Today, as I waded through a stack of magazines to read a week’s worth of news and editorial, I was sad to see the cover of one of my favorite publications with a headline reading “The Lost Generation” and inside, a story warning about the “enduring harm” young people face in this economy.

“Bright, eager — and unwanted. While unemployment is ravaging just about every part of the global workforce, the most enduring harm is being done to young people who can’t grab onto the first rung of the career ladder.”

In the very same stack I’d collected for my morning reading, Tavi, a now infamous 13-year-old blogger known for turning her interest in fashion, thrift shop finds and smart use of a free blogger account into a powerful new voice in the industry, graced not one, but two limited edition covers of POP magazine. I couldn’t help but take note of the powerful contradiction between these two covers — with Tavi as a veritable antidote to the notion that we’re a “lost generation.”

Yes, the economy has put a strain on everyone and has certainly not helped the post-college job search now faced by many of my friends and peers. But to assume that we are a lost generation is to forget that we are one of the most empowered generations to-date.

We quite literally have a technological advantage at our disposal. It just takes good old-fashioned guts, stamina, confidence of presence and unwavering persistence to leverage our blogs, our social networks, our personal publishing power to make things happen if no one else seems to be handing it to us; and, it takes a smart perspective of technology to see our social sites as much more than mere playgrounds for posting party photos and chatting with our friends.

Facebook, for example, is more than a digital dorm room; it is a door opener to connect with anyone at the top of the ladder willing to accept a friend request and take a second to view our stream and have a casual chat. Your stream and your chat better impress — it’s no different than what’s expected of you offline — but it can utterly surpass the frustration of being one resume out of hundreds stacked on a potential recruiter’s desk.

And as Dazed described in one of my favorite issues of the year, and as Tavi‘s own success at such a young age exemplifies, there is the opportunity to forget about the corporate ladder entirely. If you’re having trouble grasping the first rung, as “The Lost Generation” described, “Rip it up and start again.” Carve your own niche, use technology to set up shop, start sharing (and selling) your work, your wares, your bits and bytes of knowledge and be an active part of what is a promising and exciting new opportunity for entrepreneurism.

Dazed says it best:

“You don’t need us to tell you what a mess the world is in. We’ll leave that to the Financial Times and their mates…. Rip it up and start again. As employment opportunities become scarcer and artistic opportunities move away from diamond-encrusted skulls, it is the message, not the medium, that counts. Creativity itself is at a premium and while the mainstream retreats into escapism, a new underground of entrepreneurial young minds are changing popular culture without waiting for anyone’s approval. Doubling efforts to highlight the urgency of our environmental plight, these are people showing us exactly how to react to a crisis. Rather than defeatism, it is a time to seize the opportunity.”

I say this as someone who comes from a working middle class family, still living paycheck to paycheck. I say this as someone who has loads of student debt to pay off and the pressure that comes with that. I say this as someone who didn’t have pre-existing connections in my prospective industry that I could leverage for an easy in. And I say this, on my company’s blog, as someone who used social media, self-publishing, old fashioned correspondence with executives in my company and persistence to land this job right out of college, right in this recession, without ever having to file a traditional application or even put pen to a cover letter.

Technology won’t open a door for our generation unless we, as the user, hack its endless possibilities for connection until finally it either helps us get in the door, meet the right person or set up our own shop.

We are not the lost generation. We are the generation that must take hold of everything that’s in front of us before we spend one more minute polishing up one more resume as a response to one more random posting for “help wanted.”

If any young people reading this ever want to chat about how to break into this industry, I’d be more than happy to talk. I can’t promise, by any means, that I have it figured out (I’m still figuring most of it out), but I can at least tell you what has seemed to work for me. My e-mail is amanda[dot]mooney[at]edelman.