We're the engine driving the economy. We're responsible for all the wonderful growth you've been reading about. We're going to save the whole planet, donchya know, with our high-tech start ups and excellent entrepreneurial sense. We're going to rescue capitalism, and therefore life as we know it. Just as the boomer-driven media took one extreme and blew it up into condemnation of an entire generation 5 years ago, so now they are doing the same thing in reverse, assuming we're all in line to be the next Steve Jobs.
Reality lies somewhere in the middle.
Five years ago many of us were woefully underemployed or even more woefully unemployed. We were fresh out of college, and the economy, frankly, sucked. Student loans and a low-paying job can do that to you. Here in 1998, we find ourselves with better jobs, some experience, some marketable skills, and hopefully no longer living in our childhood bedrooms. But that doesn't tell the whole story.