Our parents were the true rebels. They were the beatniks, the broken, the Vietnam-remembering protagonists of a Cold War-drenched 1960s suburban America. We are their descendants, and like our progenitors, are diving headfirst at 155 miles per hour toward a coup d'etat against tradition. And that is where we begin to diverge, for we are the true rebels without a cause. We '90s-era heroes are leading our own uprising: the apathetic revolution.

Take the prototypical female tenth grade student. Most would assume I'd harp on her vanity, her meticulously coiffed hair, and her ability to disregard formerly established social norms by refusing to wear a shirt that covers her midsection. And yet, I choose to focus on a more intrinsic facet of her being, a piece inseparable and often indistinguishable among teenagers: her mind.

With the onset of websites such as YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and the like, she has begun to lose interest in world news, politics, and social issues. Most students my age get their political fill from watching the “cold opening” of “Saturday Night Live,” their social fix by catching up on the latest charity sponsored by Kim Kardashian, and their economic news from discovering that they do not have enough funds to purchase tickets to the next One Direction concert.

What scares me most is not our lack of interest in the real issues of today, but how content we are in our ignorance. We have not evolved, but regressed into young people plagued with lethargy. However, my fellow teens and I have had our moments of inspiration and determination. We are leading a jihad against bullying, and are bringing issues of gay marriage and equality to the forefront. Just this summer, President Obama affirmed his support of marriage equality for all gay Americans. Take that, Baby Boomers!

In an age where “One ‘Like' Will Feed a Poor Child for a Month (insert Photoshopped picture of starving African boy here),” how do we recover our intensity and voracity for life? The answer is complex, as we often cannot anticipate novel fads, websites, videos, games, and other sources of diversion. In this day and age, where our culture is shifting eerily close to an Orwellian or Huxley-created nightmare, I suppose I'm just a John in a sea of Alphas, Betas, Deltas, and Gammas.