Avatars, blogs, wikis, Google. If it all sounds like foreign jargon, chances are you were born before 1980. Generation Y – those born between 1980 and 2000 – are transforming the English language in ways that would make Shakespeare blush.
They have BFF (best friends forever) with whom they may never have spoken face-to-face, have the BOBW (best of both worlds) but may never leave the house, and be leading the GSAVE (Global Struggle Against Violent Extremists) but be waging war from a computer in a darkened bedroom in downtown Brisbane.
Often called the iGeneration, Echo Boomers, the MyPod Generation and The Millenials – Generation Y is the most technologically fluent generation of our time. They can shop online for just about anything and have it delivered to their front door. Friends, lovers, even mortal enemies are just a mouse click away and privacy is only bound by the information provided by the user.
Queensland University of Technology professor Greg Hearn said the internet-savvy never needed to leave home. "There is nothing that can't be done online," Prof Hearn said. "Humans have the same needs and they are satisfied by the same things, but the way in which needs and satisfaction are connected has completely changed. People still need to eat, but now there is a new way to access food. It is the connection paradigm that has changed."
Prof Hearn, who specialises in the social impacts of the internet, said the advent of the web was changing traditional methods of social interaction and communication completely. Reality is fast being lost to a virtual world of online communities. "Second Life-type applications will become the new general interface medium for human activity," Prof Hearn said.
Avatars – the creation of an online persona – gives users the chance to look and live lives often far removed from their own. Users can buy and sell just about anything and can even exchange virtual Linden dollars for real US dollars.
Social demographer Bernard Salt said aside from the usual concerns of pedophilia, bullying and defamation, striking a balance in real life and the cyber echelons was important for all internet users, not just Generation Y. "You cannot build a career via an avatar, nor have a meaningful relationship," Mr Salt said. "There are certain benefits to having strong cyber networks, but to conduct your entire social interaction in the virtual world can be detrimental."
Mr Salt said the concern for Generation Y was whether they could cope in hard times and have the right amount of social skills for the real world. But QUT media and communications lecturer Dr Axel Bruns said despite the common theory that the internet isolated users, one of the major growth areas in recent years had been the area of social networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace, You Tube and Flickr.
"One of their major uses is to organise and document people getting together in their offline lives," Dr Bruns said. "Leaving the house no longer necessarily means going offline with smartphones, PDAs and broadband wireless, and with mobile networking tools like Twitter and mo-blogs, it's becoming just as possible to socialise in public and online at the same time.
"(The internet offers) more speed and transparency, for better or for worse. We can Google the people we interact with – perhaps even the moment we meet them, we can find out what they're doing from their blogs and Facebook pages, and others can do the same with us. "On the one hand, that makes it easier to find others who share our interests, but on the other, it also means less of our lives is actually truly private any more."
But Dr Bruns said the internet was what users made of it. "If we choose to use it constructively, it can be a force for good; if we choose to use it disruptively, it can be detrimental to society. "Most likely we'll do both, perhaps even without understanding the consequences of what we do."
But Generation Y is also using the tool to create wealth – vast wealth. Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg is just 23 years old, but is already worth an estimated $740 million. Fellow software creators Blake Ross and David Hyatt, both 22, created Mozilla and are worth an estimated $125 million. Closer to home, Brisbane internet magnate Daniel Tzvetkoff, 25, made his fortune in property and online business. He recently forked out an estimated $28 million for an unfinished mansion on the Gold Coast's ritzy Hedges Avenue.
Internet marketing analyst Dr Edwina Luck said apart from online social networking, the internet had changed every aspect of people's lives, particularly with regards to shopping, seeking information and the dissemination of advertising and marketing messages.
"No longer do we watch, see and hear what marketers want us to; we choose to opt in, and watch or download what we want to watch," Dr Luck said. "We see what we want to see on our terms. Today's youth are experts at deciphering info that is relevant to them. If it doesn't grab their attention, they just bypass and click on the next clip."
Dr Luck said the issue of internet isolation was still more prevalent in the United States, where many parents did not allow their children to leave the house: "Australians love personal contact and with youth it is no different. They hang out, they text, they MSN. Research hasn't shown they have become less likely to speak orally and communicate less via these channels. This group are confident and are not afraid of their own opinion."
Samantha Healy
11 May 2008
http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,23675950-5007191,00.html
