Every age has so­mething that defines itself, something that it possesses, setting it apart from its predecessors. But ask a person to define himself/ herself off-hand and they would probably find it difficult to do. That’s why the more you look around, the more you find “other” people (read the previous generation) trying to describe Gen Y. Of course, that’s also because it’s “others” who have to put some serious thought into figuring us out, we already know who, or what, we are. At least, that’s what we would like to believe.

So if we were to define ourselves, what’s the first thing we’d talk about? I believe we could call ourselves the gizmo generation. Individually, we might hold very different things close to our hearts, and support diametrically opposite ideas. But if there’s one thing that unites this generation, it’s our clo­seness to technology and our eagerness to lap it all up. Yes, we’re not the only ones who use technology, but no one uses it with a vengeance like we do. The older generations don’t change their phones a zillion times like us, and they don’t inhabit the social world every waking minute of their lives, either. Think that’s an exaggeration? You might like to check out the new Mercedes-Benz models’ Mbrace 2 dashboard system, through which drivers will be able to access Google and Facebook and several other internet services on the drive! Not for nothing are we called the Facebook generation.

And there’s a peculiar ed­ge to our relationship with te­chnology. Some in the pack would, of course, be interested in the technical, geeky part of it. But for the rest of us, it’s the ‘reaching out’ and ‘communicating’ that matters most. The part of our soul that’s most satiated by the gadgets and apps springing up by the day is the one that craves self-expression.

True, the urge to express isn’t peculiar to this generation alone. It’s been there since the beginning of humankind’s journey; the pai­ntings by cave man (and cave woman) being proof of that. The capacity to express your thoughts and send them out to a larger mass of people got a great boost through the pr­inting press, which made it in­creasingly easier for one pe­rson’s ideas to be shared with a large part of the world. Then came the internet, bringing the capacity to cast a world wide web of ideas. That went one step ahead with the advent of social networking and micro blogging. It’s not just your thoughts and ideas that yo­u’d want the world to know. And that’s wh­at sets our ge­neration ap­art. From what we had for breakfast and wh­at we bo­ught yesterday at the mall, to the latest joke shared by our colleagues and the latest fi­ght with our gi­rl­fr­ie­nd/ boy­friend, it’s all beamed out for the world to see — and react to. Self-portraits have taken on a whole new meaning since the advent of the camera phone and the photo uploading function. No generation before us could become a celebrity as easily as we can…well, a virtual celebrity, at least.

Nothing is really private for us. And we’ve junked all that jazz about ‘not having the words to describe something’. There’s a perfect description for everything that goes on in our lives. Even in our relationships. So we’re not merely single, committed or married anymore; we can announce to the world: “It’s complicated!” And, as a fellow gizmo-hopper remarked, we don’t face our problems now, we Facebook them.

You could say that we don’t feel the need to hide or mask our feelings. That wo­uld put us down as su­p­remely confident and sure of ourselves. But, truth be told, ma­ny times it’s more of a desire to have a bit of the limelight, to assure ourselves th­at there are people responding to us and interested in what we do. And yes, part of the interest we show in others is just reciprocal action. That’s not true all the time, and not many would admit it anyway, but deep down, we know.

What Gen Y is really looking for is instant expression, instant response and instant gratification. The moment we feel happy about someth­ing: Ping! Up it goes on Facebook/Twitter. The second we feel strongly about a cause, we know where to go to vent our feelings. And we also kn­ow that’s where we’ll get instant feedback, an instant response. ‘Instant’ is, perhaps, the catchword for those speeding genes at work. From instant food to instant messaging, we want it all, literally, at the click of a mouse.

An interesting blog on how to get the best out of your Gen Y employees ob­se­rved that they want ‘in­stant rewards’, that is, pro­gress at a much faster pace than they, perhaps, deserve. And if you couldn’t give them that, at least give th­em ‘instant feedback’. No, said the blog, they don’t ne­e­d in-depth performance r­eview reports, just a smiling “Good job!” would do. See what I mean about instant response?

You might like to think we’re suffering from attention deficit. But we remember the things important to us and we react to them. It’s just that we’d like to find out more, express more and have more. Is that really such a bad thing?