Y are we different?

I’ve been told several times, “your generation this, or your generation that” but it never occurred to me that our generation has been formally titled Generation Y. As most our parents are Baby Boomers that is the generation “title” I’ve always heard about whether in newspaper articles or on the nightly news. Talks about Baby Boomer issues like the rising medical costs and social security scare but it’s exciting for me to see that our generation, “Generation Y” has issues that need discussing too. One of the biggest issues that came to my attention after reading the Business Week article Generation Y is the large numbers that make up Generation Y, almost as much as Baby Boomers. Because of this huge mass of young people, we are being researched more and more by companies, the government, and even ourselves. However, while there are many trends and characteristics that set our generation apart, we are all so different from eachother in many ways as well. I’m not sure if the Generation Y article was a little outdated (written over a decade ago) or if I’m just very different from the people they researched but I found myself disagreeing with many of their points. For example, I have worn Nike tennis shoes since I could walk and I can’t ever remember a time when I wore Tommy Hilfiger.

So this article may have a few detailed points I don’t relate to but many of the overall messages are so apparent, even 10 years later. It mentions how diverse our generation is from all the others: 1 in 3 are not caucasion, 1 in 4 lives in a single-parent home, 3 in 4 have working mothers. This is a huge difference from the Baby Boomers and it’s something that will continue to grow and change onto the next generation. Overall, our generation has more freedom, independence, and choices at our age than any older generation did. We all have emails, in fact I had email before either one of my parents. Most kids of Generation Y even have their own computers/laptops today too. My cousins who are in middle school have their own “kids” computer while their parents have one for themselves. This kind of freedom is something that is not declining either. Children are picking out their own clothes at stores, listening to the music they want in their parent’s cars, and watching whatever TV programs they want at very young ages. So it causes me to think… if kids in Generation Y have this much freedom today, what are going to be the limits for my kids’ generation?

Companies from Apple to Facebook to Sprite are focusing in on the consumers of Generation Y. These companies have seen the buying power of this generation and targeted in on them. A very smart marketing strategy in my opinion, especially if kids/teens are choosing what they want, and parents are buying it for them. In the Facebook/MySpace world, people are spending hours looking at friends’ photos, listening to new bands, & even planning birthday parties. Some people worry this will take over social networking in person all together, but in my opinion that will never happen. While I do enjoy spending sometime on Facebook myself and would find it odd if any person in college did not have a profile themselves, hanging out with friends one-on-one, at parties or dinners, is in my opinion the best form of social networking. So while these virtual social networking sites are growing rapidly and adding new features everyday, they will not end personal interaction among people. In the end, everyone enjoys a face-to-face conversation with their closest friends rather than an online chat session.