hope is not lost

I started my education in YA literature 2 years ago at 23.  I read at least one new contemporary YA book every couple months, and by new and contemporary I mean published in the last 5 years.  To my dismay, I have not found many great YA novels.  Most of them are mediocre and forgettable and I think they are so mediocre and forgettable because a lot of these authors fail to make a connection with the reader.  I often cannot sympathize or empathize with the character because they haven't been fleshed out enough.

I find often that the characters lack a clear definition of values.  For example, Holden Caulfield  was a cocky character, and he was lonely, and you knew this because he was constantly talking about how phony everyone was, he didn't really have any friends, and he was more interested in talking to the prostitute than sleeping with her.  From this you could understand that Holden valued truth and companionship and was struggling to find it.  Even if you didn't like him, you could understand him, and you could feel something towards him.  Contemporary YA seems to be lacking this.  How can I feel emotion for an intangible person?

I'm puzzled at the amount of shallow books out there.  How can there be so many?  Why is the market becoming saturated with books like this?  It's not as prevalent in adult literature, but it's terrible that it should be so prevalent in YA literature.  Is this the kind of literature available to teens?  It's just sad.

My previous reading habits involved practically no contemporary YA literature.  At 12, the only new books I read for leisure was Harry Potter, and at 13 I started reading adult fiction.  I had accidentally skipped YA completely, and now I am catching up and I am saddened by what I see.

Our whole culture is saturated in shallowness.  Once I looked around ojectively, it was obvious that our culture is breeding this.  Practically everything in the media is about me and I.  American life has become about instant gratification and having every thing a person could ever want cheaply and in abundance.  Was it really so surprising that I found so many YA books lacking this aspect of connecting to the reader?

Hope is not lost though!  Even though I think our culture is becoming more shallow, I know it can't go on forever because humans crave connection.  Why else would Facebook be so popular?  Humans want real connection though and eventually I believe we will all remember what that was and we'll get tired of this shallowness one day, and then we'll find our way back.