Generation Y

Last month, Woodstock Festival – the event that’s come to represent Baby Boomer youth culture in our collective consciousness – turned 40.

Given the Boomers spawned the crazy consumer consumption habits that sent us crashing towards the GFC, it was only fitting for promoters to get the talent off the couch, jab them with Botox and organise the requisite merchandising and exorbitant ticket pricing. Ka-ching!

Meanwhile, the media and marketers have been celebrating ageing while concurrently exploring ways to delay its visible signs in order to appeal to the cash-cow that is the Boomers’ retirement fund (albeit one reduced by the GFC).

Continue reading "Boomers are back in fashion but kids still rule the cash" »

In a speech to Young Labor seven months ago I said that generations were often unfairly criticised by the ones which preceded them.

The young adults of Generation Y are often generalised as being plagued by apathy and indifference.

They’re sometimes called lazy and ungrateful for the many perceived advantages they have over earlier generations.

Continue reading "My speech on Gen Y was about tough love" »

When I was 19, I started mapping out my career plans. I was in my second year of university when I decided to volunteer as an unpaid intern for two full days per week at a magazine publishing house. My baby-boomer father never understood how I could do it for two years without pay (while working weekends in retail, where yes, I dealt with the worst customers imaginable and cleaned up kid vomit from the floor of my store), but I had faith in the fact that it would one day pay off.

One day was not this week, because this week, Employment Minister Mark Arbib is urging Gen Y to readjust their ideas about work and employment, stop the “snobbery” associated with certain means of work, and take whatever jobs they could get. For someone whose attitude to work has more to do with paying university fees and funding my internet bill than snobbery and a class act on the career ladder, Senator Arbib’s comments did not go down too well. And I was not the only one to notice.

Generation Y has long bore the brunt of the attention-seeking, lazy, power-hungry generation that refused to put in the hard yards for their future, something which the Senator might have capitalised on in his address to a young labor conference last week. What he failed to recognise is the fact that Generation Y has suffered long enough as a result of this stereotype, and as such, was ditching conventional forms and methods of work in favour of something that works for them.

Continue reading "Gen Y is picky? You call it snobbery, we call it tactic" »

As a member of ‘Generation Y’ I’ve come to grips with the various stereotypes and countless sledges that come our way.

Everyone loves to bag us. John Birmingham was even quoted to be “looking forward to seeing them get run over by the coming recession”.

So to any haters I have some bad news: the recession has had little negative impact on Generation Y at all.

In the immortal words of John Lennon, “Nothing’s gonna change my world”.

Continue reading "What GFC? We’re Gen Y and we’re recession-proof" »

I borrowed my first book from the University library the other day. I realise that doesn’t really seem like a big deal but for me this momentous occasion becomes interesting because I am a third year student. In the three years I’ve been at Monash, I’ve not once borrowed a book until now. In fact, the only time I visit the library is to steal free wifi and there was that one time I forgot my notebook so I had to use the free computers to check Facebook.

But the reason I haven’t borrowed a book before is not because I’m a bad student. I mean, my grades are only average but I think that might have something to do with the number of hours I spend drinking instead of studying.

Continue reading "Who the hell is Dewey? Books on life support" »