Monday, February 8, 2010

Agree or Disagree? Join the discussion #oneyoungworld

OYW: Ten Trends of 20-somethings


1. Real-time expectations

Anyone in his or her 20s living in an economically developed community has never known life without instant communication everywhere. Twenty-somethings communicate with friends on the go, in real time—no waiting for snail mail. They get the latest news as it happens, with a live feed from where it’s happening—no waiting for the scheduled news on TV or radio. Whenever they need to dig out information about virtually anything, it’s there, in abundance; there’s no need to dig around in books.

Twenty-somethings are riding the wave of real-time living. If it’s not real time, 20-somethings switch their focus to something that is.


2. Living more intense local lives

One of the great paradoxes of borderless, global real-time technology is the way it reinforces local connections.

As adept users of real-time technology, 20-somethings are able to live locally more intensely. With mobile devices they make social arrangements on the fly. With location-based services through Google and others, they can locate friends who happen to be nearby; they can also get alerts from whichever companies in the vicinity are offering interesting deals.

Facebook typifies the paradox. Now with 350 million users worldwide, it was started by 20-somethings at Harvard for local users. It grew by extending its services to other local groups (e.g. other Ivy League universities). Like many big cities, Facebook is just an amalgam of discrete localities.


3. Radically transparent

Twenty-somethings have grown up with reality TV and radical celebrity culture—media poking into every corner of people’s lives, from Hollywood A-listers right down to the lowliest got-lucky types who copped their 15 minutes of fame by accident. They’ve grown up in a culture of the highest-level confidential information “leaks,” a world where even the great and the good confess mistakes and show emotion to millions.

In their personal lives they are constantly using technologies with which they can bare all—sometimes literally—to their friends. They are more or less aware that online nothing can be considered confidential, but they go ahead anyway.

Right or wrong, this is a generation that’s on a clear trend toward being more transparent about its thoughts, feelings and actions than has any previous generation.


4. Expecting cheap or free everything

Globalization has made many essentials of life very cheap. Twenty-somethings are used to a world where value and discounted offerings are everywhere. They can fill their stomachs and clothe themselves at unbelievably low cost. Budget airline travel is normal for them. The Internet has accustomed them to getting music, software and services for free, either legally or illegally. After all, one of the biggest, most powerful brands on the planet (Google) offers a huge range of powerful services at no cost to the user.

The trend of cheap or free expectations among 20-somethings will increasingly shape business models.


5. Entertainment must be part of the deal

In some parts of the world—particularly the West—fun and entertainment have long become an essential part of education. Twenty-somethings have grown up with Sesame Street and animated, interactive, fun graphics in the classroom and in museums. Hence the notion of Edutainment.

All over the world, even in places where older, more dutiful approaches to education prevail, fun and games have become a staple activity of young people. These have been promoted by corporations and endorsed by researchers as beneficial.

In an extensive 38-country online survey of 15,844 young adults aged 23-28 fielded by SurveyShack in association with YouGovStone between July 2008 and December 2009, 59 percent of respondents said they regularly play video or computer games in their spare time; this makes gaming the second-most popular activity after socializing (61 percent).


6. Worrying about the planet

Twenty-somethings are certainly keen on play and entertainment, but there’s a more serious undertone affecting their lives. Every day they are exposed to more and more worrying reports about what’s going wrong with the planet: climate change, disappearing species, habitat destruction and water shortages have been daily fare for 20-somethings through all their adult life.

In the survey, 64 percent of respondents saw climate change affecting them seriously in their lifetime and 82 percent saw it affecting future generations seriously; 64 percent thought that only immediate radical changes can prevent the most serious impacts of climate change.

Going forward, assuming the planetary news doesn’t improve, the worrying trend of 20-somethings will become the norm.


7. Seeing luxuries as standard

Twenty-somethings now think nothing of paying significant amounts for key products and services that are actually luxuries by historical standards. Whether they’re paid for by parents or out of their own money, normal life for 20-somethings now includes:
· A mobile device of some sort (e.g. smart phone, iPod Touch) with a camera, costing well above $100, plus monthly fees
· A computer costing at least $300, with monthly broadband fees on top
· A wide-screen TV, costing at least $300, with cable and satellite fees on top
· Higher education as far as they can go—bachelor’s degree, postgraduate studies


8. Pro-business, anti-multinational

Today’s 20-somethings are far removed from the left-wing and countercultural ideologies that fired up young people in the late 1960s and early 1970s. All around the world they’ve been raised in an environment in which free markets were regarded as the solution to everything and which certainly delivered plenty of consumer goodies to make life more fun. Twenty-somethings aren’t anti-business. After all, some of their favorite brands were founded by 20-somethings. Their lives are filled with the things that business has produced.

However, they’re not so keen on multinational corporations. In the survey, two-thirds of respondents (66 percent) think global corporations have too much power, and 81 percent think global corporations must behave responsibly and ethically.

Multinational corporations have long been the object of concern for a few; now, as Generation Real-Time shares information fast, they’re becoming the concern of many young people. This time around, the young people don’t aspire to bring those big corporations down by force; instead, they aspire to out-business them.


9. Regulate the heck out of media bias

Media 2010 is a lot bigger field than it was in 2000 or 1990. Titles in traditional formats (TV, radio and print) are now available through the Internet, along with others that only exist on the Internet. Increasingly diverse media titles and news sources are available to anyone with the curiosity to click on a link. No wonder a substantial 70 percent of respondents in the survey get their news via the Internet.

The broader choice of media, plus increasing educational levels and media savvy, makes 20-somethings more aware than ever of media bias; they can compare versions of the same story and read commentary from different angles. This is probably why 70 percent of respondents think all news media should be regulated so that it’s clearly independent of state and corporate bias.

At the same time, they don’t want government to regulate social media. It’s called MySpace, after all.


10. Naturally Me but aspiring to We

Self, personal and personalized have been abiding themes throughout lives of today’s 20-somethings: self-expression, self-esteem, personal computers, personal profiles, personalized settings, personal development and personal branding—also known as A Brand Called Me. Whether the national culture is highly individualistic (e.g. United States) or more collectivist (e.g. China), technology and business have thrived by enabling people to express themselves: to be more Me.

Culturally and commercially, 20-somethings have been indulged and encouraged to be more selfish than were previous generations. Yet they are also now acutely aware that everyone pursuing selfish interests creates the planetary problems that are worrying them.

Hence the trend of 20-somethings caught between the impulse to do their own thing and the desire to do the right thing together. Or as the pithy observation has it, “Everybody wants to save the earth; nobody wants to help mom do the dishes.”

To find out more about One Young World visit
http://oneyoungworld.com/community/

These trends were analyzed by Marian Salzman
www.mariansalzman.com

Friday, October 16, 2009

LumLive TV: Shannon T. Boodram and LAID



Luminosus magazine interviews Shannon T. Boodram outside Revival where she mark the launch of her new book "LAID" (Oct 14/09). Video powered by theflip.com. Copyright 2009 Luminosus Magazine.

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Women & Girls of the World Fashion Event


Check out the Gift of Hope Fundraiser Fashion Show next month at the Distillery District in Toronto, ON. For more information visit their website at http://www.womenandgirlsoftheworld.org.

Advanced tickets can be purchased online at Eventbrite

Thursday, August 27, 2009

While We're Gone...

Hey everyone!

It's been a minute since our last post. We're wrapping up our next issue of Luminosus magazine (you're going to love it! Email us at sales@lumlive.com if you would like to advertise). Until then I wanted to leave you this little gift. Be sure to follow us on twitter and facebook for more updates.
Talk soon,
xoxo

Monday, August 3, 2009

What Do You Tag Along?



To celebrate the debut of Luminosus Magazine, we asked guests of In Between Dreams, "What do you tagalong?"Each guest received a Red Carpet gift bag topped with a Little Black Dis-tress Kit courtesy of MyTagalongs.com

So, What do you tag along?

Thursday, July 30, 2009

Flashing Lights...Jenifer Lapierre


Congratz to Jenifer Lapierre on the launch of her new online portfolio, http://jaelphotography.carbonmade.com/ . Check it out to see a sneak peak of her coverage of the Ottawa BluesFest to be featured in our next issue. You can also follow her on twitter (@Jenlap).

Saturday, July 11, 2009

Spek World Premiere at the Mississauga Independent Film Festival

For all those interested in screening Spek, here are the details...

Alex and Daegan's documentary of the talented musician Fred Spek hits the big screen!

Host: MIFF
Date: Sunday, July 12, 2009
Time: 12:00pm - 3:00pm
Location: CineStarz Theatre
Street: 377 Burnhamthorpe Road East
City: Mississauga, ON

Tickets are 8 dollars, and you can buy them online using your credit card here:

http://miff.ca/?page_id=77

OR tickets are also available at the theatre during the festival itself. The doc will be shown during "Short Program B" - which also contains 11 other short films.

Luminosus will be there, will you?