Authenticity is a made up word if you're referring to the media

What is authentic about YOUR teen subcluture? Does your generation have anything that it can call it's own? If there is nothing authentic about your culture, discuss how you feel about that. Does this even matter to you?

Personally, I don’t think my generation really has much that it can call its own. The things we do call our own are manufactured products that remind us of our generation. For example, just about everyone my age remembers Crazy Bones, Pogs, and other marketed products that were all the rage in elementary school. I’m sure the girls remember wearing butterfly hairclips in 5th grade and using gelly-roll pens, and I’m sure most of the guys were obsessed with finger skateboards around the same time. Our culture and the thing we enjoyed were (and still are) manufactured; packaged and sold to us with the intent of making us want to collect and buy more, or just to make other people buy into the product. So agreeing with part of the question, I don’t think our culture has much authenticity. We’re spoon-fed different trends, and as soon as something sticks, EVERYONE wants it (example: Ugg boots). We’re not given a whole lot of room to think for ourselves. And as soon as we do come up with something original, its taken and marketed. Even though its obnoxious from my point of view, that the media has to exploit literally everything we might be interested in, its not something I mourn over on a daily basis. Living in America, that’s what we do: We sell things to make money.
I’m not a terribly eclectic person… I generally go with the flow of our culture. Now that more alternative/”indie” music is being marketed, yes, I’m buying into it. Is it annoying that the market seems to seek and destroy just about anything teens like? Yes. Extremely annoying. BUT, at the same time, it doesn’t really matter that much. If the media is going to get to it anyway, what’s the point in complaining about it? I completely agree that its pathetic that the media has marketed us our culture (from manufactured goods to our attitudes), but at the same time, that’s life in our country. Personally it doesn’t matter that much to me, since I still feel like I can be myself, and I don’t feel like the products I buy define me as a person. But to sum everything up, its true: Our generation doesn’t have much of an authentic culture.

it WOULD be a shame if it was true, and hopefully it isnt for anyone.

"It's a shame that the people who are listening to you the most are only interested in you because they want you and your peers to buy their product."

Honestly? I don't necessarily agree with this. I see what the "Marketing of 'Cool'" video is trying to say, but in terms of "listening to us the most"? Hmmm... I have a little more faith in people than that. Adults are definitely in their own world about 90% of the time (so are teens, so are little kids, so is everyone else in the world) but the important people in life definitely take the time to listen without their own selfish motives. I understand that the video is trying to say that the media listens especially attentively because, well, their job is on the line, but to say they're listening the most? That's a bit of a stretch. Another thing the quote generalized is that all teens have bad relationships with their parents, which isn't necessarily true. Not all parents neglect their kids and hand them the credit card to make up for the fact that their job is too time consuming. Even though the media is definitely out to exploit peoples' interests, I'd like to think the good people in the world outweight the bad, and that the people close to us are more prone to listening than a major corporation.