Generation Y.
I did an interview in my last Journalism class as part of our Soundbite component. The interviewee was Angela - a lady in my class - and the topic was ‘Gen Y’. I had never heard of the term before, so I did some research before doing the interview. Did you know that I am actually part of this Generation Y? I had no idea, and in fact, I’ve never heard the term before. Apparently it refers to people born between 1982/83 - 1997.
The Wikipedia entry describes Generation Y as ‘digital residents’, as they have grown up immersed in digital technology. I agree with that; my life has been saturated in digital forms of entertainment. Beginning with the Nintendo and progressing now to my Nintendo DS, there isn’t much I do to relax or have fun that doesn’t involve some sort of digital media.
Even homework is becoming digitalised, and casual researching is most often done on the internet. In fact, I believe the internet has been the biggest cultural difference between earlier generations and ‘Gen Y’. Wikipedia notes that Generation Y as a whole tends to seek instant gratification; where better to find that than the ‘net?
Google is now a verb, everyone and their dog has a MySpace, and anything you need to find - literally, anything - is available within seconds on the web.
Wikipedia also notes that ‘Gen Y’ can be ‘demanding, impatient and bad at communicating’. I think it can be assumed that the need for instant gratification ties into that; instant messaging, online shopping and the 24/7 nature of the internet itself have influenced and perpetuated the impatience of ‘Gen Y’. Not to mention text messaging and leet-speak; is it any wonder most of ‘Gen Y’ have issues communicating effectively?
Angela brought up an interesting point during the interview; most of Generation Y does things to promote their own individuality. Although she used some sort of fancy language about it, the main gist of the situation is simple. ‘Gen Y’ is selfish. They’re not volunteering because they care, they’re volunteering to make themselves stand out from their friends, for the experience rather than the cause.
Imagine what Generation Z is going to be like.
May 23rd, 2008 at 8:28 pm
Err.. just so you know, generation X already happened, it was the predecessor to generation Y just as generation Z is the follow on from generation Y.
Go look it up on wikipedia or somewhere.
May 24th, 2008 at 1:10 pm
Oh, gosh. How did I manage to miss that? I MEANT to type ‘Z’, honest.
Typing dyslexia, I tells ya!
Thanks, Tau.
May 24th, 2008 at 9:01 pm
Generation Z is already here, as is generation I
have a look at the link below and then tell me which generation you meant to type.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Generations
Though there is some disagrements within the list about when which genration is.
Sorry for spelling, no spellcheker with me today
May 24th, 2008 at 9:21 pm
Ah, well we here in Australia haven’t actually differentiated between Z and I - not yet, anyway - according to someone who actually works as a ’statistician’ of sorts, in regards to Generation Y. So, at the moment in Australia we are bundling Gen Z and I together, calling them both the ‘digital native’ generation.
When I said, I wonder what Generation Z will be like, I meant as adults, working with kids as their own. So, Gen Z is what I meant to type.