Vicky Biccy's Blog

Generation 'Y'

I’ve been reading lately about Generation ‘Y’. There’s a whole host of research and articles about those born anytime between 1975 and 2000. The marketing industry is keen to find out the best way to appeal to our desires and make us spend money. And there’s a huge amount of interest in the ways we use social networking, why we use (or don’t use) facebook or twitter, what we are looking for, how we act, who we talk to, what we get up too…

It makes me feel a little bit like I’m in a zoo. Although I’m interested in social behaviour, I find it strange that we can label millions of people and say: ‘they want this, they hate this, they behave like this’. Whatever happened to individuality? Of course it’s true that a group of people growing up in Britain at the same time will have a lot in common. But words like ‘lazy’, ‘narcissistic’ and ‘demanding’ seem more than a little unfair when applied to a whole sweep of individuals.

It worries me that older people might look at me and just see a label. So how can I counteract it? I know I’m an individual, but how do I show it without looking like I’m trying to prove myself innocent? One way is simply to communicate. I can give people clues about what interests me, what bothers me, my attitude towards certain issues, etc. Most of all, I need to engage. I’m sure I have plenty of assumptions about my elders that aren’t strictly true. In befriending people in other generations, I get a more accurate picture of who they are. And they get to know me as a person, not just a ‘young person’. When you peel back the label, people are much more interesting.

Created on Thu 22nd October 2009 11:04