Boomers could choose from a few dozen magazines on news-
stands and subscribe to a few hundred more; generation Y can
access thousands of magazines, fanzines, article archives, and
websites. Boomers may have built the popular recording indus-
try, but gen Y is completely rewriting the way the music business
is done (Grimm, 2003). Gen Ys are media savvy, market wise,
brand saturated, wired, sped up, and scheduled.
But what does it mean? While many in our society complain
that we either get our information from traditional sources or
we risk being overwhelmed by the media version of junk food,
the sociological reality is that Gen Ys are far more savvy and
active consumers, and equally active producers of media, on
blogs and in interactive games. Young people are media multi-
tasking in a media ecosystem in which they develop and main-
tain friendship networks and communicate, receive, and send
information, culture, and products. Young people are not intim-
idated by these new media, and they don’t choose between “real”
news and entertainment media.
Raised in traditional or single-parent or dual-earner households,
generation Y is far more financially savvy. The boomers may have had
allowances and part-time jobs, but generation Y is involved with many
aspects of the household finance. One of nine contemporary high school
students has a credit card (and credit card debt) (Harris, 2004; Stewart,
2004). Most are already thinking about home ownership, already think-
ing about balancing work and family (Harris, 2005).
In some parts of the globe, intergenerational conflict occurs as gen-
eration Y rejects traditional ways of life (United Nations, 2005). In Rus-
sia and Eastern Europe, generation Y is the first generation to grow up
without memories of communism. In newly affluent countries like Greece
and South Korea, they are the first generation to grow up expecting the
same degree of affluence that Western Europe and America enjoys, while
their parents and grandparents experienced conditions more representa-
tive of the Third World. What this means is that the concerns and conflicts of their
parents’ generation are largely irrelevant to many gen-Yers, who may feel that they
are being asked to fight their parents’ battles.Global Youth—A Dying Breed
While the United States keeps naming new stages into an ever-expanding process
of growing up and continues to be obsessed with images and ideas of youth, young
people in most of the world are a declining breed. In many rich countries, and espe-
cially in Southern and Eastern Europe and Japan, the 1980s and 1990s were peri-
ods of falling birthrates. Demographers predict that the percentage of youth
worldwide will continue to decline steadily; while the absolute numbers will remain
stable, their proportion in the global population will decline by 20 percent as older
people live longer and bring up the mean age of the country (Figure 11.6) (U.S. Cen-
sus Bureau, 2006).
People are living longer and having fewer children, both of which bring the aver-
age age up. In 2002, the percentage of the world’s population that was teenaged or
young adult (aged 15 to 29) ranged from a high of 35 percent in Uganda to a low of
14 percent in Monaco, with an average of about 26 percent (Figure 11.7). During the
next 50 years, the percentage is expected to decline steadily due to low birthrates and370 CHAPTER 11AGE: FROM YOUNG TO OLDJGeneration Y, and beyond,
is far more media saturated
and media savvy than any
generation in history.
Around the world, the Internet is the
province of the young. In Australia, for
example, young people between the ages of
18 and 24 are five times more likely to be
Internet users than are those over 55.
In Chile, 74 percent of users are under- In China, 84 percent of users are under
- Many other countries follow the same
pattern (Gigli, 2004; United Nations, 2005).
Didyouknow
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