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Generation Y Life - April 2008

Generation Y facts and figures

April 25th 2008 06:40
Every few months I like to compile some information on what defines Generation Y and why certain criteria is used or discarded when putting together a definition. You see the debate of whether the generations actually exist or not rages ever on and I like to keep up with it all so I know who I'm meant to be reporting on.

Until 3 seconds ago, I maintained that Gen Y was persons born between 1976 and 1990. The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has other ideas. If you believe them, the people I should be keeping tabs on came into this world between 1982 and 2000. Don't look too closely at those numbers or you'll see that with such a discrepancy, someone’s clearly off the mark by miles.


My future employers and I however, do agree that terrorism, the environment and the internet are responsible for defining Gen Y. For a comprehensive look at what the ABS thinks Generation Y is click here.

Others however, are hell-bent on understanding my peers and I so that they can do the unthinkable- market to us. *shivers* The devil is indeed in the details. Lucifer must work long and hard to come up with ever new and creative ways to make us think there is a void in our lives that can only be filled with stuff. Look, I've found a transcript of the Devil's plans to corrupt and exploit us. Here we're likened to Gen X. We're described as growing up too soon and as being apathetic through and through. Well good luck marketing to us- I hope our lack of concern drives you to madness long before you find a way to make me feel I need to buy something in order to feel good about myself. Return to the pit from whence you came.


I think I shall leave it there for this session, you know, give you some time to digest the information and draw your own conclusions. I'm off to finish an assignment.
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In my attempt to be a 'serious' writer, i.e. there was nothing else on TV at the time, I watched me an episode of 60 Minutes last night.

The fist story, click to view, was about teen pregnancy. It talked about how, what was coming next and how were the parents-to-be fitting this into their young lives.

In all the stories featured (three) the couples were still together and those that were still of school age 4/6 were indeed still at school. They all stated to be in love with each other and that they did not want to live off welfare- they wanted to set a good example for their little bundles. When asked why they had not used protection, 2 couples had a lax attitude towards it, with one saying 'it was going to happen anyway' while another couple attributed their pregnancy to a burst condom.

It's called going Dutch people- both of you use protection.

Okay so this story prompted me to do some research in regards to teen pregnancy and I’ve found the following statistics, opinions and links.

Australia has the 6th highest rate of teen pregnancy in the developed world. (Info from 2003) Link This is credited to 45% of sexually active teens not using any contraption and about half of them falling pregnant with 6 months of beginning a sexual relation. Although the couples in the 60 Minutes feature were still together and planning to stay that way, it is more common for teen mothers to b single, smokers, and for young parents to be from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds. Furthermore, all of this is especially true for Aboriginal persons.

Information I stumbled on that's from 4 April, 2008 has some different facts and figures abut also some similar ones. This factsheet says that teen pregnancy in Australia has been dropping over the past 3 decades and that our teen pregnancy rates a lower than those of the UK, US, and New Zealand. Teens that are putting their children up for adoption are also decreasing and this is attributed to changing social views and accommodation such as the schools the couples mentioned above attend that are specially designed to cope with school aged parents. Even this article however, sates that teen pregnancies are charecterised by the fathers' absence, socioeconomic disadvantages, domestic violence and being of indigenous heritage.

So it seems that teen pregnancy is well and truly happening. We as a society are coming to accept it more and working to integrate the whole thing into everyday life complete with support and services. Still, teen pregnancy remains a product mainly of unfavorable conditions that need to be addressed. But we're working on it.
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The internet makes us violent?

April 10th 2008 01:27
So apparently girls are now fighting like boys and it's the media's fault. I'm not going to turn this into a rant about sexism but God knows I'd like to. I'm here to put forth the case that what we watch is to blame for a rise in teen girl violence. Seriously, Google it- I did.

There’s this perfectly plausible reason floating around too, it goes something like

"Women in television are now allowed to be law enforcement agents, spies - like in ‘Alias’ - and other roles previously left to men."

If you want to read the 'article' that came from click this.

Women are now 'allowed'? It's not a privilege fool, the 2 waves of feminism were before our time, we were born into a world were equal rights are a damn expectation. And if it's TV that makes females violent, what does it for men? Book reading?

Furthermore, I have an exceptionally long link to a story of a girl being assaulted so severely by 6 other girls that she had concussion and lost some of her hearing and vision of the left side. If you Google stuff like "Florida", "Victoria", "cheerleader" and "beating" you'll get a bunch more links where the victim’s parents say myspace.com and YouTube are 'the devil'. The assailants are also said to have shown to remorse and joked among each other after being arrested.

This time it's the internet’s turn to be blamed. Apparently girls in particular a filming such acts to get their 15mins of fame and it’s girls as well that are being desensitised by watching these clips.

Really? Seriously? Well why don't we all just head for the hills because at any one time around 50% of the people around us will be female and thus be desensitised to violence and under the influence of pack mentality?

So I’m guessing that you’ve picked up on the fact that I don’t like this issue being treated like it’s abnormal because it’s girls doing the fighting. I’m also under the impression that you see I don’t agree that TV, the internet etc are what’s behind it. What are your opinions?
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What lifts you up?

April 7th 2008 08:29
Seeing as I crushed your hope and made you feel like an insignificant speck on the face of the planet with my last post, I think it's only fitting that I return and build you up once more. What am I on about? I'm here to tell you about all the things that we young people marvel at and find joy in. I'm going to try to make you feel better.

Accomplishments and a sense of achievement


[ Click here to read more ]
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What gets you down?

April 6th 2008 02:50
I've got this theory that there are universal factors that affect the mood of a generation. Have I researched this theory? No, but that's beside the point- I needed a topic to post about and I picked this one so kick back and relax while I try to get this theory to pass as plausible.

Now when I say 'generation', I understand there are cultural differences and I've decided to factor these into my arguments by completely ignoring them. Is that a contradiction? Probably. I figure I'll throw an idea out there, if you can make it apply to Generation Y of a certain country, then you can take this entry to be referring to them. If you can't make it apply to a certain group of Gen Y-ers, ignore them and move on. Wouldn't I make the perfect research scientist


[ Click here to read more ]
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