What I Learned from 'The Daily Show'

I read an article recently about 8 items that our generation (Gen Y) will stop buying. It could've been 10 items, I don't really remember the number. But anyways, I found it interesting that there were a lot of items that did not seem so obvious, but once I read the explanation I could see how they may fade away from the market. Among cigarettes (stats show our generation is the one that drops the habit the fastest), beer (we're mostly light beer drinkers), house phones (duh!), cars (big number of us are moving to dense urban areas, apparently), and other items, printed newspapers (are those still around?) caught my eye since I would add that if we could pick and choose our cable channels, our generation would be the lowest subscriber to news channels. I think that the only reason news channels were not on that list was the fact that basic cable bundles all the channels together, even though we only watch about 5 channels. But with new options like Netflix and Hulu, we now have the option to pick and choose what we watch. So I dare say, go ahead, add the news channels to that list of 'obsolete' items for Gen Y'ers.



Most news channels, whether you're in the republican party, democratic party, weekend party, have managed to reduce the Gen Y audience drastically. Yet, this generation seems to be more aware of what's going on in the news than previous generations were when they were our age. You can attribute this to the internet, youtube, Facebook status updates, twitter, as other means to keep us connected to what we really care about. But being the traditionalist that I am, I like to think that people still want some sort of order and decorum in some areas of their lives. Like me, for instance, I like to maintain a routine during the work week. I have a semi set schedule; I cook in the mornings, laundry on tuesdays, TGIF on wednesdays to celebrate hump day, clean the house on thursdays, and every single night, I like to watch 'The Daily Show'. Sometimes I stay and watch 'The Colbert Report', but my favorite will always be 'The Daily Show'. I have found out that by watching those 2 shows, I can stay updated with everything that's happening in the world and have a laugh at the same time. Many young people do the same, thanks largely to their convenient schedule, right before midnight, or right before "study time". It's REAL news, mixed with sarcasm, critique and subjectiveness, everything the other news channels are, but not hidden behind the "fair and balanced" mask. And this is not a jab at Fox News, although they deserve it, it's a jab at every news channel that hide behind tag of 'objectivity'.

When I was taking my general ed classes, I had only one professor that put everything on the table on the first day of class. This was a long time ago, so I may paraphrase what he said a little bit. He said, "Welcome to economics, I am Jack Chambless, I'm a libertarian, and everything I teach will be in favor of liberty and against restriction, if you don't like it, there are 4 other professors teaching this class and they have many seats available". No one transferred classes, and he was offensive, in a good way. In fact, he was the only professor I recommended in any of my gen ed classes. He was honest and never tried to hide any of his views or try to persuade any of us. He just spoke what he believed and constantly reminded us that he was a libertarian, so that's why he said what he said. It was a fresh feeling, and I consider him one of the most influential professors I had in college.

I believe this is the reason why many people enjoy finding out about news on the Daily Show. Everyone knows that Jon Stewart leans to the left politically, and nobody cares, because he's up front about it. Everyone knows that any joke he makes is covered with his political filter. But he's not a hypocrite either, he criticizes anyone who deserves criticism, left or right. So that's why I want to give a "Tip of the Hat" to Generation Y, for standing up against the establishment, for telling them 'up yours, I will get my news elsewhere'.

* Stephen Colbert from the 'Colbert Report' was on this issue of Time Magazine as the Top 100 Most Influential People.

*You can read my economics professor Jack Chambless 's blog.