Why "Gen Y"? Up-and-comers shun generational labels

by Martha Irvine
The Associated Press

EVANSTON, Ill. - You can call them Generation Y, Millennials or even Echo Boomers, a tag created as a nod to their Baby Boomer parents.

Young Americans have a message for marketers, demographers and generational experts, all eager to decode the minds of today's teen-agers and early 20-somethings.

"Don't call us anything," says Utarra Bongu, a 20-year-old sophomore at Northwestern University in suburban Chicago. "We're much more diverse than any other generation - culturally and with what we've been exposed to.

"We're about defining our own success and being on our own."

A few miles away, at a shopping mall in Skokie, 13-year-old Arielle Goodman scrunches her nose at the litany of labels.

"We're not even in high school yet!" Goodman says of herself and her eighth-grade peers. "How are we supposed to already know what our generation's like?"

Well, say the pundits, the secrets are in the surveys. The results of questionnaires show modern-day young people are an optimistic, stress-driven, team-oriented and multitasking generation.

"Whether you are a leader, a follower or a resister of your generation's trends, you have to accommodate the persona of your generation," says Bill Strauss, the Virginia-based co-author of the book "Millennials Rising: The Next Generation."

He points to the 1960s - a time when he says no more than 12 percent of college students were full-fledged hippies, yet the radical few put a stamp on their generation.

"It's a reputation, a conception of your life," says Strauss, who defines Millennials - those coming of age in the new millennium - as anyone born from 1982 onward.

And even if young people don't like it, corporate America is serious about figuring them out.

Take the Hilton hotel chain, one of scores of companies that's spending time (and money) to learn about the under-25 crowd. A recent survey done for the company determined that while older generations view the Internet as a time-eater, Generation Y - defined by some as those ages 16 to 24 - is the first to view it as a time-saver.

Such information can be used as a springboard for marketing to millions of people.

Employers are also seeking the advice of generation-watchers. Bruce Tulgan has written books to help businesses understand the "fiercely independent" Generation X and the itchy-footed Gen Y, which developed a reputation for job-hopping in better economic times.