Counterculture marches on, modernized

By melody gui 

Assistant Opinion Editor 

When Americans today think of “counterculture,” we usually think of the 1960s — one of the most tumultuous decades in American history, characterized by a radical, rebellious spirit to fight injustice of all kinds, accompanied with an unflinching faith in change. Indeed, change was brought about in many forms: identity, social structure, family unit, sexuality and more. 

If college students in the ’60s were rebelling against war, materialism and any-and-all-things-establishment in search of greater liberation and individualism, what are the Gen Z college students of today fighting for or against? 

Following the fleeting success in the ’50s of the nuclear family model and the cult formed around it that banished the unmarried, the changes in social, economic and cultural conditions made ’60s counterculture all about the decentralization of family and an utter embrace of individualism, personal identity and self-expression — not too unlike the mainstream culture of today. Our everyday beliefs today lie on a line of direct lineage from the ideals that began to bud in the ’60s, and this fact is reflected in the most personal spaces of our lives, including love. 

A sociological study of women’s magazines by the sociologists Francesca Cancian and Steven Gordon found that from 1900 to 1979, love was seen as “self-sacrifice and compromise,” while in the ’60s and ’70s, it took on the form of “self-expression and individuality.” In the words of fellow Daily Trojan staff writer Gabby Anthony, “there’s no baby on board this generation,” as very few people in Gen Z think that marriage is about childbearing; Instead, we look to our romantic lives and marriage as another personal project, forever seeking self-discovery and personal growth, even in the bedroom.

Traditional family values have become so alienated from mainstream culture that Morgan Stanley, using Census Bureau historical data, predicted in 2019 that 45% of women aged 25 to 44 will be single by 2030. 

Following the disintegration of the social fabric that fell upon us at the same time as the dawn of modernity did that was seen in the late 90s, early 2000s, we now find ourselves in an age marked by rampant individualism, overburdened with academic responsibilities and further stretched by our self-perpetuated competing priorities between relationships and extracurriculars, all in the name of personal fulfillment and finding yourself. 

In short, we are living in a vacuum of allegiance, and as the last bit of remnants of our faith in institutions — such as big businesses, the media, justice systems, public schools and many branches of the federal government — erode, we feel lost, lonely and alienated. 

Our lives today are profoundly organized by Big Tech (as long as you live within the digital ecosystem of GAFA, or Google, Apple, Facebook andAmazon), and it’s nearly impossible not to be under their control if you want to have a functional life. While the counterculture of the late 20th century was to “be real” and more expressive of our self-identities, we mold our behaviors today according to the platform-enabled-hive-mind’s rules of social media, which, instead of suppressing our expression, forces us to express (well, at least it does if you want your friends and the world to remember you exist — it’s time to BeReal!). 

Personal expression is the most valuable form of currency in the age of social media. What cultural hegemonic logic is there to possibly be upended when the internet, which is all-encompassing in our lives, is a massively lucrative space of capitalization that cashes in on every amplification of emotions, user interaction and data cultivation? 

It is less that the social fabric has grown frayed as it has been manufactured and replaced by the digital and the artificial — a cheap throwaway fake that leaves us more lonely than ever. Combine this with the financial stress and general overcompetitiveness in the corporate and professional world today, and you have a society that is extremely burnt out, fatigued and just overall dissatisfied. 

There is now an anti-work ideology on the rise, notably on TikTok, ranging from the shameless “rich housewife is the goal” to the wholesome and candid confession of a TikTok user, @mjwritess: “I don’t want to be a girlboss. I don’t want to hustle … I simply want to live my life slowly and lay down in a bed of moss with my lover and enjoy the rest of my existence reading books, creating art and loving myself and the people in my life.”

Today’s counterculture is still a desire for liberation — liberation from the attention economy, from the atomization of society caused by excessive individualism and the loss of the real for the fake. True counterculture is difficult to see, but that doesn’t mean it’s not there. Nor is it torn apart. It is pallid and fretful, like mistaking a mirror for a window. But there is no society inside, online: It is only a semblance. Outside, in the real world, society hums along, where deeper and closer connections grow.