Dumb tweet: Somethin' 'bout my generation

A dumb hashtag reveals some thoughts on these times

Published September 24, 2012 9:30PM (EDT)

'The Child Mother', 1884, of a different generation entirely (Wikimedia)
'The Child Mother', 1884, of a different generation entirely (Wikimedia)

A hashtag currently trending in New York reads #WeLiveInaGenerationWhere. Before picking out any particular Dumb Tweet, it's worth pointing out that the popular hashtag is itself dumb: We do not live in a generation "where," we live in a generation "when" or "in which" -- because generations are temporal, not spatial.

One tweeter (retweeted around 200 times) bemoaned that "#WeLiveInaGenerationWhere children are having children," which is absurd, because under modern conceptions of childhood, every generation in recorded history has seen children giving birth to children.

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By Natasha Lennard

Natasha Lennard is an assistant news editor at Salon, covering non-electoral politics, general news and rabble-rousing. Follow her on Twitter @natashalennard, email nlennard@salon.com.

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