Generation Y

From Free net encyclopedia

Image:Mergefrom.gif It has been suggested that iGeneration be merged into this article or section. ([[{{{2|: talk:Generation_Y}}}|Discuss]])

Generation Y is the cohort of Americans born immediately after "Generation X", though the term is itself controversial and is synonymous with several alternative terms including The Net Generation, Millennials, Echo Boomers and Google Generation. Generation Y is generally considered to be the last generation of Americans wholly born in the 20th century, whose birth years have now concluded. Using the broadest definition commonly cited, Generation Y currently (as of 2006) includes Americans in their mid and early 20s, teenagers and children over the age of 5. At times, the term is extrapolated beyond the United States to refer to similarly aged youth in the Western World or Anglophone World.

As generations are defined not by formal process, but rather by demographers, the press and media, popular culture, market researchers, and by members of the generation themselves, there is no precise consensus as to which birth years constitute Generation Y. Although different groups or individuals consider a different range of years to constitute Generation Y, that range of years is almost always within the outer bounds of 1976 as the earliest possible year and 2001 as the latest, however some say the final year of Gen Y is between 1993 and 2000 because they would be the youngest people to appreciate the changes of the Digital Revolution. The ongoing debate is in part due to the lack of a single marquis event, analogous to the end of World War II for the "Baby Boomer" generation, that can demarcate the start or end of this generation. That single marquis event is argued to be September 11, 2001, the end of relative peacetime and the beginning of wartime, thus meaning that those not able to remember or appreciate the significance of the attacks at the time are not part of the generation. This would then place Generation Y's years from around 1980 up to about 1995. If the years 1978-2000 are used, then the size of Generation Y in the United States is approximately 76 millionTemplate:Ref.

Some say membership in Generation Y is actually defined by the number of text messages sent by an individual. If a person sends at least 10 text messages in any given week, they are a member of Generation Y.


Contents

[edit]

Controversy and Attempts to Name Generation Y

The term Generation Y (often shortened to Gen Y or Ygen) is itself controversial because it is seen by some as borrowing too strongly from the term Generation X (Gen X), which when originally coined carried a negative connotation. Many feel the use of Gen Y as a term fails to capture the cohort's unique social, political, and cultural experience. As a result, numerous terms have arisen that are generally synonymous with Generation Y. While Generation Y alludes to that cohort's successional relationship to Generation X, the term Echo Boomers is used to allude to the generation's close tie to the primary childbearing years of Baby Boomers. The terms Millennials and Net Generation are attempts to give the Gen Y cohort more independent names that are tied with key events and cultural trends that are strongly associated with the generation. No single term is the "correct" term to describe members of this generation.

Following the publication of their book, Generations: The History of America's Future, 1584 to 2069, much credit has been given to the names used for various American cohorts by authors William Strauss & Neil Howe. Howe and Strauss use the term "Millenials" as opposed to "Generation Y", arguing that members of Gen Y actually coined the term Millenials themselves and have statistically expressed a wish not to be associated closely with Gen X. They followed up their large study of the history of American demographics with a new book specifically on Gen Y, titled Millenials Rising.

In Generations, Howe and Strauss use the years 1982-2000 as the birth years of Generation Y, using the 18 childhood years of the high school graduating class of 2000 as their marking points. They reasoned that the high school class of 2000 received notable public attention and political initiatives during their youth that provided a contrast between Americans born before this class and those born after. Template:Ref

In 1993 a new term came into being - Gen Y. The term first appeared in an August 1993 Ad Age editorial to describe those teenagers born between 1974 -1980. Template:Ref

In his book Growing Up Digital, business strategist and psychologist Don Tapscott coined the term "Net Generation" for the group, pointing at the significance of being the first to grow up immersed in a digital--and Internet--driven world.

[edit]

Generation Y Demographic Characteristics

Template:SectOR

[edit]

Subsets of Generation Y

[edit]

Early or "Cold" Generation Y

Because most definitions of Generation Y span upwards of 20 years, arguments have been made that different subsets of this generation have had distinct experiences that make it inappropriate to consider the often widest defined range (1976-2001) to really be considered a single generation.

Several scholars within the realm of sociological academia have postulated on the existence of a small but none-the-less distinct generational subset falling in the early years of Generation Y. It has been noted that those born in the years 1982-1985 exhibit certain societal and cultural traits, habits and preferences that-- while combining certain aspects of GEN X, and especially GEN Y-- render them unique in their own right. This generational partition has been occasionally referred to as the Early Y or Cold Y generation, and sometimes as "Generation Why". Notably, this theory conjects that Generation X ends in 1981, rather than one of the earlier years going back to 1976 used by some scholars.

Reasons for this partition include attitudes about technology, societal norms and, indirectly, in areas like the global political order, etc. This "Cold Y" generation was the very last to obtain cognizance or self-awareness before the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Cold War. Therefore they were the last generational segment with any memory of life during the Cold War. They were also the last to have some ideas of what life was like when the modern information based society was in its transitional/formative years, rather than the current all-pervasive and totally integrated form it had taken by the early 90's. In other words, they were the final generation to be able to compare and contrast the late Cold War/Space Age society with the Post-Cold War/Information Age society using their own personal experiences and memories.

Consequently, one can see these characteristics manifest themselves in areas like the approach to contemporary technology. For the regular generation Y, modern information technology has always been "there", whereas Early Y grew up during the critical period of technological evolution in which the current bedrock technologies on which our info-based society relies were moved out of the technical/specialist realm and into the consumer applied realm, often when traits of each area were mixed and indistinct, giving Early Y a rather odd viewpoint that combines the outlook of the specialist/technical segment of the previous generation, though much more widely disseminated, with the integrationist outlook of the later Y generation.

In terms of political and societal outlook, some scholars argue there are also noticeable differences. Gen X has now largely had time to fall into the standard orthodoxies of political participation, and mainstream Gen Y has either done so also or (for a wide segment of it) remained apathetic or non-participatory, they argue. Early Y, on the other hand, has manifested tendencies towards a less common form of what has been termed "policy-centric pragmatism", which places a lower value, relatively speaking, on constructs like ideology or formalism. When what could be termed ideology does manifest itself, the Early Y's seem to have taken-on an unusual tendency to look to often imported belief or value systems that lie outside the scope of those normally brought into the U.S. from abroad.

Speaking in terms of societal mores and values, some academics theorize that Early Y is in limbo between the post-Sexual Revolution norms of Gen X and the emergent ones of Gen Y (which have been described by some commentators as simply the normalization or commoditization of those of Gen X). This includes an apparent embracing of the basic outlooks of Gen X, but a reluctance to carry to their logical extremes, as we see occurring now with Gen Y. In many areas, Early Y seems to embrace the more cynical worldview exhibited by X while rejecting some of what they view as crassness or immoderation. It has been remarked that in doing so, as Early Y matures they have begun to look several generations behind X in forming certain societal/sexual constructs.

[edit]

MTV Generation

In popular culture, a larger early Generation Y (and late Generation X) subset consisting of those born from 1976 to 1984, has been postulated, dubbed the MTV Generation. Notably, this subset of Generation Y would have memories of the cold-war era, including the existence of the Former Soviet Union, and the Berlin wall, as well as other memories from the early 1980s that are not part of the shared experience of most members of Generation Y. Moreover, members of this subset of Generation Y would have experienced the advent of the Internet and the "Information Age" during their late childhood or teen years, whereas later members of Generation Y were younger children during this period and may have limited memories of the period before the Internet.

However, core Gen Yers, even those born as late as 1993 would be somewhat able to appreciate the Digital Revolution, as they could readily recall certain analog-age items such as VHS tapes.

[edit]

9/11 Paradigm Shift

Some scholars and popular periodicals are now also making arguments that the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks represent a paradigm shift that ought to demarcate the end of Gen Y. Therefore, some claim that those born in the years spanning 1996-2001, are truly part of a distinct generation, perhaps part of the loosely defined "Generation Z," because those born in this time span have limited or no memories of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. Also, these youths would not remember a period before the widespread use of personal computers or the Internet.

[edit]

The moments that defined Generation Y

In attempting to define and characterize generations, demographers often rely on the experience of formative national events as one tool to demarcate various generations. Generations are shaped by their childhood experiences, and then defined by their early-adulthood actions, when each generation can consciously adopt or reject the attitudes or actions of prior generations. Notably, the experience of the Great Depression and World War II are a major way of defining the formative years of the so-called "G.I. Generation", also known at times as the "Greatest Generation". In turn, the experiences of the Moon Landing, assassination of JFK, and the 1960s social revolution are key events that demarcate the formative years of the "Baby Boomer" generation.

Several such events have been used as ways of defining Generation Y.

  • The Challenger explosion on January 28, 1986, is one major event that separates Generation X and Generation Y, as most members of Generation Y were either not yet born or too young to remember this major national event.
  • The fall of the Soviet Union, and the first Gulf War, are both midway events for members of Generation Y, occurring in 1991, as many members were old enough to remember these events as children, but many had not yet been born.
  • The widespread use of Personal Computers and the Internet is an event shared by the majority of Gen Y. Taking off during the period 1996-2001, most members of this generation spent at least part of their youth with a home computer and internet access, and members of this Generation use the Internet as a tool for socialization more so than previous generations.
  • The date of the September 11th attacks is an often proposed end-point for the generation. Those that were not yet born in 2001 and those that were otherwise too young to remember and/or understand what occurred on that infamous day (about 1997 up) would thus be grouped into Generation Z or what Cryderman defines as the iGeneration as they would have no memory whatsoever of the 20th Century and any predigital technologies still around in the Nineties. Meanwhile, people who were still in school (or had recently graduated) would be called Generation Y. Such propositions, of course, remain disputed.
  • Afghanistan and the Iraq War, as well as the War on Terror may become the war that defines Gen Y akin to World War II for the GI Generation and the Vietnam War for the Baby Boomers.
[edit]

Generational demographics

Many in Generation Y are the children of Baby Boomers, and the generation is also known as the "Echo (Boom) generation," because it is, in some areas, the largest demographic grouping since the baby boom that immediately followed World War II (the U.S. birth rate per 1,000 population, however, declined for seven consecutive years starting in 1991 — the second longest such streak on record, exceeded only by the eleven-year baby bust of 1958 through 1968). Most parents of the members of Generation Y are from the Baby Boomer or older Silent generations; significantly fewer parents are from Generation X (mostly kids born in 1991 or later). Their grandparents are mostly from the G.I. Generation, with some older Silents. While the echo was much larger than the previous cohorts, the relative size of this generation is much smaller than that of the Baby Boom. The American population was much larger in the 1990s than in the 1950s or '60s. From 1946 to 1964, the U.S. total fertility rate averaged 3.3 — high enough to double the population every two generations. Since around 1980, it has averaged 1.9, which is below the so-called replacement rate, though in recent years it has moved slightly above 2.0. Families continued to get smaller than in previous decades, usually with only one or two children.

Americans Under Age 18
YearMillionsPercent of Population
195047.331.1%
196064.535.7%
197069.834.0%
198063.728.0%
199064.225.7%
199869.825.9%
2005~96.4~32%

The Echo Boom The actual “Echo Boom” was a five year span between 1989 and 1993 when for the first time since 1964, the number of live births reached over four million. It wouldn’t be until 1985 that the live birth number would even match that of 1965 at 3.760 million. Also it should be noted that the birthrate of 1971’s 17.2% has yet to be reached according to the 2000 census. Template:Ref

[edit]

Relationship with other living generations

Gen Y are primarily children of the Baby Boomers and Gen X cohorts, though some are children of what Howe and Strauss refer to as the Silent Generation or are children of older Gen Y adults. Because of this they have a tendency to share social views with the Boomers and culture with Gen X, who serve chiefly as their 'older cousins' or even older siblings.

A notable demographic shift will begin to occur in 2010 when the oldest Baby Boomers (b. 1945) hit the United States' legal retirement age of 65. As boomers retire, more members of Generation X will take roles in middle and upper management and the large membership of Generation Y will take up positions in the lower half of the workforce, a process which has already begun since some members of Gen Y are in their late-20s.

[edit]

Generation Y, Global Differences

[edit]

Generation Y in the United States

Most have few memories of the Cold War (apart from perhaps action movies, toys, or video games with such themes) and came of age during the technology-driven changes in the years of President Bill Clinton. They were the first to grow up with the Internet in a developed, prolific form, including music downloads, instant messaging and cellular phones, which came to fruition at about 1997. Even before they could type and mouse-click their way through the internet, they were the first to grow up with a modern media choices: television remotes to encourage channel flipping; cable, with its wealth of channels among which to switch; and multiple TVs (and video recorders) in a household. These TV choices reduced the commonality (and centralized control) of the viewing experience. The 'Who Shot J.R.' (Ewing of the TV series Dallas) experience is dispersed in both place (all the family around the TV, repeated across all households in the timezone) as well as in time (video recorders). Similarly, DVD popularity and large-screen home TVs have dispersed the impact of TV/movie events, and even, with viewer voting shows like American Idol, have become as interactive as the internet, changing generational assumptions about how one interacts with their media environment.

Other major social changes in recent times include immigration and developments in race relations. Characteristically, Generation Y members are generally very tolerant towards multiculturalism and internationalism. (Generation X is similarly tolerant of diversity in itself, but intolerant of having it forced on them by reverse-discriminatory quotas or politically-correct speech.) It is also not uncommon for post-1970s born children to grow up dating people outside their own race or ethnic group, as well as having a wide range in friends. This growing trend towards interracial relationships is sometimes a source of negative friction between youth and their parents or elders, who grew up in a society where interracial romance was once considered extremely taboo and even banned in a number of states until the late 1960s. The state of Alabama only officially disbanded its anti-miscegenation laws in the year 2000. As well, many people in this group are themselves multiracial in background, and this is also a considerable change from previous generations.

Opinions on Gay rights and gender roles are also being adjusted and redefined as each generation emerges into adulthood. Generation Y is known for having among the most wide-ranging opinions on such issues, possibly because they haven't yet encountered a personal situation where their actions/reactions cause them to consciously choose sides. With Generations X and Y in their child-rearing years, situations related to these topics will become more observable, hence generationally-coherent opinions may become more clear: to adopt or attempt to change then the policies of their Silent and Boomer parents.

This generation was the subject of much concern during the 1990s, though, despite some of its positive features. The Columbine school shooting, youth participation in street gangs, hate groups, and problems such as teen pregnancy fueled a wave of action by schools and other organizations.

The 2004 Presidential election was the first election in which Generation Y was able to vote in significant numbers. John Kerry received 48% of the votes. Notwithstanding, the ratio between young voters voting Democratic or for the incumbent George W. Bush remained relatively stable. The latter may suggest that Gen Y is in fact reflective of American society as a whole rather than a defined independent generation in itself. The latter may instead reflect that 2004 was too early in Gen Y's definitive years; they're still following their parents (or the authority figures learned from their parents; e.g. Party spokesman, the church, the Mainstream Media) and have not yet (and may not ever) claimed their own generational political identity. (Gen X's Soccer Mom and NASCAR dad political sub-identities have only recently become definable labels.)

[edit]

Generation Y elsewhere

In a strict sense, the term "Generation Y" and its variations can be said to refer only to the United States, but the close cultural connection between the U.S. and other Western countries has led to the term being used to describe any youth culture, even if the emerging generation does not bear any characteristic similarities to the United States version of "Generation Y" besides chronological birth years.

In many rich countries, the 1980s and 1990s were a period of rapidly falling birthrates. In Southern Europe and Japan, and less markedly in Northern and Eastern Europe, Generation Y is dramatically smaller than any of its predecessors, and its childhood years tended to be marked by small families, both immediate and extended, small classes at school and school closures. In the Soviet Union during the 1980s, there was a "baby boom echo" similar to that in the United States, and Generation Y there is relatively large; however, birth rates fell through the floor in the 1990s to extremely low levels. This meant a lot of individual attention from parents in a period in which society was becoming intrinsically more risk averse.

The child poverty rate was still relatively high in many Western countries throughout the 1980s and '90s.

The increasing stratification of wealth in many societies has led to an increase in the societal differences between poor and rich members of this generation. Although many middle class and wealthier families arrange many extra-curricular activities for their children, less affluent families cannot afford such extras, increasing the pressure on their own children. Since much of the generational character is tied to the prevalence of "extracurriculars" and relatively expensive technologies such as computers, some feel that the description of the generation only applies to wealthy members or at least the broadly middle class.

In Eastern Europe, Generation Y is the first generation without mature memories of communism or dictatorial rule. In newly rich countries such as South Korea or Greece, Generation Y has known nothing but developed world standards of living, while their grandparents often grew up in developing world conditions, causing considerable social changes and inter-generational difficulties as the young reject many traditional ways of life.

Generation Y was the first generation in countries like India and China to benefit from western modern amenities due to liberalization of their economies.

[edit]

Generation Y and Popular Culture

For a more extensive overview of music, television, books, movies, and the Internet, see Generation Y culture.

In addition to the passing of major external events, Generations can be identified by internalized cultural experiences shared by members of a Generation. Many definitions of Generation Y span over 20 years, such as 1977-2000. Thus, different sub-cohort's of this generation will remember different cultural experiences and the passing of different fads, crazes, and manias.

Some of the major cultural events that are often associated with Generation Y include:

  • The game of Pogs during the early 1990s.
  • Periods of rising popularity for grunge and ska music in the mid 1990s (shared with latter Gen X)
  • The watching of new wave children's public television shows such as Barney & Friends in the early 1990s.
  • The rampant interest in Gigapets.
  • The Tickle Me Elmo craze of 1996, prevalent in the youngest members of Generation Y.
  • The big Pokémon craze that happened in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
  • The rise in poularity of online journals or Blogs in the early 2000s.
  • Surging use of Social Networking Websites such as MySpace and the Facebook in the mid 2000s.
  • The rising use of MP3 players (especially iPod brand) in the mid and late 2000s.
[edit]

Trends/problems among Generation Y members

As with previous generations, many problems began to surface as Generation Y came of age.

  • Underage drinking and illicit drug use is still prevalent among high school and college age members of Generation Y. In urban areas, rave culture is becoming known for its influence on ecstasy usage. Marijuana, meth, cocaine, and inhalants seem to be most favored. Drug usage prevails even in spite of most Gen Y members undergoing programs such as D.A.R.E. during childhood. However, statistically, today's teens are less likely to smoke, drink, do illegal drugs, get pregnant, commit a crime, or drop out of school than their counterparts in the 1970s. Template:Ref
  • The use of legal prescription medications illegally is an emerging trend of Generation Y, including the appearance of "Pharming parties" where youths trade, share, and try each other's prescription medications. Template:Ref
  • Generation Y is one of the most medicated generations in human history, with many Generation Yers prescribed antidepressants and other behavior-altering drugs like Ritalin, which has existed since the 1950s but was seldom prescribed before the early 1990s based on the relative lack of brain knowledge prior to the 1990s, the "Decade of the Brain". It is interesting to note that Generation Y is more depressed and world aware (via the Internet) than any generation previous, which has led the Generation gaining a stereotype as the "sad generation".
  • Childhood obesity is another health problem that has plagued Generation Y and X before them. In response, many local school boards have started to remove junk food from school cafeterias in an effort to reverse this trend.
  • As members of Generation Y begin to enter the nation's colleges and universities in large numbers some of their Baby Boomer parents are becoming helicopter parents. Many college advisors and administrators worry that this could have a negative effect on Generation Y's social progress, ego, and developing maturity.Template:Ref
  • Generation Y is the first generation that had to deal with the AIDS epidemic during childhood. Some members of Generation Y were born to parents that had AIDS, some being orphaned by the illness, others contracting the disease from the mother. At the same time, later members coming of age after the pharmaceutical advances of the 1990s downgraded AIDS from inevitably fatal to chronic but treatable may have little sense of the disease's former weight in the public consciousness. The effect of this distinction is most dramatic in homosexual subcultures, where the disease significantly reshaped lives, practices, and institutions in the 1980s and 1990s.
[edit]

Generation Y Famous People and Cultural Contributors

Template:Generations

The oldest members of Generation Y have now graduated from college or entered the workforce. As a young generation, most of the famous members of Generation Y are known for their contributions to popular culture and the media, more so than for contributions to society, politics, technology, and the economy. Famous members of this generation include:

[edit]

Firsts

[edit]

Technology

This generation was the first generation to use or witness the following technology from an early age:

[edit]

Culture

These are the events that this generation experience while coming of age:

[edit]

See also

[edit]

References

  1. Template:Note "Scenes from the Culture Clash" Fast Company January/February 2006, pp 73-77.
  2. Template:Note Generation Y: complex, discerning and suspicious-Carol Nader- The Age- October 9, 2003
  3. Template:Note William Strauss and Neil Howe Generations: The History of America's Future, 1584 to 2069:Perennial; Reprint edition (September 1, 1992)
  4. Template:Note William Strauss and Neil Howe Generations: The History of America's Future, 1584 to 2069:Perennial; Reprint edition (September 1, 1992)
  5. Template:Note "Drug Survey of Students Finds Picture Very Mixed" by KATE ZERNIKE, New York Times, 12/20/05}}
  6. Template:Note Time Magazine, August 1, 2005.
  7. Template:Note The Wall Street Journal, 7/28/05.
  8. Template:Note William Strauss and Neil Howe Generations: The History of America's Future, 1584 to 2069:Perennial; Reprint edition (September 1, 1992)
  9. Template:Note After X Comes Y - echo boom generation enters workforce - Brief Article HR Magazine, April, 2001 by Julie Wallace
  10. Template:Note Brandchannel.com: Dr. Pete Markiewicz: Who's filling Gen Y's shoe's?
  11. Template:Note Millennial Manifesto: Scott Beale and Abeer Aballa-InstantPublisher (November, 2003)
  12. Template:Note CensusScope-Dominate Generations http://www.censusscope.org/us/map_generations.html
  13. Template:Note CDC report- Table 1-1. Live Births, Birth Rates, and Fertility Rates, by Race: United States,1909-2000
  14. Template:Notehttp://www.onpoint-marketing.com/generation-x.htm
  15. Template:Notehttp://www.onpoint-marketing.com/generation-y.htm
[edit]

External links

[edit]

General

[edit]

Foreign

[edit]

Generational Succession

Template:Start box Template:Succession box Template:Ref | title = Generation Y | years = (1976-1982) – (1995-2001)* Template:Ref | after = New Silent Generation
2001 – TBA** | }} Template:End box

 * NOTE: These years are estimates only based on the sources referenced above, the exact year ranges of the generations are debated, different sources state different start and end dates.
 ** NOTE: The term New Silent Generation is a placeholding name used by demographers Neil Howe and William Strauss to describe the generation born after Generation Y. It is in no way a widely accepted or official name for that generation.fr:Génération Y

ja:ジェネレーションY tr:Y jenerasyonu zh:Y世代

</ref>

Retrieved from "http://www.netipedia.com/index.php/Generation_Y"