Generation Y (according to NASA)

May 15th, 2008 by mas | Filed under Society & Issues.

Just been watching this interesting slideshow by NASA on their perspectives on ‘Generation Y’ and their obvious concern for appealing/relating to/involving them.

I’m becoming more & more interested in whats happening outside of the youth work world with young people and it seems to me that theres a lot to learn from business in particular about how they seek to engage with young people.

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    wow that is really interesting - it has a lot to say to traditional youth work and citizen engagement agendas - definately sharing that with loads of people!! Thanks :)
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    Although we also need to be really careful not to get sucked into the corporate marketing space that has a very anemic view of what it means to be engaged...

    NASA may (and that is definitely a may) be an exception given the relatively rich scientific progress ideology it could be seeking to engage 'Generation Y' in - but in general we need to recognise that sometimes the reason engagement in the community sphere has less of the 'buzz' that the work marketeers are working on has is because in the community sphere we deal with whole and real people, rather than the simplified 2D consumer - and real people and real communities are generally messy and complicated...

    (Extra notes: Slide 10 is ambiguous. If the claim is being made by the creators that as part of generation Y they present *the* perspective of generation Y, then as a member of that posited generation wish to disagree and state my views and perspectives are not represented here.)
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    lol well apparently I'm borderline generation X/Y and I'd agree that not all in those slides represent me but I guess we also have to take into account that its also primarily based on young people from across the Atlantic.

    I think its always good to challenge generalistic approaches but then again I hear much of the same in youth work - "I am a young person therefore I can represent all young people" (seems pretty common in recent years).

    Personally I'm interested in how businesses and those who have an interest in engaging young people (be it corporate or otherwise) seek to do so - so much youth work seems insular to me and from my own work with people 'outside' of the sector in recent weeks it seems refreshing to see how others are concerned with young people participating and how they go about it.

    That said I think you're right to suggest caution but likewise I sometimes see & hear of things in youth work that make me think their motives are not too dissimilar from the 'simplistic' motives of corporates - how many projects have become primarily concerned with 'bums on seats' - how much money has been spent in recent years promoting certain youth organisations on TV, at cinemas, in glossy Lads Mags etc. etc. ? Maybe the differences are not as clear as they should be?

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