials are often gender-specific. Terms like like 'bro' and 'manchild' emerged to describe underachieving older Millennial men. These terms target the supposed inability of Millennial men to uphold American standards of masculinity and independence. More recently, new media professionals like Gaby Dunn (b. 1988) and Alan Henson (b. 1988) have popularized words like "fuckboy" and "softboy", which are focused on men who use privilege and manipulation to extract sexual favors.

Older Millennial women are often the losers in the intersection of Young Millennial and older Millennial sexual politics. According to Sasha, a 30-something living in New York, "older Millennial males who have their shit together have the opportunity to form relationships with younger women, who often find their power and relative success very attractive. This doesn't really work the other way around, which creates an imbalance." Perhaps this imbalance has prompted the creation of a diverse vocabulary of terms used to 'slam' Millennial men.

Terms like 'bro' and 'manchild' emerged in the early 2000's to describe underachieving older Millennial men.

However, the idea of the Young Millennial as goal-oriented and pre-professional is far from universal, however. Another prominent face of the Young Millennial is the "social justice warrior". For Young Millennials, social networking sites like Tumblr and Facebook have become the primary site for a new political discourse. Many writers in popular press have expressed their discomfort with the praxis of Young Millennials, who have pushed for the introduction of concepts like "safe spaces", "trigger warnings" and other social justice concerns into the fabric of institutions of higher education.

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Other Young Millennials are simply suffering from the fallout of the financial crisis. A

Robert Antalek, 28, is one of the many young men hoping to profit from the end of the 'War on Drugs'. He has built a successful advertising agency that connects companies with drug manufacturers willing to develop lines of

"Molly is a clean drug, and branded Molly helps consumers have a safe, fun experience."

We met Antalek at his office in Lockport, New York, on the condition that his name and all identifying characteristics be altered.

He said that his business uses a system of proxies that allows both drug manufacturers and corporate entities maintain plausible deniability.

"Molly is a clean drug, and branded Molly helps consumers have a safe, fun experience."

Antalek helps to arrange deals between brands and a network of small manufacturers in Canada, who are known for their ability to create aesthetically pleasing MDMA tablets.

Companies like Snapchat, Starbucks, and SoulCycle have paid to add custom branding (including color and logo imprints) to MDMA tablets. The drugs are then distributed organically in the United States and Europe.

'Branded MDMA' became a phenomenon in the late 2000's without the help of beefy advertising budgets. EDM (Electronic Dance Music) helped to popularize unadulterated MDMA, often sold as 'Molly'.

Concerns about the purity of the drug led small manufacturers to purchase pill presses and develop identifying marks for their Molly.

"Our generation is a lot more comfortable with logos and branding."

Some of these early innovators chose whimsical images from cartoons or 60's counterculture, while other manufacturers chose corporate logos, usually without obtaining authorization from trademark owners.

"Our generation is a lot more comfortable with logos and branding, I think, as long as it's done well," said Antalek. "When we see a sexy brand like Audi or Chanel on something unexpected, we're more likely to be like 'lol' or 'cool', than 'wow, that's lame'."

LinkedIn Launches Premium 'Apply All' Feature

Fri, 09 Oct 2015 00:00:00 -0400

Emerging from $13 million dollar settlement for spamming users, LinkedIn introduces new bulk application feature
Could provide extremely useful for underemployed millennials
Human Resource professionals give new feature mixed review

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Yesterday LinkedIn announced a new feature on the tail of the lawsuit, 'Apply All", which allows simple one-click submission to up to as many 1,000 open positions. Users simply pick from a list of job categories and a location and can submit their credentials in bulk.

Project Manager Reni Cao was reached for comment over LinkedIn InMail by BSO and described the new feature as "enabling job seekers to apply for jobs more efficiently." The feature was implemented after user testing with "older millennials" (groups of college educated men and women ages 28 to 32) who tend to be underemployed as a factor of beginning their careers at the height of the economic recession of 2008. Cao stated that "{this} demographic is in need of a lot of help, and we at LinkedIn are tasked with delivering the best experience for jobseekers."

BSO also spoke with Human Resource professional Jonathan Hyman who commented that "we really like to give the most attention to applicants that give the most attention to applying for roles, so I'm really doubtful this tool will bring us any great folks looking for jobs."

The Movie 'Drive' (2011) Radically Changed My Life

Thu, 08 Oct 2015 00:00:00 -0400

I watched the movie 'Drive' and decided to act like Driver

I gradually changed my habits and mannerisms to match movie character

My new personsa helped me find romantic happiness and success

By Anon

This really happened.

About four years ago, I had a good job, but didn't have many friends because I worked the 3rd shift. I was single, despite the fact that I'm a decent looking guy.

One night, I went to the movie theater and watched 'Drive' alone.

It changed my life. I wanted to be Driver.

I got my hair cut like Driver and started to wear clothes like Driver. I didn't get a Scorpion jacket though, I'm not autistic.

I start to behave to like Driver. Quiet but cool.

I bought a brand new 2011 Mustang GT 5.0 because Driver drove one and I made enough money, so fuck it.

I started to eat at this little diner every night. I eventually became a regular, and the staff would save me a spot.

There's a cutie-pie waitress who would always chat me up, or give me free pie.

I reciprocated but remained vague and brooding. I could tell she wanted me.

One night, I asked her if she wanted to go for a drive. She gladly accepted.

We cruised the night listening to the 'Drive' soundtrack.

I dropped her off at her apartment, and she asked if I wanted to come inside for coffee.

"Oh fuck yes," I thought. But I played it cool: I brooded for a second, and then replied with a simple "…yeah".

We fucked.

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The waitress and I started dating.

I continue to keep up my Driver shlick. She introduce me to her friends, and they think I'm cool as fuck.

Some of her dude friends started to wear skinny jeans, white tees, like me. Holy fuck, lol, I thought.

One night her and I sat down to watch a movie on demand.

She browsed through the movies, stopping on Drive.

"Oh fuck," I thought.

"Have you seen this yet," she asked?

"Shit shit shit play it cool man, what would Drive do?" I thought.

I brooded for a second. "Nah, it's not my thing," I said.

We ended up watching Bridesmaids.

We're still dating today, and she doesn't know I've been pretending to be Ryan Gosling for over four years.

American Apparel Offered Bailout from City of Los Angeles

Mon, 05 Oct 2015 00:00:00 -0400

Controversial Los Angeles-based clothing company American Apparel filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Monday

Los Angeles puts forward offer to bailout embattled company

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti says city "cannot afford to lose the manufacturing jobs"

By
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Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti announced in a press conference this afternoon that the City of Los Angeles will offer the company a bailout. The details of which include the City of Los Angeles will take temporary ownership of the corporation until the business is stable enough to be sold. Garcetti explained that "American Apparel provides too many manufacturing jobs and Los Angeles will suffer as a result of its closure."

Distict 3 Los Angeles City Council Member Bob Blumenfield commented to Best Stories Online that "American Apparel is too American to fail. This company has introduced a new model for business in our community."

The community reaction has been mixed to this proposal. 22-year-old Los Angeles resident Marigold Sharp told Best Stories Online "This is ridiculous. Our city doesn't need to be bailing out this irrelevant corporation" in an interview at a Beverly Hills Starbucks.

David Castlesand, a 25-year-old American Apparel retail employee at the Little Tokyo location in Los Angeles, commented "Oh man. If that actually happens, that would be extremely cool."

Young Woman Attempts Suicide, Leaves Note Written Entirely in Emoji

Sun, 04 Oct 2015 00:00:00 -0400

High-performing finance worker crumbled under stress and depression

The woman attempted suicide by phenobarbital overdose

Victim was found with a note written entirely in the Emoji font

By
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The alarming text, composed completely in Emoji, caused Ross to cancel her plans and head over to the Upper East Side apartment of her friend.

Ross found Castlewood unconscious on her Room and Board Eden Convertible Sleeper Sofa. Ross quickly called law enforcement, and paramedics arrived to resuscitate Castlewood, who had no history of mental health treatment.

Officers at the scene retained a printout found next to Castlewood's unconscious body. The printout seemed to be an image of Castlewood's cellular phone produced by a photocopier, showing yet another long string of cryptic emoji.

The precinct office would not disclose the contents of the note, but Ross said that the juxtaposition of the 'bathtub with person' and 'bathtub without person' Emoji made her friend's intentions clear.

An anonymous source said that Castlewood recently started attending women in finance MeetUp groups. We also learned that the victim had lost her beloved cat to old age.

Why 'Weird Facebook' is the Next Great Internet Subculture

Thu, 01 Oct 2015 00:00:00 -0400

Weird Facebook is a subculture of meme pages, secret groups, friend networks, and personalities

Weird Facebook is a result of the failure of alternative Millenial institutions

The scalability of Facebook allows for the creation of unprecedented "virtual realities"

Weird Facebook is a mix of different social classes, motivations, aesthetics, interests, and belief systems

By Facebook Is Uncool
In a recent

Therefore, it's surprising that many observers of the Internet are calling Facebook the next big thing for culture, art, and authentic alternative life. Dis Magazine
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A rather bland term has emerged to describe the interesting parts of Facebook: "Weird Facebook", a subculture within normal Facebook, a loose network of meme pages, secret groups, and most importantly, personalities and friendships. A bewildered reporter at the

An insider we talked to described "Weird FB" as a community of people who have "10+ mutual friends in the 'art world'", a place where "long text updates are welcome." The insider said that she knows someone is an observer or participant of Weird Facebook if

Why is all this weird art and meme stuff happening on Facebook, specifically? The Daily Dot noted that "Facebook is not the forum for this kind of shit at all."

Facebook Was Once Exclusive

In the formative days of Facebook, you could only get a profile if you went to Harvard, a fact that gave the social network a whiff of exclusivity. Facebook was full of "real people", not spam accounts, and had a clean, whitespace-heavy UI. Friendships on Facebook represented real-life relationships, worth some amount of social capital. These features helped set Facebook apart from its main competitor, MySpace.

Despite Facebook's aggressive demographic and geographic expansion, the website has attempted to ensure that Facebook accounts always correspond to real people, and that Facebook friendships correspond to real friendships. In practice, this resulted in Facebook deleting the accounts that people made for their pets, along with the accounts of transgender individuals who change their names. Facebook also takes measures to prevent people from requesting friendship with people they don't know from real life.

Why are artists and weirdos talking on Facebook, instead of some cooler, alternative site on the Internet with less restrictions? Like Ello, for example? Subcultures have always tried to build their own institutions, often around custom websites, businesses, or publications. In many ways, founding an alternative institutions is the Gen X and Millennial dream. So why are the greatest and weirdest minds of our generation having the conversations that matter most in the bleak terminal morass that is Facebook?

The Internet Subculture Diaspora

The past year has been rough for Internet subcultures. Alt Lit finally fragmented due to multiple rape scandals, Net Art continued its downward slide into the corporate art world, Hipster Runoff quietly died (for real this time), vaporwave stalled, Gamergate happened, Reddit suffered a series of embarrassing scandals, and the founder of 4chan threw in the towel.

All of these subcultures are (or were) rooted in specific websites and brands: popserial.net, dump.fm, hipsterunoff, ello.co, rhizome.org, /b, Macintosh Plus, Feminist Frequency, Yung Lean. They failed, sometimes due to the "observation effect", sometimes due to bad behavior by the part of their founders, or sometimes just to entropy. These subcultures only matter to small, incestuous groups of people, except when they "fuck up". The Millennial failure to create scalable alternative institutions has meant that many younger people are in retreat, along with the weird friends they made elsewhere on the Internet.

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Often, it seems that all that remains of old subcultures like Tumblr, LiveJournal, or Neopets are the Facebook friendships. These are the online relationships that people loved enough to bring into the sphere of Facebook, the realm of real life.

Facebook, Real Life, and "Normies"

For many, Facebook has become the social network where "real life" happens. It's where people announce their new achievements, relationships, marriages, and children. But what if you don't have any of these things? What if you don't have a "real life"?

"I guess I got into 'weird facebook' after I failed out of college and was living with my parents," said Lucas, the owner of a page dedicated to music memes. "No one called it [weird facebook] at the time obviously, I had no idea what I was doing. I added some weird musicians and writers that I was into. Eventually I added so many of these people that facebook started suggesting more of them, and I'd get a bunch of requests."

"This was like, four years ago? Now I have hundreds of mutual friends with people who I've never met, and never will meet. My mom sometimes asks me about weird things that she sees 'on my facebook'. I guess everything I do shows up in her newsfeed because she has so few friends."

The Scalability of Weird Facebook

There's a tension between the "normal" usage of Facebook and the alternative users, who want to use Facebook like they used tumblr or a personal blog. There's also a tension between the sophisticated, ambitious 'culture world' users of facebook and those just want to do weird things on Facebook for the hell of it, because Facebook provides an excellent platform for shitposting.

It's hard to point at any one thing that can represent Weird Facebook. There's no one page or person that defines weird facebook, and this is part of what makes weird facebook robust. Weird Facebook is an emergent property of a certain network of people, not an aesthetic that someone pushed as part of an agenda. The networked nature of Weird Facebook is what will allow it to scale, and allow it to survive scandal or changing fashions. Weird Facebooks rests upon a vivid virtual reality created by millions of man-years of engineering, a reality that's hard to match anywhere else on the Internet.

Obama Invites Pizza Rat to White House

Thu, 24 Sep 2015 00:00:00 -0400

President Obama invites famous rat to bring prized slice of pizza to Washington

Pizza Rat has not been seen since his sudden rise to fame, current whereabouts unknown

Republican frontrunner Donald Trump criticizes POTUS’ move, calls Pizza Rat a “quitter” with “no class”

By . For those of you who have been living under a ROCK, Pizza Rat is a very viral rat who was filmed carrying a big slice down subway steps. Eventually he gave up, but that hasn’t prevented President Obama from inviting him to bring his prized possession all the way to the White House!

Yes, the President personally tweeted an invitation to the celebrated rodent (cute!)

Cute! Not everyone is pleased, however. This includes leading Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, who said earlier:

“The President, he thinks this is great, you know, he thinks ‘oh, ok, I’ll invite this popular rat to Washington with his slice of pizza—well, I get that it’s not small compared to the rat, but you know—and he’s [Obama] all like, ‘this is great.’”

Trump had harsh words for Pizza Rat himself that attack the popular narrative of bravery that launched it to fame.

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“Pizza Rat, you know, he’s not some hero. Who is he? He’s a quitter. Sure, he dragged the slice for a bit but at the end of the day, he gave up. And if you think I’m wrong, just ask yourself, where is this guy? He’s really nowhere right now.”

Trump’s supporters were quick to acknowledge Trump’s point. Not only has Pizza Rat yet to accept President Obama’s invitation—Pizza Rat has not been heard from since its rise to prominence.

White House press secretary Joshua Earnest spoke on this matter at a press conference earlier today.

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“I think Pizza Rat’s story resonated so deeply with the public for a number of reasons. He’s a hard worker. He’s determined. He’s a rat who lives in a New York City subway station and is intrigued by interesting new garbage. He wants that garbage and he makes it his business to acquire it. The President is intrigued by this. He wants to see more.”

Earnest declined to comment on conspiracy theories circulating on Internet forums proposing that the Pizza Rat phenomenon is a hoax.

A hoax?! Give us a break. That pizza looks as real as apple pie.

Have a safe weekend, everybody!

Equinox Fitness Reportedly Offering Discounts to Attractive People and Foreigners

Thu, 24 Sep 2015 00:00:00 -0400

Equinox reportedly offers discounted rates to attractive users of low-rent gyms

$175 a month memberships fees attract the rich, but not often the beautiful

Opinions about practice divided among clients paying full price

By

Other individuals have reported receiving similar discounts on internet forums like Yelp and Wall Street Oasis, and debated the merits of the practice. Commenters on Wall Street Oasis at the Equinox locations they attend, while Yelp reviewers criticized Equinox's

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A former Equinox consultant explained under the condition of anonymity that "[Equinox] hired a firm to scout and poach users of other gyms, including bargain chains such as Planet Fitness, Retro Fitness and Blink Fitness. The scouts were told to approach men and women that fit brand guidelines and tell them they could work out at Equinox for what they pay at their current gyms."

The brand guidelines reportedly include that male recruits must be between 8% and 10% body fat and females must be between 14% and 17%. An emphasis was placed on recruits that had characteristics like an European accent or modelesque physique.

The source elaborated that "it makes a lot of sense: there are plenty of attractive people in New York City who have made choices that have left them with limited financial resources. We signed up a lot of aspiring actors and models for this program. And $40 a month is still a decent amount of profit for Equinox."

Equinox Holdings Inc. is currently fighting a

Dalai Lama Photographed by Terry Richardson in New York

Wed, 23 Sep 2015 00:00:00 -0400

The Dalai Lama participates in photoshoot with notorious photographer Terry Richardson

His holiness made controversial comments made earlier today, saying that a female Dalai Lama would have to have an “attractive face”

Embattled monk offers clarification in typical zen fashion

By about women (ugh). But that hasn’t stopped him from dropping by the studio of notorious photographer Terry Richardson for a photoshoot.

The controversy stems from comments the Lama made during an
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The Dalai Lama is not the first powerful world leader to be photographed by Terry Richardson. In 2007, Richardson took an iconic photograph of Barack Obama, who became President of the United States just a year later.

More recently, Richardson has drawn criticism for
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When pressed for clarification, he replied, “Too much self-centered attitude, you see, brings, you see, isolation. Result: loneliness, fear, anger. The extreme self-centered attitude is the source of suffering.”

Wow! We’d like to offer this sassy monk a parable of our own.

If you can’t stand the HEAT, stay out of the KITCHEN.

BEST STORIES ONLINE

Young Millennials Are Changing The Game Of Life

"Being associated with Millennials is so embarrassing."

If September 11th was the defining disaster of the older Millennial cohort, the 2008 Financial Crisis was the defining moment for Young Millennials.

Young Millennials grew up with characters willing to sacrifice their own mental health and happiness for a chance at success.

Terms like 'bro' and 'manchild' emerged in the early 2000's to describe underachieving older Millennial men.

"Molly is a clean drug, and branded Molly helps consumers have a safe, fun experience."

"Our generation is a lot more comfortable with logos and branding."

"This is the future of the ad tech world."

LinkedIn Launches Premium 'Apply All' Feature

The Movie 'Drive' (2011) Radically Changed My Life

American Apparel Offered Bailout from City of Los Angeles

Young Woman Attempts Suicide, Leaves Note Written Entirely in Emoji

Why 'Weird Facebook' is the Next Great Internet Subculture

Facebook Was Once Exclusive

The Internet Subculture Diaspora

Facebook, Real Life, and "Normies"

The Scalability of Weird Facebook

Obama Invites Pizza Rat to White House

Equinox Fitness Reportedly Offering Discounts to Attractive People and Foreigners

Dalai Lama Photographed by Terry Richardson in New York