I don’t know about any of my other fellow Gen Y’ers, but I am getting sick and tired of the constant ‘Gen Y bashing’ that goes on. On Monday night when the entire panel of Q&A was made up of only members of Generation Y, I watched with anticipation. I couldn’t have been more disappointed. As a member of the so-called Gen Y population (let’s not even get started on whether or not we can put thousands of people in to the one box and give it a label), I was eager for my fellow peers to prove those Gen Y bashers wrong.
But as it turns out their views and opinions about the world were as uninspiring and uninformed as Q&A’s usual selections of opinionators. The only panellist who had anything interesting or original to say was Josh Thomas. He seemed to at least have his own opinions, rather than re-iterated political rhetoric and populist answers.
I would like to give my own opinion on Gen Y, particularly on the most common accusation we’re branded with; political apathy.
It may surprise you know that young people are actually a minority in this country. A friend who works for NSW government recently told me about an initiative called the ‘Young Professionals Network’, which targets people under 35 years old, as they make up less than 20% of her workplace. It was put in to place because of the conundrum that is about to present itself in 3-5 years time when 40 per cent of the work force goes into retirement. It is also important to note that the time my friend puts into this initiative is completely voluntary. How is that for apathy? What I want to know is if I actually be able to find job in 5 years time, rather than spending my time writing blogs in an effort to ‘put myself out there’?
But the point is young people are a minority in the workforce. Just ask yourself, how many young people do you work with? On Sunrise this morning a Generation Y researcher said we account for 18% of the population. She also said that Gen Y is officially considered to be people who were born from 1980 to 1994. Following these statistics, that means those born on the tail end of Gen Y, in 1994 are currently only about 16 years old, and do not have the right to vote. Therefore the percentage of Gen Y that are actually of voting age is even less than 18%.
Those of us who have the right to vote would probably only have started voting in the last few years on average, which means that we have probably only started being politically aware in the last few years also. I, myself have probably only voted in about four federal elections over ten years, which is not many compared to the 20 or so that my parents would have voted in. How can we possibly be as politically savvy they are when they have so many more elections under their belts?
I first became interested in politics at around 15 or 16, and I distinctly remember the frustration of having strong political views and opinions, yet not being able to contribute. I desperately wanted the chance to vote in the referendum over whether or not Australia should become a republic, but I was only 17 at the time and in the eyes of the law my opinion didn’t matter. So I particularly resent the accusation of political apathy. How can you expect young people to be interested politics, when up until recently they haven’t had a say in the matter?
In doing a little research for this blog I found an article entitled ‘FORGET Gen Y, Call them, Generation Why Bother Voting’, published online by the Herald Sun, 13th April 2010. What an original title! The article claimed that Australians under the age of 30 are more likely to recognise Robert Pattinson from Twilight than they are Australian politicians. And so what? In the 1960s I bet that baby boomers were more likely recognise Paul, John, George and Ringo than our Australian politicians (or Jesus for that matter…). And so what? To think that such a base and superficial observation was published by a supposedly a legitimate newspaper? I guess you can’t believe everything you read on the internet…I wonder if it was a baby boomer or someone from Generation X who wrote it?
So why does the older generation expect so much more political awareness from us? Is it because as Tony Jones said on Q&A, ‘…I was involved in a generation that went out in the streets, turned cars over during the Vietnam War…’. What he and many Gen Y bashers seem to forget is that when they were young, they were a majority. That’s why, after all, they were called the ‘Baby Boomers’. I’m sure the strategy of marching in the streets and turning over cars would be quite effective if the majority of the population were doing it. But how can we possibly match that at our 18%?
My dad (a baby boomer) recently told me that when he was young in the 1960s his parents would complain about the youth protesting against the Vietnam War. In their opinion young people should just do what the government tell them to do. I can just imagine all the old people saying, ‘Those lazy, good-for-nothing baby boomers should get off the streets and go to war just like we did!’
What I want to know is why do the older generations hate us so much? I find it incredible that as the younger generation (we haven’t given the next one a label yet), we are looked upon with so much blame and resentment. How can so many of modern society’s flaws be our fault? Who invented the internet that we are all supposedly addicted to? Who are the ones producing the reality TV shows that supposedly feed our fame-obsessed generation? Who are the ones making the decisions now that will ultimately decide our future?
Josh Thomas summed it up pretty well when he said that ‘I think that's something that old people say because they don't like us because we're going to live longer than them’.
