Generation 'O'

School holidays meant a few things growing up. No school (rad!), Sleep ins (sick one!) and Day time TV (booyah!). Back then you had the greats, Donahue, Ricki Lake and Sally Jessie Raphael to name a few. None of this over acted, dramatised entertain-talk junk like Dr. Phil and the notorious Jerry Springer. We had gripping television that didn't base episodes on determining whether 'Jimmy Jones ' was the father or not because no one then, and no one now gives a shit. They tackled the big issues and helped kids on school holidays wake up in the afternoon. Ricki had some funky dance moves and believed in inspiring the youth of the day, Donahue had some sweet glasses that hipsters of today envy and believed in the power of the audience and Sally believed in being the most annoying host on TV.

But we all know there was one woman who took day time television and talk shows to a new level. Her name was Oprah Winfrey and she had an empire that believed in YOU. Oprah started to shift the mood and value of day time television to programming that would usually have to be purchased in a box set of videos for 3 easy payments of $19.99. Through the power of celebrity and story telling we started to learn about Oprah, we started to learn about others and most importantly we started to learn about ourselves. She empowered us to celebrate who we were and who we could be. We bought in to the power of oneself and learnt to 'love our selves before we could love others'. This themed programming went on for years reaching across multiple generations and created a new sense of community. We kept watching and kept believing because we felt good and 'me time' was finally socially acceptable. Then, holidays were over. We went back to school, moved on with our lives, and she eventually stopped being on our TV's.

We may have stopped watching but we never stopped believing. We took what TV preached and ran away with it. From baby boomers to generations X and Y we caught the fad of putting oneself first and united to become Generation 'O'. Across the globe selfishness infectiously became the new cool and we rejoiced in doing whatever made us happy. Oprah sneezed, we caught a fad and then we spread a disease. We now see a disillusioned generation who willingly bought in to self preservation with never allowing themselves the opportunity of knowing how to value it. Happiness was placed on top of the pedestal with passion for what we saw in the mirror being the only direction to achieve first place.

I'm not saying self respect isn't important but our society is infected with a flawed sense of community that will ultimately destroy us. 'Me first' culture is crippling our knowledge of our neighbours and closing the door to societal progression. To understand passion we need to understand compassion and to do this we need to address how we got here and what's encouraging these values to infect others. Only doing what makes you happy will not make you happy. We need to experience disenchantment in all aspects of life to understand humility and humanity. The medicine is easily administered and readily available. Do what fulfils you, say 'hi' to your neighbour, don't look in the mirror so much and realise the value of second place. This may not make you happy right now nor will it be all healthy days along the way but it will ultimately lead to a greater you and potentially a greater society... free of Generation O.