Everybody is just a stranger
That’s the danger in going my own way
Guess it’s the price I have to pay.
--John Mayer, “Why Georgia”
I’ve always been a lyrics person, a total sucker for the words behind the tunes. Perhaps it’s the synergistic way that music highlights the beauty of writing; how words on a page don’t just fall victim to a one-dimensional landscape, but instead are given a free pass to dance in the colorful world of melodic interludes. For me, music has become a multi-sensory, and strikingly paradoxical, experience of sorts—I lose myself within the revelatory nature of self-discovery.
So today Georgia has struck a chord with me (just a little pun to make sure you’re still listening). John Mayer might be coming from Heartbreaker, U.S.A., but I can’t help but analyze his words from my place in Gen-Y. When I put my Millennial Girl lenses on (Ray Ban frames, of course), I realize a startling truth—so much of life is spent trying to “connect” through the virtual that we miss what’s going on right in front of us. Our lives are filled with strangers: people we call “friends” on facebook thanks one alcohol-induced introduction that would have been a million times more awkward in the sober glare of daylight; twitter “followers” who boost our egos as we tremble behind an Oz-inspired curtain trying to appear bigger than life; or “connections” that make us feel ‘linkedIn’ to the ruthless business world where it’s all about “who ya know.” But I wonder, who do we really know? Who do I know?
In this tech-driven age, I see my contemporaries constantly juggling the virtual with the actual. Blackberry in one hand, beer in the other, Gen-Yers populate crowded bars and clubs struggling to connect as they stand prisoners of the endless beeps, buzzes, and vibrations of their cellular companions. It’s the sad dilemma of an over-stimulated generation that can’t revel in the simple game of “getting to know you” without the intermittent “tech check.” Is this the modern form of multi-tasking? Perhaps. Does it lend itself to quality relationships? More often than not, no. I guess it’s the price we have to pay for getting stuck in our own way.
Whether Mayer knew it or not, he wasn’t just writing about a girl. He was writing about a generation—the Millennial generation to be exact. Thanks, John. You’ve given us lots to think about.
