Lately, I’ve come across a lot of articles that attempt to teach Generation Y how to behave. There are tips about almost everything. From interviews, to jobs, to cyber space etiquette, there are all sorts of “do’s” and “Don’ts.” This is especially true regarding online social networks, where a whole bundle of rules apply.
On Orkut (a popular social network in Brazil), certain groups like “I hate Mondays” or I hate my boss” are enough to prevent a candidate from getting a job.
But why does Generation Y expose themselves so much? Why do they get so naked? Do they not know how to behave like businessmen and businesswomen? Do they not care about their privacy?
I feel that Generation Y has a completely different conception of privacy, compared to the Baby Boomers (those born post WWII).
Growing up, Baby Boomers avoided any sort of personal exhibitionism. We didn’t want to be the center of gossip or victims of prejudice.
Our values were controlled by family, religion (whichever one it was), by school, by the larger community, and even by the friends of our parents and grandparents!
This has changed primarily because young people have lost touch with the adult figures, who were once responsible for monitoring them.
The meaning and feeling of belonging has changed, and continues to change. As divorces surged, families fell apart. New families surfaced. These families had half brothers and sisters, step cousins, and Step Mothers and Fathers.
Everything became “half” of something else, or a “step” from somewhere else. It’s interesting that today, with such a broad definition of family, there is no word, which names the new husband of a mother. I believe that language is a live organism, and that neologisms reflect our society. However, if this true, than why isn’t there a neologism for the new wife of my father or the new husband of my mother?
I also think that the permissive, “laissez faire,” manner in which Baby Boomers raised their kids, as rebellion to their own upbringing, didn’t help in creating a strong super ego, which allows youth to set his own limits.
The fast and hyperactive rhythm, with which the world currently moves, doesn’t make it easy for parents to keep up with their kids. Similarly they have trouble keeping up with technology, and new professional opportunities in the job market. For the most part, this hasn’t made parents good “mentors” in young people’s eyes.
Baby boomers feel social pressure to stay young. The intense velocity of daily life only enforces this. To stay young, generation Y’s parents workout. They use all sorts of expensive creams, dye their hair (there are no more old grannies with white hair!), and they get liposuction. They invest in health and beauty with their time and money. Therefore, they have even less time for their kids, as their own parents had for them.
As a consequence, today’s youth turn to their friends and peers to learn. We are living in the era of Wiki and information sharing. This is how today’s youth look for the answers they can’t find in school, religion, or in their own household. All this freedom makes youth feel very powerful.
In my last post, I discussed how baby boomers constantly praised their children. This was different from our own upbringing. This constant praise explains why Generation Y has a higher Self Esteem.
The truth is that generation Y lives with the illusion that anything is possible. You can expose yourself, you can give your opinion, you can influence important family decisions, you can have taped sex with random, unknown, partners.
Customs have changed for today’s youth. Yet, it’s not that today’s youth don’t respect their elders. They just have a different idea about what respect means. It means one thing to us, and another thing to them.
So, having an Orkut picture, with your tongue sticking out, or joining the Orkut group “I hate my boss,” or getting piercing or tattoos, is all very normal. It doesn’t have consequences.
Youth has become more open. I don’t recognize my adolescence in theirs. My adolescence was characterized by gossip and not being able to date very many boys. And this is all very different.
Yet businesses don’t accept these new customs. I don’t think that we can survive in such a competitive business world without a minimal amount of hierarchal structure and authority. Businesses need to understand youth, but they still need to be competitive in their industries.
Like I said in the last post, we need to “take off our shoes” and go barefoot, to understand other generations.
Businesses need to survive. We do need some sort of order and hierarchy. We need planning and accountability to survive. Yet, we also need the youth. We need to understand them. So, I invite the different generations to sit down and dialogue with each other. And as I’ve said many times before, this will only happen if we allow ourselves to relax a bit and just take off our shoes!
I’ve recently been considering the questions about why my generation (I’m 23) is so much more willing to put itself on display than previous generations. I think that this apparent exhibitionism is partly a result of the pervasive availability of information on almost anything – whether it’s the name of the actor who voices some cartoon character we remember from days past, the weather in another city, or Descartes’ birthday – we can find it in just a few seconds. To me, it feels like a natural extension of that accessibility to be able to find out in a similar manner what your friends are doing, what they’re reading, or how they’re feeling. Once I find myself looking at what my friends are sharing, I want to share, too.