Gen Y Generalized

I just posted a statement on twitter that I decided I had enough energy about to turn it into a full blown blog post.

Let’s back up and tell you where this mini-rant is coming from. I am currently sitting at the New Marketing Summit and I just heard Timothy Young speak about Collective Creativity & Gen Y. When I first read the write up about what Timothy would be speaking about my initial reaction was “here we go let’s put Gen Y in a box and tell those of us at this conference how to market to them (me)”. As Young was speaking I realized that since he was indeed one of “us” his generalizations weren’t too far off. I am a bit of a hypocrite when it comes to this. It doesn’t bother me as much when a Gen Yer tries to generalize us.

So here’s my generalization don’t put Gen Yers in a box, don’t try to generalize us, it’s our uniqueness that is our box. We are a generation about being who we are and if you try to label or categorize us it won’t work. To test my theory I made a list of 9 of my close girlfriends and myself to have a list of 10 Gen Y – twenty something females.

Here’s what I know about just 10 Gen Y women:

  • 3 are married, 2 are in committed relationships, 5 are single (2 of which were engaged in the past but did not get married)
  • 2 are parents – 1 of which is married and the other is a single mother, and another of the group is currently trying to get pregnant
  • 3 of us are bloggers
  • 1 of us (me) is on Twitter
  • 2 are vegetarians, 2 others have been vegetarians in the past
  • 3 are sports fans
  • Professionally: 1 entrepreneur, 1 student, 2 teachers, 1 stay at home mom, 5 work full time for a company
  • 3 are blondes, 7 are brunettes
  • 5 of us are artist/creative types
  • 6 of us have unlimited text messaging plans
  • 8 of us are on facebook
  • Education: 1 with a masters, 1 with a bachelors currently working on a masters, 6 with bachelors degrees, 1 currently working on bachelors, 1 with no college degree
  • 3 currently in debt

I could go on for days and while I was coming up with this list I was trying to think of things that I could say that would generalize all 10 of us. And what I came up with is we are all 20-something women. I’m going to send this to all 9 of the other women to see if they can come up with another commonality but I’d venture to say my group of friends is a pretty great example about why Gen Yers should not be generalized.

So here’s my 2 cents for those of you trying to market to us – let us know your company’s uniqueness. Yes Gen Y is a collective group of people but we are all individuals and some of us like to feel like we aren’t just one of the masses and therefore feel more comfortable working with companies who recognize that about us.

So Gen Yers – does it both you when your read/hear generalizations about Gen Y? Do you have any generalizations that ring true for you as a Gen Yer?

18 thoughts on “Gen Y Generalized”

  1. YES. I hate the generalizations.

    But I think many are true, unfortunately.

    I’m surprised that only 3 out of 10 have debt! I’d say that’s a huge part of most Gen Y’ers lives – school debt and/or credit card debt. It’s insane.

  2. I think it is a bigger problem with marketing/communications in general. We boil everything down into demographics. I mean – even look at the election! Polls are constantly breaking stuff down by age, race, or even political party. Who cares? There are individuals in there! Let’s hear what the have to say!

    The bigwigs care because numbers are “hard facts” and easier for measurement purposes, probably.

    But luckily there are fabulous things like Twitter (@EmmaJoan here, just followed you :)) that are breaking demographics down into individual conversations. I think the Web in general is making that happen and it’s a slow but sure transition, if only would could stop generalizing when we talk about the transition….

  3. I am one of the 10 that my dear friend speaks of and with that I said, I think that all 10 of us are health conscience, actively green, ADULTS, who have amazing brains that are able to accomplish anything we set our minds to.

    Although, only some of us are creative, I would dare to say all 10 of us are creative in our own sense. 2 paint, I know at least 2 sing and I am sure there are slew of other things we do, maybe even some we do that we don’t know we do :)

    The worst thing about being generalized, in my opinion, is the fact that people tend to lump you together with a crowd that is irresponisble.

    As a whole, Gen Yers are not irresponsible. Sometimes we may get a little complacent but we are not lazy or irresponsible. We are unique individuals who have different goals and different perspectives on life.

    We may be a little harder to do a reseach study for, but overall most of us are conscience, hard working, loving people, who wouldn’t trade their Gen Y status in for anything. Not even all the “big wigs,” as Emma said so wonderfully, that try to put us into a box and tell us to sit!

  4. It doesn’t bother me when it’s constructive – a lot about what I read about Gen Y is in relation to the workplace and outlooks on life and family that I find hugely interesting….but as far as the marketing aspect goes I think it is hard to put us in one box and market to that, though I’m sure that won’t slow anyone down.

  5. @andrea actually I have to disagree I do know that not all 10 of the group are health conscious – the majority yes but a few (not going to name names) are not. And definitely not all 10 are “green”.

    I love the better not put us in a box and tell us to sit comment!

  7. Are there some other things that are true of all 10 of you that you didn’t even consider _because_ they are so common in your mind?

    Do you all have cell phones? (Do you even bother with a landline at all?)
    Do you all have email addresses? Multiple email addresses?

  8. I guess my question is: “what products do you use?” At the end of the day marketing is about pushing a product. If you see commonalities in product usage/brands then marketers have been successful in playing up the same generalizations you dont like. If anything, some marketers have gone so far as to use “uniqueness” to sell a product to a “diverse” group. Like when Apple asks “which ipod are you?” It’s still an ipod. And it’s still from Apple.

  9. @Allison: That is a great comment. Marketers sell products. And even if we are all unique- marketers put you in a box (temporarily, anyway) to find a way to sell to you.

    Coincidentally, the box that marketers will put you in will be a box that you either want to be in, think you are in, or are in. Even if it is just “the cool kids” box.

  10. i’m one of the ten and i can honestly say that i’ve never really paid attention to anyone trying to put me in a box… perhaps i’m oblivious or maybe i just don’t care. i’m not sure that any of what i like or value is directly related to my gen-y-ness – i’m just me and i know what i like. i know what my values are and i try to live my life in line with them. maybe that’s what defines our generation.

  11. I am one of the ten. I’ve noticed that it’s really just my career that I get labeled as a 20-something-no-experience-immature to life and experiences-needs help for everything- brat. But hey that’s just my interpretation of how older teachers talk to me sometimes. Other than that I don’t perceive much generalizations. Then again, I also know I tend to get defensive immediately after I get told I look SO YOUNG.

    In my humble opinion: I feel as though the Gen Y generation can be generalized for not caring what others think, overcoming obstacles, and stepping on unwalked paths. I feel we all express ourselves in whatever way we feel, no matter what area we’re talking about. There are always the people with the “disease to please”but I feel as a whole we don’t care what the older or younger generations think of us.

    One last thing: Obviously stereotypes exist for a reason; sad but true. Ah, so is life.:oP

  12. I think part of the reason you feel indignant about being generalized is that the ones you listed are more ‘things’ instead of values. Yes, you can’t generalize about if someone is a vegetarian, hair color, or married just because they are part of Gen Y.

    What you can generalize is about values, not specific things. For example, Gen Y follows the Just In Time model of learning. Instead of working in procurement for 10 years before knowing how to write a contract, we learn via the internet and talking with experts in the field. Instead of planning things way in advance, we coordinate in real time. Instead of synchronous communication, where everyone must be available at the exact same time (meetings, phone calls) we do much more asynchronous communication, where you can look at things when you want to, like text messaging, posting on forums, and twitter.

    Looking for similarities in ourselves is very important. We need to know how to communicate to other Generations our needs and wants. It’s not a surprise that many Gen Ys are disillusioned in the workplace, and the only way to help ourselves is to start communicating our generational differences to “The Man”.

    Bruce
    http://www.20somethingsuccess.com

  13. I know what you mean – as someone who’s worked on and off in the youth media sector, people who overidentify or overgeneralise the “Gen Y” label, to put a fine point on it, give me the shits.

    Your comments in this post reminded me of a couple of articles I published on this a few years ago:

    http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=3970

    http://www.smh.com.au/news/Opinion/The-yoofs-are-so-over-talking-about-themselves/2005/04/07/1112815671352.html

  14. Hi Elysa!

    I found your post about Gen Y Generalizations was very interesting. Its just interesting to learn about people and what they are up to in their twenties… what their career goals are, what their family situation is like, and how that effects what they are able to do in life. Here’s what I am doing as a twenty something… a jumble of things! I just got married this past summer, so I am doing three jobs right now, which sounds like I would be going crazy, but it is actually working out to be a part-time schedule, which is great for this transitional period of getting to know my husband. I nanny in the mornings and work for a College Ministry, so I spend my afternoons usually with students on campus or doing things like laundry/cooking. I also have my teaching license so I occasionally substitute teach.

    You touched on something that I totally agree with you on: We are a generation who does not want to be labeled, but be authentic and real. I think we are a generation that is really searching for what is true… and sometimes labels and generalizations are true… but twenty somethings works as an overall generalization… nice post! I enjoy reading your writing!!

    Katie

  15. true…. they do generalize about us, but I totally generalize about age groups as well. You can’t be too mad if you have a cognitive structure about old people. I’ll admit it- I do.

  16. Wow–this all sounds familiar.
    My generation was equally pigeon-holed.
    http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,986623,00.html
    http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E0DE7D61F39F935A35755C0A960958260&scp=2&sq=%22generation+x%22&st=nyt
    http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=990CE1D6173EF936A1575AC0A963958260&scp=5&sq=%22generation+x%22&st=nyt
    http://www.newsweek.com/id/117020
    ETC, ETC

    Here’s the skinny, IMHO–be yourself. No matter if you’re 20something or 80something, you can always “step on unwalked paths.”

    That is unless, of course, you’d prefer to keep your “Gen Y status”. MOOOO!

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