Generation Y: Too much influence?

"Generation Y don't know what they want and we should all stop trying to figure it out, writes Bob Dumpling

I think there is a subtle distinction between Gen Y and the Boomers: Baby Boomers actually stood for stuff, had beliefs, dropped out and shook things up. No doubt there is an element of echoing in Gen Y, but more of the vacant, drafty kind than anything that actually resonates.

Many accuse Gen Y of consuming at an unparalleled rate. This would seem very unlike the Boomers in the 1960s. I don't necessarily see this as a bad thing - and you can't really blame them when they grew up in the age of John Howard's annual tax cuts and a booming economy. But unfortunately much of this extra cash is being spent on five lifestyle "pillars". They are: entertainment ($151 per week), fashion ($55), sport ($25), travel ($24) and music ($11).

Why so angry? In the past 10 years, the media, entertainment and political landscape has changed and it's all Gen Y's fault. The majority of consumer products and infotainment are marketed towards Gen Y. Media content is dictated by the 16-25 year-old demographic and it has been completely dumbed down."

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Contrary to what the author of this article implies, I don't think that all this is purely Generation Y's fault.

What he says IS probably correct: Generally speaking, Generation Y is a generation of consumers, period. Consumers with no ideals beyond entertainment, lifestyle choices, and other merely introverted whims. And society is doing everything it can to focus on them, and taking everyone along with it.

But why is this the case? Is it because Generation Y is genetically or intrinsically more whimsical and introverted than their descendants, allowing the commercial interests of society to have a field day with them? Of course not. Members of Generation Y, as relatively young people in the world, have unprecedented levels of disposable income to spend, as opposed to their parents and certainly their grandparents. They have the consumer 'power' and with this the fire of desire, and the wolves smell blood, so to speak.

Society is so concerned with Generation Y because society is comprised mostly of commercial interests. Indeed, commercial interests have their place in society, but when the primary goal, spoken or unspoken, of a society is commercialism and materialism as it is with Australia in the modern world, society is going to abandon itself completely to the money making opportunities: the whims of Gen Y, currently.

Because we all live in society we will all experience the negative effects, or 'externalities', of a commercial society who's highest priorities are naturally the whims of merely one section of the population: our youngest and least experienced and least wisdom-endowed adults. The Author already listed some of these externalities: the dumbing down of media and politics, and the Schizophrenic focus of retailers and information outlets on the newest transient mindsets.

Generally speaking, the commercial nature of Globalisation is encouraging each society around the world, including our own, to abandon itself to the shifting introverted desires of the newest whimsical generation of spenders, what ever the nature of these desires may be. What a noble epoch for the history books!