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Alternate title: My Generation is Obsessed with Trait Attribution

The simplistic thing is to say my generation is obsessed with identity.

I would say they're obsessed more with traits. This is more broad because it can include fictional personalities as well. For example, it's not a coincidence that my generation is the one that constantly creates original characters (called OCs, if you're out of touch).

Almost everyone my age or younger says they're working on a story at some point, whether it be a book, a comic, or just in their head. I say "says" because for the most part, they're really not. They're just creating characters. And they do this for a particular unique reason, which isn't the same as most authors or writers traditionally.

What they're doing is collecting traits and putting them into collections. Anything they admire has to be "possessed" and put into a collection or pattern, whether it be an original character, gender, or their mistake for their own identity to different varying degrees. This is why Mary Sue and self inserts (and Mary Sue self inserts, see my oldest essay from ten years ago) were such an epidemic growing up.

People used to do this about being "random." It was a strange phenomenon where everyone thought they were random and unique but acted exactly the same (llamas and pie, anyone?). In Middle School I started a campaign against "fake randomness" and always tried to explain to people what it would be like if they were really random. At the time, I didn't know why it bugged me so much. It wasn't "hurting anyone," but seemed like a symptom of a more subtle disordered way of thinking: the reaching for one's "ideal" personality in a simplistic, narcissistic, delusional way, which often legitimately obscured people's perception of reality and other people.

If you're familiar with this attitude, it's easy to see that many identities right now are just this typical kind of ideal trait attribution where the individual thinks all the traits they admire must be gathered up and put under a certain label, as if this is the only way they can be appreciated or "real." Every admirable thing must be owned and possessed by the individual who admires them whether earned or not, otherwise they cannot admire or enjoy or appreciate them. It's a bizarre quirk that I've recognized in many forms around me, that was definitely made easier by the internet and all the forms of personas it allows to be created. I don't know how to articulate this to older generations or warn them that this is what's going on. (And in how many forms and for how long).

It's a true disease: not being able to look up from a mirror and see the reality around you. People who are the opposite of random, edgy, masculine, feminine, rebellious, tough (or whatever the delusional label or image is that they prefer) believe that they really are these things. Yet I can often tell someone's biological sex just from a few comments despite the pronouns in their bios, and their real personalities despite their simplistic, often totally wrong diagnoses in their online descriptions. (The more simplistic and snappy the description, the more wrong you can assume it is). It's one thing to do this as a teenager (although even then I remember being more self aware), but especially when it lasts deep into adulthood, this is a sign of a disease.