If you follow generation Z news closely, you might have noticed a sudden increase in headlines that projects Generation Z as being more “socially conservative” than older generations. The finding, which claims that Generation Z are less open to same-sex marriage, gender fluidity and body...
I have been busy with SXSW lately and taken a pretty long break from writing. Unlike so many in the professional and personal blogosphere I'm too overwhelmed with sessions, pitches and expos at SXSW that I can't really find "the thing" that broke out or defined the...
There is much chatter these days about the next generation of workers and whether they are technologically better equipped to face the changing job market. Many seem to think that by growing up with touch-screens, Siri and social media, the iGeneration will have a leg up in the...
[caption id="attachment_2927" align="alignleft" width="240"] Image: Flickr/cc, Lotte Ch[/caption] They play iPad games during potty training. They learn computer coding before they can read. Their mothers’ smartphones become their first object of jealousy. Their sonograms are shared with the world before they see the light of day....
Did you know parents' internet behaviors have gone through an evolution over the last 10 years? With Web 2.0 parents have become far more willing to share sensitive and potentially life-changing content about their children. But are all types of sharing so bad in an age...
[caption id="attachment_2375" align="alignleft" width="320"] Did family sitcoms change from this...
"Hey guys. I just wanted to ask - just a random question. Uhmm. Am I - like - ugly or pretty?"
- You don't have to dig deep into online archives to find a whole pageantry of kids as young as 10 years old unloading their most personal angst for complete strangers to comment on. And the more insecure they appear, the more likely they seem to attract trolls whose dubious netiquette allows them to filter through comments of this type: "DONT WANT TO SOUND MEAN BUT URE A F***ING DOG." (censoring added). In other words, the ones who most desperately need reassurance from their faceless peers are the ones who are the most likely get bulldozed by the 'Haters'. And rarely do any respondents care to unmask the more existential questions that simmer immediately underneath the Snow White narrative: “Am I likeable? Am I loveable?”
Haul videos is the latest craze in You Tube videos. It's pretty much the internet equivalent of girls chatting about their latest shopping loot.
I decided to write a post on haul videos for three reasons. For one thing they signal the confluence of various trends that interest me as a futurist, which I will dwell on in this post. Secondly, when I don't write I work with user generated content for Bazaarvoice, so I see the enormity of consumer reviews on a daily basis. Thirdly, I have a preeteen daughter and have seen the pull these girl created instructional videos have on her and her friends. Personally I think these You Tube hits look incredibly boring and don't quite see the allure, but in a world saturated with advertisement and questionable forms of consumer seduction, I see this as the equivalent of the trusted older cousin coming back to show her finds after a shopping spree. Very innocuous in other words.
Millennials are more stressed than other generations. All generations worry more now than in the past when the economy looked more promising, but young adults feel the blues the most. With current unemployment and underemployment rates, soaring student loans and generally bleak opportunities, it is hardly surprising that young adulthood in the 2010s is stressful. The reality today is in stark contrast to MTV’s happiness study from half a decade earlier, which found the corresponding age group to be far more optimistic back then than they appear to be today.
It’s not cool to have your dreams messed up before you even got a shot at them. But from my generation X perspective I am somewhat surprised that millennials are walking off with the "stress award". A fact less known than the oft-cited injustices experienced by millennials these days is that generation X was the hardest hit by the recession and it's aftermath. Think being underemployed and underpaid is hard in your 20s? Try that in your 40s! All while warding off house foreclosures and figuring out how to fund your children's orthodontic treatment and skyrocketing educational expenses.
So while millennials worry about not getting around to live the American Dream, gen-X got to live it for a while - until they lost it all to the bank. But somehow they just trudge along, often too exhausted to notice or say anything. Maybe it's the nihilist in us. The self-loathing cynic. Or maybe there are simply too few of us to get much press.
