Editor’s note: This post was written by a guest blogger from My Dog Ate My Blog. The blog has since been discontinued.
For people coming of age in the late 2000s and early 2010s, the idea of the penny-pincher, unwilling to spend money on virtually anything, seems like a stereotype that existed, more than anything else, in the memories of their parents or perhaps even their grandparents.
Then the American economy took its pronounced nosedive in 2008. New high school and college graduates struggled for weeks, months, or years to find jobs, and suddenly you saw and heard two words far more often than you did in 2007 or in 1997: “I’m broke.”
Redefining the Dream
Millennials, like (but not in such extreme fashion as), the children of the Great Depression, are growing up in a world where money is tight and the notion of achieving real economic success – or even making as much money as one’s parents, if not outperforming them – for the first time in decades seems unrealistic, as American prosperity has given way to intense economic contraction. However, rents in hip neighborhoods populated by young people are still steep and entertainment (like movies, concerts, restaurants, and bars) is getting more expensive. For example, American beer sales are down, yet sales of American craft beer, almost invariably costlier, has gone up considerably.
American pop culture has clearly been influenced by the recession. A number of popular musicians to emerge in the last several years, like the singer and producer Washed Out, began making music that reflected nostalgia for easier times after moving back to his parents’ house in rural Georgia. One of the year’s more popular singles, “Blessa” by Toro Y Moi, features the line “I found a job, I do it fine / Not what I want, but still I try.” Millennials are rarely doing the work they set out to do earlier on in life, and their music reflects this.
For many, the present measure of success is how much time off to do other things one’s job offers, not upward mobility or potential pay increases, and this marks a distinct shift from how American society conceptualized success for centuries.
Many Millennials care deeply about community and society; many are doing work for non-profit organizations in order to mobilize voters (and especially young voters) in order to bring about reforms of the financial and political systems that produced these problems. Others are working to produce change in systems that seem easier to influence, like local food systems, by participating in activities like community gardening.
Careful Consumers
All of this then makes Millennials difficult to market to, and in ways that don’t necessarily overlap with children of the Great Depression. The Millennials are set to bear the brunt of the excesses and recklessness that prompted the current recession, as well as coming changes to welfare, Medicare and Social Security. These changes are necessary to ensure that those programs can continue to exist without bankrupting themselves. Many young people have emerged distrustful and angry towards politicians, economists, and others who let this and countless disasters happen.
How They Aren’t Like Their Grandparents
Despite the similarities, there are differences. Potential financial gain or loss does not necessarily inform their purchases, as scarcity for raw materials is artificial in a way that it simply wasn’t before or during World War II. Many choose to go with less or with lower quality rather than to go without, even when dealing with frivolities and entertainments.
Another difference is that one’s peers have far more say than anyone else. A product recommendation from someone close to them has a million times more sway than any commercial, though online opinions even from strangers can also make the difference. This is especially true for films and pop music, certain publications. Online reviews can prove crucial towards making those peer recommendations happen in the first place, and their dollars will often move in those directions.
