Trapped in a Facebook Time Warp
Dec 13th
Evan*, a 21-year-old student at USC, doesn’t expect any surprises when the time comes for his high school reunion. He knows the star quarterback hasn’t won the Heisman trophy and that the senior prom queen ended up marrying her high school sweetheart.
Although he hasn’t actually seen them, he’s friends with them on Facebook.
In previous generations, people went off to college and started a new phase of their life. They kept in touch with a few of their closest friends through letters, telephone and on visits home. They broke up with their boyfriends and girlfriends, cut ties and rarely heard from them again.
Today the Internet and social media are changing how people move forward from relationships. Through websites like Facebook, the constant connections make it easier for people to keep in touch with–and keep tabs on–friends and ex-lovers. A study at Michigan State University found that 96% of the students surveyed used Facebook to connect with high school friends. The study showed that people seek to keep ties with friends often in an attempt to get rid of feelings of ‘friendsickness,’ “the distress caused by the loss of old friends.”
But this interaction can make it harder for young people to move forward and let go of people from their past.“Every relationship is one in which you potentially can’t get away from,” said Stuart Fischoff, Senior Editor of the Journal of Media Psychology. “There are so many different forms of communication like email and Skype. Each one exposes you to more and more.” Read the rest of this entry »
Why Didn’t He Text Me Back?
Dec 13th
Even though Ann was doing everything in her power to focus in her Film Editing class, the thought running through her mind was, “Why hasn’t he texted me back?” Ann just met cute, funny guy and on Friday night he took her out on a date. Saturday night they met up at a mutual friend’s party Now it was Wednesday and she still hasn’t received a response to a text she sent Sunday: “Want to go to a movie tonight?”. She couldn’t seem to think of a plausible reason on why he was MIA.
Ann Lupo, an NYU junior, isn’t alone when it comes to relationship uncertainty caused by texting. The days of “check yes or no” notes have been replaced with coy digital communications that can deceive, shroud, and confuse. “The reality is that I text a lot and am just as guilty of over analyzing as the next person,” said Ann. “It makes it difficult to decipher the exact meaning behind a text.”
Texting provides an outlet for people to play mind games and takes place in a world with no exact definition of dating; no set rituals as experienced by older generations. Easily misunderstood, texts are a tool that allows sending a message that normally wouldn’t be Read the rest of this entry »
Prayer Without The Pews
Dec 13th
After growing up traditionally Mormon in Minneapolis, Theresa Akers, 21, thought she would never drink alcohol, wear revealing clothing or date someone she didn’t intend to marry. However, after arriving at New York University and meeting other students from a variety of backgrounds she began to adhere to Mormon traditions less and less. Akers no longer goes to church or subscribes to any religion.
With instant access to any kind of people and information, Gen Y is known for being accepting of diversity and being highly individualistic. More and more members of Gen Y are shifting away from traditional religious concepts, or even identifying with a specific religion at all. Instead, many millenials are looking to make their beliefs work with their lifestyle. They want to customize their faith. This allows millennials to maintain their beliefs without feeling the need to adhere to religious tradition and rules. Read the rest of this entry »
Generation “whY” questions religion
Dec 13th
Even in secular America, Sunday mornings are still synonymous with church. Whether just for Easter and Christmas Eve or weekly services, many young adults look back on childhood memories of donning a pretty dress or a clip-on tie and snoozing through some sort of religious service. But as they have matured, 18- to 25-year-old Americans have drifted away from the churches of their youth in search of a different sort of religious life.
For children raised in religious households, the transition into college – and an independent lifestyle – often propels young adults to reevaluate their religious views. Many choose to continue a variation of the religious lifestyle taught to them by their parents, others redefine their religion in terms of their own “spirituality” and still some establish an entirely new religious outlook. Read the rest of this entry »
Nostalgia Hits the 90s Babies
(One More Time)
Dec 13th
For a generation that’s barely lived a quarter of their lives, millennials seem prematurely nostalgic for their youth. But thanks to the Internet and modern media, icons of yesterday are in the palms of Generation Y hands.
Youngsters of the 1990s had it easy. Days were spent delighting in Nickelodeon’s “Doug,” snacking on Fruit-By-The Foot, collecting Beanie Babies and crooning along to the latest tune by The Backstreet Boys. For many 90s kids, the biggest struggles adolescence presented were choosing which Goosebumps book to read next, parenting those pesky Tamagotchis, and deciding if Sugar Ray was, in fact, a better band than Matchbox 20. Flash-forward to the present day and those same 90s kids, now college aged or recently graduated, are still infatuated with their icons of yore.
From Dating to Hooking Up: What it Means for Gen Y
Nov 22nd
When people asked Sara A., how long she and her then-boyfriend Nick had been dating, her answer varied. To her friends, the now 20-year-old NYU student had no problem explaining several years of “hooking up” and her “open relationship.” To her grandma and other relatives, Sara counted only the months when she and Nick were a monogamous, exclusive couple.
“Even after my parents knew about Nick, it was hard to answer their questions about our status and to keep them updated on how our relationship evolved,” said Sara, noting that their relationship covered a three year span. “They didn’t understand the grey areas in the complex dating world.”
In the present-day dating landscape for Generation Y, being involved with someone can’t simply be labeled “dating” as it was for older generations, when romantic rituals followed distinctly defined patterns. Today, with few universally agreed upon labels and rules, it is hard to know what to call these dating stages, or if stages even exist at all. Read the rest of this entry »
1-800-ANXIOUS
Nov 22nd
They're convenient and helpful but cell phones are driving Gen Y crazy (Image Via: Daveibsen.typepad.com)
During a summer vacation in 2007, Cristina Pansolini’s cell phone kicked the metaphoric bucket and with it went her ability to enjoy a stress-free trip. Sans cell phone, how would she make plans with friends? Would her boyfriend think she was ignoring his text messages? What if she needed to contact her family? Although Pansolini was back in cellular business a few days later, the now 21-year-old college senior winces at the thought of being without her beloved iPhone for even a moment. “The thing is my life, I don’t think I could function without it,” she says.
Like an arm or leg, the cell phone is a modern day appendage that millennials have come to depend on. With the ability to talk, text, send emails, and correspond over social media, cell phones are communication’s ‘round-the-clock nucleus and, simultaneously, society’s hopeless addiction. Lisa Merlo, a clinical psychologist at the University of Florida, told “Cellular-News” that cell phone users oftentimes feel anxious when they accidentally leave the device at home or are forced to turn it off. But why are Generation Y hearts so uneasy when their digital counterparts aren’t in hand?
Does Facebook Really Make Narcissists?
Nov 22nd
In “The Social Network,” Mark Zuckerberg’s fictional girlfriend breaks up with him after he refuses to stop talking about himself at dinner. Miffed, Zuckerberg hastily retreats to his Harvard dorm, opens a beer, and posts about his latest personal problem on the Internet for everyone to see.
This opening scene of “The Social Network” the story of Facebook, the world’s largest social networking site, i typifies a common attitude about such websites : outlets built for and by self-interested, whining Millennials.
Due largely to the writings of Jean Twenge, author “The Narcissism Epidemic” and “Generation Me,” the symbiotic relationship between rising rates of narcissistic behavior in Generation Y and sites like Facebook has been widely accepted.
Gen Y Catholics
Dec 8th
Instead of cramming for classes or watching TV on Sunday nights, some 400 students gather weekly for mass at St. Joseph Catholic Church in Greenwich Village. The choir, many of them music theater majors, sing contemporary hymns as students fill the pews. After mass, some students head to the priests’ quarters to eat a free, home-cooked dinner. The joke at the Catholic Center is, “Go for the food, stay for the community,” according to one member.
Greenwich Village is “one of the loudest neighborhoods in the world,” said Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan as he addressed the congregation during a recent Sunday mass. Amid the commotion of New York City, the Catholic Center, run by the Archdiocese of New York, provides NYU students a peaceful place to reflect on their lives and their faith.
Many students speak about the indifference or hostility toward religion that they encounter.. “Here in New York City it’s looked down upon to be a person of faith,” said NYU senior Paolo Larano. In a class discussion of foundational texts, Larano said he”got a lot of heat” from classmates because he interpreted the Bible as a believer. “People wanted to poke fun at religion,” he said. “One part of me wanted to defend it, but the other part didn’t want to single myself out as the crazy kid.”
Shaping religious beliefs and values is a major part of personal development for 18 to 30 year olds, according to Jeffrey Arnett, the author of “Emerging Adulthood.” However, this development doesn’t only happen at church. Many people form personal relationships with God and don’t attend religious services. “To most emerging adults, participating in a religious institution, even a liberal one, requires them to abide by a certain set of beliefs and rules and therefore constitutes an intolerable compromise of their individuality,” he writes.
The students who participate in the campus ministry at St. Joseph’s, however, value the structure and constancy of religious services. “Mass is so traditional,” said NYU student Christina King. “You always know what’s going to happen. It’s home base.”
The weekly mass is not the only draw. A smaller number of students belong to one of three undergraduate clubs that meet weekly. For these students, the Catholic Center provides them a foundation for their social and spiritual lives. Read the rest of this entry »
Bears on the Web: Gen-Y Gays Get a New Attitude
Dec 8th
Twelve-year-old Lorenzo Rodriguez’s cursor hung over a link labeled “Gay Bear Porn.” He had no idea that what he was about to see would end up defining part of his identity.
One click, and everything changed.
Though earlier Internet adventures had helped Rodriguez accept his attraction to men, he had never seen a gay image he could relate to until he discovered bear porn. “I was 12, chubby as hell,” he said, “I never knew any gay people, so all I had to go by was the skinny, hairless twinks in the porn I was watching early on,” he said. “I always thought that being gay meant being effeminate…my biggest fear was that if I told my parents I was gay, they’d make me wear a dress.”
Growing up in the Dominican Republic, Rodriguez, now 20, felt that since he didn’t fit the image of gay men he saw in the media, he would never be able to have a relationship with a man. “I thought I was the last person in the world anyone would want to have sex with. The bear thing completely changed my life,” he said.
So, what is a bear?