My generation was weaned on subliminal advertising, stupid television, "teen" movies, insipid teen-series literature, MTV, Sidekicks, fast food, "reality" TV, glossy ads, diet aids, plastic surgery, a pop culture wherein the hyper-cool, blank-eyed supermodel is a hero. This is the intellectual and emotional equivalent of eating nothing but candy bars- you get malnourished and tired. We grow up in a world in which the surface of the thing is infinitely more important than its substance- and where the surface of the thing has to be "perfect", urbane, sophisticated, blasé.