For my argumentation for Mingle as a phenomenon or keyword of the 21th century, I refer to a very personal view, because I refer to the generation of the urban mid-twenty and thirty – my generation. I belong to the generation Y or some call it the Millennials. The term refers to people born between 1980s and 2000s, although different authors use different data. But there are actually many synonyms given such as Generation Why, the digital natives, the Generation Me etc. that try to describe the characteristics of this generation. The people belonging this generation are those of the Baby Boomer parents, who raised their children with values of individual empowerment and included the child’s opinion in their educational decisions¹.#definition These children had the freedom to experience many different things that turned them into ‘stimulus junkies’ that rearranged the way they socialize, make career choices and build relationships.² We are also talking about a generation with western privileges like networks, connectivity and accesses to a certain material wealth and the freedom to decide. 

Therefore as a method, you could say I take up a position out of my personal opinion and experiences, because I belong to the defined generation above. Paired with some academic background to underline for example concepts of identity construction or communication, this essay wants to represents a position and is therefore mostly using and verbalized in terms of a first person view to illustrate the problem.

So what does society mean within the mid-twenty and thirty? Being vegan, go traveling and follow your dreams. But these things only achieve importance if we share these things with our digital friends, where we get recognition and acceptance: Look what I do, what I can, whom I know and where I travel along.#lifestyle#participation We are the first peer group, that is always in public, always ‘on’ and privacy is nearly a foreign word for us and it’s a phenomenon we do not know very well anymore. So, in fact, social systems such as religion and family have lost their influence and social norms and values, that used to trigger our actions, are getting rearranged by personal preferences.#perception Marriage is no longer a prescribed ideal for a girl, just an option and a son does no longer need to follow his father’s occupation. Therefore multi-optionalisation increasingly defines every sector of life: work, education and consumption – even family and personal relationships.³

According to the 1994’s study by Peter Gross, a ‘Multi-optional society’ refers to the endless and competitive mass of new possibilities, which speaks for our present society⁴.#defintion And this mass of new possibilities is already for a long time not only given in a material way like variety in stores and the range of services that are available but also gets transmitted to personal areas. Gross also means that the will and striving for more is deeply embedded in our modern societies and even modernity is founded on such a pursuit. Already he represented with this opinion that behind everything has to be something more and better waiting for you. The increasing choice and the act of choosing persuade people to feel under pressure.#philosophy For me, the knowledge of the questions and discrepancy of a multi-options society is the background in which we need to look at the construct Mingle. You can see, everything is possible anywhere: In politics, in arts, in sexuality, in your choice of occupation. You have always the chance to change your working place or your gender however you like. We switch from job to job, from place to place and from the notion of being a hippie to being capitalist. #ephemeral We are a character-less generation, who wants everything and conforms to everything. We are the ones with no direction, the ones that cannot decide, always fighting with the flood of possibilities. Potentially you can reach everything nowadays, but you don’t want to commit or make decisions and finally end in an omnipresent procrastination that every mid-twenty knows.#perception 

We don’t want daily routine, we always want excitement and adventures and live the ultimate life, but we can only reach this life, if we make the right choices. And that’s the point there is no certainty, no orientation anymore to make the right decisions in this ephemeral world. Along with this fundament, I can understand why people of my generation choose an alternative life model respectively are setting priorities in favor of themselves and being vulnerable for the Mingle construction as a simply escape.