Trends to the end
Slate readers curious about my history with trend stories can read this.
My own readers are pretty sick seeing that GQ story dredged up at every opportunity. But if you've memorized it, you no doubt got a kick out of seeing The New York Times this week hype "the rise of 'screenagers'", a trend story I traced back to 1965 — and it doesn't even get a new coinage this time.
As it happens, though, I once wrote a different article — a 1994 book review — that touches even more closely on the themes Shafer discusses today. I'd forgotten about it until now, but reading about the work habits of Generation Y reminded me that I'd once read about some very similar trend stories on the work habits of Generation X.