What does it mean to be modern?

In terms of literary and aesthetic studies, Modernism is a constantly shifting notion. One is even unclear about when Modernism actually begins. Some argue that it started in 1863 when a salon jury refused Edouard Manet's scandalous painting Déjeuner sur l'herbe ("Lunch on the Grass"), resulting in what is now called Salon des Refusés. 

Others say that Modernism did not begin until the 1920s with the emergence of dissonant and dissident movements such as Surrealism and The Lost Generation, not to mention the entrance of stream-of-consciousness and psychoanalysis into the visual arts and literature. Moreover, the twenties saw the entrance of African aesthetics into visual and performance arts. Such cultural trends were also mentioned in literature. Nevertheless, the influence black people had on Modernism, even that which came from black Americans within the Harlem Renaissance, is often downplayed or ignored. 

Modernism was most specifically a reaction to the aftermath of World War I. The war resulted in collective disillusionment. All of the "truths" that middle-class society had taken for granted came undone. Determinism, the notion that there are aspects of being that occur outside of free will, came into question. Ideas about personal moral responsibility entered cultural and philosophical space. Hemingway wrote about the importance of a man adhering to a "code" that was uniquely his own, but strictly adhered to. 

Supposedly, we are still in the "modern" stage, though others would characterize our current era as "postmodern," or dealing with the dystopian, or degraded, result of the Modernist era. I would argue that Western society never finished where Modernism left off. There is still a great deal to explore in terms of expressions of the subconscious in literature and the visual arts, as well as multi-cultural motifs, and the beautiful mechanics of technology. So much of our current world was shaped by Modernism.

In my view, to be "modern" is to be forward-thinking, experimental, and globally oriented.