Re: The Echo Boomers

September 5, 2005

environmental1st2003 wrote:

> This is an article about what kids are becoming and how marketers are

> taking advantage of them. It also talks about who the enablers are.

Ewwww... looks like the world will need more Aspies to balance this

development out.

Lwaxy

--

" From childhood's hour I have not been

As others were; I have not seen

As others saw; I could not bring

My passions from a common spring.

From the same source I have not taken

My sorrow; I could not awaken

My heart to joy at the same tone;

And all I loved, I loved alone. "

September 5, 2005

I've personally never understood that bizarre focus on team work.

I think it is the product of a long-term plan to mainstream people from

independently thinking individuals back into little armies of consuming,

unquestioning clones - most likely initiated by people like ph Jaworsky

and his American Leadership Association who started those horrid events

where you send a bunch of executives (and later other employees) out under

Castaway conditions to force them to bond with each other in an unnatural

way. I've always thought that was manipulative in the extreme.

If I had been forced to participate in such an event, I would for sure the

one sulking in the corner, refusing to take the silly crap seriously.

Inger

The Echo Boomers

This is an article about what kids are becoming and how marketers are

taking advantage of them. It also talks about who the enablers are.

You'll find out that it speaks AGAINST team sports too.

Tom

Administrator

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/10/01/60minutes/main646890_page2.s

html

The Echo Boomers

Sept. 4, 2005

Echo Boomers

Born between 1982 and 1995, there are nearly 80 million echo boomers,

and they're already having a huge impact on entire segments of the

economy. (Photo: CBS)

" They have been heavily programmed. ...(Their) whole lives have

really been based on what some adult tells them to do. "

They already make up nearly one-third of the U.S. population, and

already spend $170 billion a year of their own and their parents'

money. (Photo: CBS)

(CBS) If you've ever wondered why corporate America, Hollywood,

Madison Avenue and the media all seem obsessed with the youth

culture, the answer is simple.

The largest generation of young people since the '60s is beginning to

come of age. They're called " echo boomers " because they're the

genetic offspring and demographic echo of their parents, the baby

boomers.

Born between 1982 and 1995, there are nearly 80 million of them, and

they're already having a huge impact on entire segments of the

economy. And as the population ages, they will be become the next

dominant generation of Americans.

The oldest are barely out of college, and the youngest are still in

grade school.

And whether you call them " echo boomers, " " Generation Y "

or " millennials, " they already make up nearly a third of the U.S.

population, and already spend $170 billion a year of their own and

their parents' money.

Almost none of it is spent on boring things like mortgages and

medication, and the world is falling all over itself trying to sell

them things.

What brands do they love? Sony, Patagonia, Gap, Gillette, Aveda.

Only a small percentage are eligible to vote, yet they are already

one of the must studied generations in history -- by sociologists,

demographers and marketing consultants like Jane Buckingham of the

Intelligence Group.

Buckingham uses focus groups to gather information for clients such

as NBC, Chanel, Nike and Levi Strauss.

Echo boomers are a reflection of the sweeping changes in American

life over the past 20 years. They are the first to grow up with

computers at home, in a 500-channel TV universe. They are multi-

taskers with cell phones, music downloads, and Instant Messaging on

the Internet. They are totally plugged- in citizens of a worldwide

community.

Nick Summers of Columbia University and Andie Gissing from Middlebury

College in Vermont are college seniors and editors of their college

newspapers. They are both in touch with the echo boomer ethos.

(Note: Since 60 Minutes first broadcast this story, these college

editors have become college graduates, and Neil Howe and colleague

Strauss have completed another study of the echo boom

generation, " Millennials and the Pop Culture, " to be published this

fall.)

" I would say that my generation tends to be very overachieving, over-

managed, " says Summers. " Very pressured. "

" I would agree with that, " adds Gissing. " A lot of people work hard

or want to do well, I guess. "

And it's no wonder they feel that way. From when they were toddlers,

they have been belted into car seats, and driven off to some form of

organized group activity. After graduating from " Gymboree " and " Mommy

and Me, " they have been shuttled to play dates and soccer practice,

with barely a day off, by parents who've felt their kids needed

structure, and a sense of mission.

Dr. Mel Levine, a professor at the University of North Carolina, is

one of the best-known pediatricians in the country. He says it's had

as much to do with shaping this generation as technology.

" They have been heavily programmed. The kids who have had soccer

Monday, Kung Fu Tuesday, religious classes Wednesday, clarinet

lessons Thursday. Whose whole lives have really been based on what

some adult tells them to do, " says Levine.

" This is a generation that has long aimed to please. They've wanted

to please their parents, their friends, their teachers, their college

admissions officers. "

It's a generation in which rules seem to have replaced rebellion,

convention is winning out over individualism, and values are very

traditional.

They are also the most diverse generation ever: 35 percent are non-

white, and the most tolerant, believing everyone should be part of

the community.

(CBS) Historian Neil Howe, along with co-author Strauss, has

made a career studying different generations. Howe says all the

research on echo boomers always reflects the same thing: They are

much different than their self-absorbed, egocentric baby boomer

parents.

" Nothing could be more anti-boom than being a good team player,

right? Fitting in. Worrying less about leadership than follower-

ship, " says Howe. " If you go into a public school today, teamwork is

stressed everywhere. Team teaching, team grading, collaborative

sports, community service, service learning, student juries. I mean,

the list goes on and on. "

Howe thinks they are more like their grandparents, the great World

War II generation -- more interested in building things up than

tearing them down.

" When you ask kids, 'What do you most hope to achieve there?' Where

they used to say, 'I wanna be No. 1. I wanna be the best,'

increasingly they're saying, 'I wanna be an effective member of the

team. I wanna do everything that's required of me,' " says Howe.

And you can already see some results. Violent crime among teenagers

is down 60 to 70 percent. The use of tobacco and alcohol are at all-

time lows. So is teen pregnancy. Five out of 10 echo boomers say they

trust the government, and virtually all of them trust mom and dad.

Through sheer numbers, they're beginning to change society. They have

affected school construction, college enrollments, product

development, and media content. And according to Buckingham, they are

changing the way things are sold, from clothing to cars, because mass

marketing doesn't always reach them.

" They're not watching the traditional networks as much because they

have so many choices. They're playing on the Internet. They're

playing videogames, " says Buckingham. " They're out and about,

shopping a lot. So, the traditional 30-second commercial isn't always

working the way it was. "

They are the most sophisticated generation ever when it comes to

media. They create their own Web sites, make their own CDs and DVDs,

and are cynical of packaged messages. They take their cues from each

other. A well-placed product on one of their pop idols, like Paris

Hilton or Ashton Kutcher, can launch a brand of $40 T-shirts and

trucker hats. But they also shop at vintage clothing shops.

Buckingham employs the services of some 1,500 young people scattered

around the country, and relies on their regular reports on what's hot

and what's not to keep her and her clients ahead of the latest

trends.

" One of the things with this generation is word of mouth. Buzz is

more important today than it's ever been, " says Buckingham. " And that

can get started on the Internet. That can get started just through

friends. And it's very hard for a marketer to tap into that unless

it's really a product that they like. "

Toyota is already betting hundreds of millions of dollars to try to

create that buzz, in launching a car division aimed exclusively at

echo boomers.

" They've affected clothing. They've affected beverage. And now,

they're just about to affect the car business, " says Jim Farley, head

of Toyota's Scion division.

Toyota is quietly peddling its new $15,000 cars, with air

conditioning and power windows, by sponsoring events like street

basketball/break dance festivals, where they always have cars on hand

for people to look at and sometimes even test drive.

" People kind of just stumble on our product, and it's cool that way, "

says Farley. That's what the company wants. " This is like regular car

companies are on TV. This is our regular activity. This is how we

expose our cars to young people. "

Seventy percent of Scion's promotion is being spent on those events.

Only 30 percent is spent on traditional advertising, and much of that

is on the Internet, where echo boomers can fill out a Scion order

form, customize their car with 40 different options, and drop off the

form at the dealership without ever hearing a sales pitch.

It's early yet, but Farley says Scion is meeting its sales

projections: " I think how we've looked at it is that we can't afford

not to do this. "

Echo boomers have their own television network, the WB, and their own

stores, with multimedia presentations and disc jockeys to lure them

in the door. It's a generation used to being catered to.

" They are more protected, " says Howe. " They regard themselves as

collectively special, because of the time in which they were raised. "

Why do they consider themselves special?

" Because they came along at a time when we started re-valuing kids.

During the '60s and '70s, the frontier of reproductive medicine was

contraception, " says Howe. " During the '80s and beyond, it's been

fertility and scouring the world to find orphan kids that we can

adopt. ...The culture looked down on kids. Now it wants kids; it

celebrates them. "

Echo boomers are the most watched-over generation in history. Most

have never ridden a bike without a helmet, ridden in a car without a

seat belt, or eaten in a cafeteria that serves peanut butter.

" Sometimes, they don't know what to do if they're just left outside

and you say, 'Well, just do something by yourself for a while,' " says

Howe. " They'll look around stunned. You know, 'What are we supposed

to do now?' "

They're hovered over by what college administrators call " helicopter

parents. " Protected and polished, they are trophy children in every

sense of the word.

" Everyone is above average in our generation, " says Summers.

" Everybody gets a trophy at the end of the year. It's something

you're used to, " adds Gissing. " And you have the rows of trophies

lined up on your windowsill, or whatever. "

" Parents feel as if they're holding onto a piece of Baccarat crystal

or something that could somehow shatter at any point, " says

Levine. " And so parents really have a sense their kids are fragile.

And parents therefore are protecting them, inflating their egos.

Massaging them, fighting their battles for them. "

Levine, who is considered one of the foremost authorities in the

country on how children learn, is now researching a book on young

people entering their 20s. He is concerned that groupthink is

stifling initiative. And because they have always been rewarded for

participation, not achievement, they don't have a strong sense what

they are good at and what they're not.

For instance, when a young person shows up for work at his or her

first job, what do they expect and what are they finding?

" They expect to be immediate heroes and heroines. They expect a lot

of feedback on a daily basis. They expect grade inflation, they

expect to be told what a wonderful job they're doing, " says Levine.

" [They expect] that they're gonna be allowed to rise to the top

quickly. That they're gonna get all the credit they need for

everything they do. And boy, are they naive. Totally naive, in terms

of what's really gonna happen. "

Levine says that is not the only part of their cultural conditioning

that's going to require an adjustment in the workplace.

" I talked to the CEO of a major corporation recently and I

said, 'What characterizes your youngest employees nowadays?' " says

Levine. " And he said, 'There's one major thing.' He said, 'They can't

think long-range. Everything has to be immediate, like a video game.

And they have a lot of trouble sort of doing things in a stepwise

fashion, delaying gratification. Really reflecting as they go along.'

I think that's new. "

Levine calls the phenomenon visual motor ecstasy, where any cultural

accoutrement that doesn't produce instant satisfaction is boring. As

echo boomers grow up, they'll have to learn that life is not just a

series of headlines and highlight reels.

But this may be something that, for now, echo boomers can deal with.

" What would you call your generation? " Buckingham asked , one of

her focus group participants.

" Perfect, " he says, laughing.

FAM Secret Society is a community based on respect, friendship, support and

acceptance. Everyone is valued.

Don't forget, there are links to other FAM sites on the Links page in the

folder marked " Other FAM Sites. "

September 5, 2005

Even a team needs a leader. Japan has been doing this kind of ting for a long time and the problem they are having is that no one in the groups wants to lead: they all just want to be followers. Without leaders and those willing to forge ahead, we are going to be in trouble.

September 5, 2005

Even a team needs a leader. Japan has been doing this kind of ting for a long time and the problem they are having is that no one in the groups wants to lead: they all just want to be followers. Without leaders and those willing to forge ahead, we are going to be in trouble.

September 5, 2005

,

An ethos apparent in Oriental societies like Japan is respect based upon age and social consensus. This does through up problems occasionaly which are then resolved by resort to authouritarianism which is actually respected in societies in the East.

In individualistic based groups in the West however other mechanisms come into play

EvanVISIGOTH@... wrote:

Even a team needs a leader. Japan has been doing this kind of ting for a long time and the problem they are having is that no one in the groups wants to lead: they all just want to be followers. Without leaders and those willing to forge ahead, we are going to be in trouble.

Click here to donate to the Hurricane Katrina relief effort.

September 6, 2005

Hi,

parts of this story ring true - but other parts do not. I am

wondering how much is construct and how much is truth?

For instance - yes the generation to which the below is referring has

been mollycuddled too much - but not all have.

Yes school is now set up in such a way that it is all participation,

teamwork, groupwork etc - supposedly no-one feeling left out - okay

if you are good with social situations, not so good if you are on the

spectrum. One of the reasons I suspect that autism is being diagnosed

more now is because of how the school system is set up. When I was at

school we had seperate desks and pretty much left to get on with work

without all the forced participation cr*p.

Also the culture cultivated now - is that no-one is meant to be left

out - but not all can be winners. I believe it is important to know

where ones strengths and weaknesses are - otherwise how can one

improve? but if no-one is going to tell you the areas you need to

work on - e.g what you are bad at becuase it may damage your ego -

obviously you're going to be in for a shock when you get out into the

real world. All the nice illusions and constructs are going to be

shattered, best deal with reality and tell it how it is from a

younger age - what is the point in trying to pretend the world is

something that it is not?

Also if you are good at something and excelling in it - does the

system now not dare tell you so for fear of offending another?

" They already make up nearly one-third of the U.S. population, and

already spend $170 billion a year of their own and their parents'

money. "

Obviously the parents have quite a bit to answer for - they are

feeding this construct (helping create and perpetuate(sp?) it) - when

I believe it would be better to help a child develop independence and

stand on their own feet - and yes this can be done with love - but

constantly pandering to their whims isn't going to create a person

that can think and act effectively for theirselves.

" Echo boomers are a reflection of the sweeping changes in American

life over the past 20 years. They are the first to grow up with

computers at home, in a 500-channel TV universe. They are multi-

taskers with cell phones, music downloads, and Instant Messaging on

the Internet. They are totally plugged- in citizens of a worldwide

community. "

Is this really saying all have such things? I somehow doubt it.

" This is a generation that has long aimed to please. They've wanted

to please their parents, their friends, their teachers, their college

admissions officers. "

Really? This surprises me :-0 and is also obviously untrue - not all

will be aiming to please otherwise there would be absolutely no

trouble from this particular generation (no crime etc) and obviously

this is not the case.

" They are also the most diverse generation ever: 35 percent are non-

white, and the most tolerant, believing everyone should be part of

the community. "

' " When you ask kids, 'What do you most hope to achieve there?' Where

they used to say, 'I wanna be No. 1. I wanna be the best,'

increasingly they're saying, 'I wanna be an effective member of the

team. I wanna do everything that's required of me,' " says Howe. "

and again - Really? How much of this is construct and propoganda put

about by the baby boomers? - who are obviously control freaks - I've

never heard kids say the above 'I wanna do everything that is

required of me' - again I ask really? Do any kids say this?

" Five out of 10 echo boomers say they trust the government, and

virtually all of them trust mom and dad. "

Are these kids on some sort of drugs that make them more suseptable

(sp?) to suggestion and gullible? - or is it the flouride in the

water? ;-)

It is certainly true that this generation is a major target of

advertisers and marketting - and indeed many buy into this and are

manipulated by it mostly unawares - but again not all - there are

always exceptions to the rules (or the general).

Mmmmmmmmm possibly a bit of a rant :-)

> This is an article about what kids are becoming and how marketers

are

> taking advantage of them. It also talks about who the enablers are.

>

> You'll find out that it speaks AGAINST team sports too.

>

> Tom

> Administrator

>

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/10/01/60minutes/main646890_page2.s

> html

>

> The Echo Boomers

>

> Sept. 4, 2005

>

> Echo Boomers

>

> Born between 1982 and 1995, there are nearly 80 million echo

boomers,

> and they're already having a huge impact on entire segments of the

> economy. (Photo: CBS)

>

> " They have been heavily programmed. ...(Their) whole lives have

> really been based on what some adult tells them to do. "

>

> They already make up nearly one-third of the U.S. population, and

> already spend $170 billion a year of their own and their parents'

> money. (Photo: CBS)

>

> (CBS) If you've ever wondered why corporate America, Hollywood,

> Madison Avenue and the media all seem obsessed with the youth

> culture, the answer is simple.

>

> The largest generation of young people since the '60s is beginning

to

> come of age. They're called " echo boomers " because they're the

> genetic offspring and demographic echo of their parents, the baby

> boomers.

>

> Born between 1982 and 1995, there are nearly 80 million of them,

and

> they're already having a huge impact on entire segments of the

> economy. And as the population ages, they will be become the next

> dominant generation of Americans.

>

> The oldest are barely out of college, and the youngest are still in

> grade school.

>

> And whether you call them " echo boomers, " " Generation Y "

> or " millennials, " they already make up nearly a third of the U.S.

> population, and already spend $170 billion a year of their own and

> their parents' money.

>

> Almost none of it is spent on boring things like mortgages and

> medication, and the world is falling all over itself trying to sell

> them things.

>

> What brands do they love? Sony, Patagonia, Gap, Gillette, Aveda.

>

> Only a small percentage are eligible to vote, yet they are already

> one of the must studied generations in history -- by sociologists,

> demographers and marketing consultants like Jane Buckingham of the

> Intelligence Group.

>

> Buckingham uses focus groups to gather information for clients such

> as NBC, Chanel, Nike and Levi Strauss.

>

> Echo boomers are a reflection of the sweeping changes in American

> life over the past 20 years. They are the first to grow up with

> computers at home, in a 500-channel TV universe. They are multi-

> taskers with cell phones, music downloads, and Instant Messaging on

> the Internet. They are totally plugged- in citizens of a worldwide

> community.

>

> Nick Summers of Columbia University and Andie Gissing from

Middlebury

> College in Vermont are college seniors and editors of their college

> newspapers. They are both in touch with the echo boomer ethos.

>

> (Note: Since 60 Minutes first broadcast this story, these college

> editors have become college graduates, and Neil Howe and colleague

> Strauss have completed another study of the echo boom

> generation, " Millennials and the Pop Culture, " to be published this

> fall.)

>

> " I would say that my generation tends to be very overachieving,

over-

> managed, " says Summers. " Very pressured. "

>

> " I would agree with that, " adds Gissing. " A lot of people work hard

> or want to do well, I guess. "

>

> And it's no wonder they feel that way. From when they were

toddlers,

> they have been belted into car seats, and driven off to some form

of

> organized group activity. After graduating from " Gymboree "

and " Mommy

> and Me, " they have been shuttled to play dates and soccer practice,

> with barely a day off, by parents who've felt their kids needed

> structure, and a sense of mission.

>

> Dr. Mel Levine, a professor at the University of North Carolina, is

> one of the best-known pediatricians in the country. He says it's

had

> as much to do with shaping this generation as technology.

>

> " They have been heavily programmed. The kids who have had soccer

> Monday, Kung Fu Tuesday, religious classes Wednesday, clarinet

> lessons Thursday. Whose whole lives have really been based on what

> some adult tells them to do, " says Levine.

>

> " This is a generation that has long aimed to please. They've wanted

> to please their parents, their friends, their teachers, their

college

> admissions officers. "

>

> It's a generation in which rules seem to have replaced rebellion,

> convention is winning out over individualism, and values are very

> traditional.

>

> They are also the most diverse generation ever: 35 percent are non-

> white, and the most tolerant, believing everyone should be part of

> the community.

>

> (CBS) Historian Neil Howe, along with co-author Strauss,

has

> made a career studying different generations. Howe says all the

> research on echo boomers always reflects the same thing: They are

> much different than their self-absorbed, egocentric baby boomer

> parents.

>

> " Nothing could be more anti-boom than being a good team player,

> right? Fitting in. Worrying less about leadership than follower-

> ship, " says Howe. " If you go into a public school today, teamwork

is

> stressed everywhere. Team teaching, team grading, collaborative

> sports, community service, service learning, student juries. I

mean,

> the list goes on and on. "

>

> Howe thinks they are more like their grandparents, the great World

> War II generation -- more interested in building things up than

> tearing them down.

>

> " When you ask kids, 'What do you most hope to achieve there?' Where

> they used to say, 'I wanna be No. 1. I wanna be the best,'

> increasingly they're saying, 'I wanna be an effective member of the

> team. I wanna do everything that's required of me,' " says Howe.

>

> And you can already see some results. Violent crime among teenagers

> is down 60 to 70 percent. The use of tobacco and alcohol are at all-

> time lows. So is teen pregnancy. Five out of 10 echo boomers say

they

> trust the government, and virtually all of them trust mom and dad.

>

> Through sheer numbers, they're beginning to change society. They

have

> affected school construction, college enrollments, product

> development, and media content. And according to Buckingham, they

are

> changing the way things are sold, from clothing to cars, because

mass

> marketing doesn't always reach them.

>

> " They're not watching the traditional networks as much because they

> have so many choices. They're playing on the Internet. They're

> playing videogames, " says Buckingham. " They're out and about,

> shopping a lot. So, the traditional 30-second commercial isn't

always

> working the way it was. "

>

> They are the most sophisticated generation ever when it comes to

> media. They create their own Web sites, make their own CDs and

DVDs,

> and are cynical of packaged messages. They take their cues from

each

> other. A well-placed product on one of their pop idols, like Paris

> Hilton or Ashton Kutcher, can launch a brand of $40 T-shirts and

> trucker hats. But they also shop at vintage clothing shops.

>

> Buckingham employs the services of some 1,500 young people

scattered

> around the country, and relies on their regular reports on what's

hot

> and what's not to keep her and her clients ahead of the latest

> trends.

>

> " One of the things with this generation is word of mouth. Buzz is

> more important today than it's ever been, " says Buckingham. " And

that

> can get started on the Internet. That can get started just through

> friends. And it's very hard for a marketer to tap into that unless

> it's really a product that they like. "

>

> Toyota is already betting hundreds of millions of dollars to try to

> create that buzz, in launching a car division aimed exclusively at

> echo boomers.

>

> " They've affected clothing. They've affected beverage. And now,

> they're just about to affect the car business, " says Jim Farley,

head

> of Toyota's Scion division.

>

> Toyota is quietly peddling its new $15,000 cars, with air

> conditioning and power windows, by sponsoring events like street

> basketball/break dance festivals, where they always have cars on

hand

> for people to look at and sometimes even test drive.

>

> " People kind of just stumble on our product, and it's cool that

way, "

> says Farley. That's what the company wants. " This is like regular

car

> companies are on TV. This is our regular activity. This is how we

> expose our cars to young people. "

>

> Seventy percent of Scion's promotion is being spent on those

events.

> Only 30 percent is spent on traditional advertising, and much of

that

> is on the Internet, where echo boomers can fill out a Scion order

> form, customize their car with 40 different options, and drop off

the

> form at the dealership without ever hearing a sales pitch.

>

> It's early yet, but Farley says Scion is meeting its sales

> projections: " I think how we've looked at it is that we can't

afford

> not to do this. "

>

> Echo boomers have their own television network, the WB, and their

own

> stores, with multimedia presentations and disc jockeys to lure them

> in the door. It's a generation used to being catered to.

>

> " They are more protected, " says Howe. " They regard themselves as

> collectively special, because of the time in which they were

raised. "

>

> Why do they consider themselves special?

>

> " Because they came along at a time when we started re-valuing kids.

> During the '60s and '70s, the frontier of reproductive medicine was

> contraception, " says Howe. " During the '80s and beyond, it's been

> fertility and scouring the world to find orphan kids that we can

> adopt. ...The culture looked down on kids. Now it wants kids; it

> celebrates them. "

>

> Echo boomers are the most watched-over generation in history. Most

> have never ridden a bike without a helmet, ridden in a car without

a

> seat belt, or eaten in a cafeteria that serves peanut butter.

>

> " Sometimes, they don't know what to do if they're just left outside

> and you say, 'Well, just do something by yourself for a while,' "

says

> Howe. " They'll look around stunned. You know, 'What are we supposed

> to do now?' "

>

> They're hovered over by what college administrators

call " helicopter

> parents. " Protected and polished, they are trophy children in every

> sense of the word.

>

> " Everyone is above average in our generation, " says Summers.

>

> " Everybody gets a trophy at the end of the year. It's something

> you're used to, " adds Gissing. " And you have the rows of trophies

> lined up on your windowsill, or whatever. "

>

> " Parents feel as if they're holding onto a piece of Baccarat

crystal

> or something that could somehow shatter at any point, " says

> Levine. " And so parents really have a sense their kids are fragile.

> And parents therefore are protecting them, inflating their egos.

> Massaging them, fighting their battles for them. "

>

> Levine, who is considered one of the foremost authorities in the

> country on how children learn, is now researching a book on young

> people entering their 20s. He is concerned that groupthink is

> stifling initiative. And because they have always been rewarded for

> participation, not achievement, they don't have a strong sense what

> they are good at and what they're not.

>

> For instance, when a young person shows up for work at his or her

> first job, what do they expect and what are they finding?

>

> " They expect to be immediate heroes and heroines. They expect a lot

> of feedback on a daily basis. They expect grade inflation, they

> expect to be told what a wonderful job they're doing, " says Levine.

>

> " [They expect] that they're gonna be allowed to rise to the top

> quickly. That they're gonna get all the credit they need for

> everything they do. And boy, are they naive. Totally naive, in

terms

> of what's really gonna happen. "

>

> Levine says that is not the only part of their cultural

conditioning

> that's going to require an adjustment in the workplace.

>

> " I talked to the CEO of a major corporation recently and I

> said, 'What characterizes your youngest employees nowadays?' " says

> Levine. " And he said, 'There's one major thing.' He said, 'They

can't

> think long-range. Everything has to be immediate, like a video

game.

> And they have a lot of trouble sort of doing things in a stepwise

> fashion, delaying gratification. Really reflecting as they go

along.'

> I think that's new. "

>

> Levine calls the phenomenon visual motor ecstasy, where any

cultural

> accoutrement that doesn't produce instant satisfaction is boring.

As

> echo boomers grow up, they'll have to learn that life is not just a

> series of headlines and highlight reels.

>

> But this may be something that, for now, echo boomers can deal

with.

> " What would you call your generation? " Buckingham asked , one

of

> her focus group participants.

>

> " Perfect, " he says, laughing.

>

> © MMV, CBS Worldwide Inc. .

September 6, 2005

I agree with most of your comments here, . Very well analysed.

And you're absolutely right, a whole generation eager to please...? Yeah,

right. What about the millions of kids that are diagnosed ODD, ADD, OCD

etc., etc. and get drugged out of their heads from an early age? Hmmm.