Generation X Goes to College: An Eye-Opening Account of Teaching in Post-Millennial America (2016) by Peter Sacks — but more directly:
It directly analyzes Reality Bites as a key text representing Generation X, focusing on the film's central tension between authenticity (Lelaina's documentary, Troy's slacker ethos) and commodification (Michael's MTV-style career). It links the film's ironic, disaffected tone to broader socio-economic anxieties of the early 1990s (recession, the end of the Cold War, the rise of corporate culture). Reality Bites
Sean Zwagerman
While "Reality Bites" (1994) is primarily a cultural touchstone film, academic papers do exist that analyze its themes. Here is one specific, highly relevant paper, along with a few other angles for finding more. Paper Title: "Slacking Toward the Millennium: The Dialectical Imagination in Reality Bites and Fight Club " Generation X Goes to College: An Eye-Opening Account