The words his mother told him before he began his freshman year are seared in his mind: “You are my only hope,” she said as he pushed a half-filled grocery cart back to their apartment in Washington Heights. He stared at her blankly: never before was it so clear that his future or his family’s future rested on him going to college.

“I’m carrying the family’s banner,” he said. “It’s my job to increase our status, so my mother can have the life she dreams of and my kids can have more than I do.”

While his parents came to America from the Dominican Republic for factory work to fulfill the “American Dream,” Rodriguez carries the responsibility to take the dream one step further by using college to establish his family as well educated and financially successful.

“They want to do better than their parents did. Their parents want them to do better than they did. So that’s a driver for them to go to college,” said Chelsea Jones, Student Support Associate for the Center for Student Opportunity, a nonprofit that helps first-generation and minority students get into and stay in college.

More than 74 percent of first-generation students say that economic mobility is their main reason for going to college. As a result, these children of immigrants often have a very different a college experience from traditional students.   For them, college isn’t a time to find themselves or party. It is their ticket upwards for themselves and their families, who are heavily depending on them to succeed.

“It is characteristic of families with a history of college to uphold the old world view of college that you go to find yourself, that you go to develop your personality, experience a new life stage and become a full adult,” said Jeff Davis, author of “The First-Generation Student Experience.” “This doesn’t exist with most first-generation families.”

According to Davis, this is not because the parents are hostile to education. It is because they do not have experience with what college is and what it traditionally means, and therefore, cannot pass this traditional view of college onto their children. Consequentially, when the students go to college, they are often expected to maintain the work and family responsibilities that existed before college. Moreover, they are unprepared for the academic rigor required by classes and are socially isolated from their peers.

“There are always two different worlds you have to balance,” Nadia Ahmad, a NYU senior and first-generation student, said. “There is always a clash because you are negotiating with what college is supposed to be like and being first-generation and the responsibilities that comes with that day-to-day.”

Unlike many traditional students, who leave home for college and experience long periods of separation from their families, Ahmad, a Queens resident and English major, chose NYU because it allowed her to live at home. Moreover, she maintains an important position in her family’s structure by helping to manage their accounting business and caring for her younger brother, while going to school. She gives up her time to study to open the business on Sundays. During tax season, her responsibility is greater.

“First-generation families expect their children to stay involved in the home life even while they are in college,” Jones said. “In fact, the students’ need to go home and help their families is the second most reported reason for first-generation students leaving college.” According to Jones, because the parents did not attend college, they don’t understand how difficult it is and how much focus is required for the students to succeed. As a result, not only do these responsibilities burden the students, they disconnect them from what college is supposed to be like.

Disconnection from the college life was one of the problems Rodriguez, an English major, faced when he began his first semester at Fordham. For him, it manifested in poor grades during his freshman year because he was not prepared for academic rigor required by his classes. He was also unaware that a large part of learning in college comes from the student’s participation in class discussions. He was apprehensive about contributing because he didn’t think he was worthy.

“First-generation students are at an academic disadvantage because they are first-generation,” Davis said. “But it is not because they are not as intelligent as second or third-generation students.” It is simply because they were not taught by their parents to think of college as a place to participate in intellectual thought. No one else in the family went to college so they don’t feel academically on par.

Compared to the homes of students with a family history of college, first-generation students have fewer books in their homes, Davis added. In addition, many first-generation students are hesitant to write in books because they don’t see their thoughts as something they can place next to a scholar’s.

This feeling of being “undeserving” is also seen when some first-generation students encounter confident and enthusiastic peers in class.  “It’s almost like ‘why am I here?’” Rodriguez said. “I don’t belong here. They know so much more than me.”

Socially, there is also a disconnect.

Aminta Kilawan, a Fordham University graduate and current student at Fordham University’s Law School, felt socially isolated from her peers since her time as an undergrad. Because her parents, who are from Guyana, view school solely as a tool for economic mobility, they do not allow her to dorm and often discount her desire to take part in school activities, she said. As a result, she is less involved in many school clubs, and cannot join many study groups or attend school events.

Additionally, the isolation is seen in her friendships.

“It can be strange striking up a conversation with someone, when your values are completely different,” Kilawan said. “Many students treat college like a time to party, instead of a time to work hard, and I can’t relate to that. So of course I feel left out. There aren’t many people I can share the same worries or thoughts with.”

Although their college experiences starkly contrast that of a traditional student, Rodriguez, Ahmad and Kilawan say their focus on using college for economic mobility is beneficial as they are more prepared for the work world. And although the isolation they felt made their college experiences difficult, they are proud because they were the ones to break boundaries for their families.

“At least I know I did this all on my own, without my parents,” Kilawan said. “That’s something a lot of other traditional students can’t say.”

* Per their requests, these people’s names have been changed.

In 2008, then Senator Barack Obama was propelled into the White House largely on the backs of young voters. Sold on the idea of change they could believe in, Generation Y voted in record numbers and dispelled the notion that it was apathetic when it came to politics.

But now just four short years later, with the unemployment rate dauntingly high, this generation’s youthful enthusiasm has come  face to face with a bleak reality. While in 2008, it seemed that Obama held a monopoly over this generation’s votes, that may no longer be the case. Millennials are still a highly sought commodity but now considered a more available one, with candidates on both sides of the political spectrum vying for their attention. So the question becomes: What role will Generation Y will play in this election cycle?

“We fundamentally believe that the demographic of 18 to 29 will determine the 2012 elections,” says Paul Conway of Generation Opportunity, a nonprofit organization that mobilizes young voters. Conway’s organization has connected with nearly two million users over Facebook.

Generation Y’s size alone means their support could tip the balance in favor of any given candidate. Today, young voters account for roughly 18 percent of the electorate, which is more than senior citizens — another highly sought after generational group. And by 2015, the generation is expected to make up about one third of the total voting population.

Moreover, Conway says, the fact that the political climate today is so tenuous, younger voters will feel the need to take to the voting booths come November 2012.

“In 2008 folks sought to change the status quo that what they were going through and what they saw they didn’t like,” he says. “That underlying dynamic of a desire to change the status quo is even more intense in 2012.”

Like most of the country, the number one issue facing Generation Y is the economy. With nearly 45 percent of people between the age of 16 and 29 without jobs, the call for economic recovery is seemingly loudest from the nation’s youngest.

“Every day we’re asking ourselves what’s going to be out there when we graduate,” says 18-year-old Trevor Brownlow, a freshman at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. “That’s the centralizing issue for our generation.”

According to a study conducted by Generation Opportunity, 77 percent of Generation Y says they are delaying major life changes because of economic restraints. Another 54 percent believe the nation is on the wrong track.

Some point to these statistics and say they have dampened Generation Y’s enthusiasm. David Madland, director of the American Worker Project, believes Generation Y will still vote, but the overwhelming support it gave Obama in 2008 will not be repeated. Though Madland believes Obama will still receive the bulk of Generation Y’s support — largely because of their progressive leanings — the same fervor among his supporters will not be seen.

“In some ways there was sort of a real idealism to 2008 that gave the sense that everything was possible,” he said. “And then when reality hits and you see how hard change is there is going to be some inevitable disappointment.”

NYU senior Sarah Kim voted for Obama in 2008 and says she will most likely vote for him again in 2012. But the decision was a more difficult one to make this year. She adds that she doesn’t see the same overwhelming wave of support for one candidate, especially with the complexities of dealing with a stagnating economy.

“It was cool to like Obama, and it was cool to like change and be on the side of hope. And that’s why it was so easy [to vote for him],” Kim says. “His campaign was you’re on the team that’s for hope, and it was such a simple thing. But now candidates can’t do that — they need a laundry list of issues [to tackle the economy], and it’s harder for young voters to get swept up like they did in 2008.”

This trend is evidenced in recent polling data. Since 2008, the president’s approval rating among this generation has dropped dramatically, falling from 84 percent when he took office to 52 percent by October 2011. Still, 18 to 34 year olds support the president over a general Republican challenger by a 51 to 44 margin.

But whichever candidate hopes to win the support of millennials will have to accommodate an electorate with a set of specific priorities.

“Universal health care, gay rights, all of these issues are as progressive as ever,” he Madland says. “They want the government to do all sorts of progressive things, but they’re skeptical that the government can do so. And this prolonged economic downturn has only fueled those doubts.”

Yet, like many other in her generation, Julianne Nowicki, a second-year law student at Ave Maria Law School, says she can no longer afford to consider a candidate’s complete social platform.

“In 2008, I was focused more on social issues. Issues like abortion or embryonic stem cell research were very important to me,” she says. “But for this election, I would say that economic issues are now at the forefront of my consideration.”

So the name of the game for many candidates is marketing themselves to millennials. Since 2008, every candidate has seemingly taken a page from Obama’s 2008 playbook and is relying heavily on social media to get their message to the Generation Y voter. While the president continues to take to social media with YouTube addresses and Twitter town halls, Republican challengers are doing the same. Earlier this year, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney launched a massive online campaign using on Twitter, foursquare and Google+ for the Ames Straw Poll.

Madland argues that this leveling of the playing field may be a boon to Republican candidates. He says now that other candidates have adopted such practices Obama is no longer considered the clear-cut “young-person’s candidate” as he was in 2008. Still Mandland projects that because of Generation Y’s more progressive views and its sheer size, Obama still looks to have an advantage over a Republican challenger.

“Even if the turnout isn’t as high as it was in the past, it will still likely be a larger part of the electorate,” he says. “So the turnout doesn’t have to be as high as it was last time around for Obama to win. In fact it can be a decent amount lower, and he would still win.”

What started out in college as giving casual advice to friends on saving and spending behaviors turned into a full-time career for Wallaert. The millennial entrepreneur has already founded several Gen Y finance advice websites including getraised.com, a “go get em’” promotion advisement service for underpaid workers.

But despite all the advice the PhD candidate dolled out in college and on his websites, there is still one area of Gen Y finances that still has Wallaert and fellow millenials on their heels: saving for retirement.“They know they should be doing it, in the way they know they should be getting more exercise and eating better,” said Wallaert, who admits his own retirement saving plans are TBD.  “When it comes down to the competition for their time and money between the pressures they feel now and ones that seem far off, now simply wins.”

With a turbulent economy, elimination of company pensions and the end of social security looming, today’s 20-something are poised to become the first completely self-funded retirement generation. But for these procrastinate-prone milennials, the reality that they can’t push aside saving for retirement like exercise and eating healthy has yet to sink in.

“Gen Y will truly be the first do-it-yourself retirement generation,” said Catherine Collinson, president of the Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies. “What would be above and beyond in terms of savings for previous generations will become a mainstay for Gen Y.”

With the three-legged stool of retirement – pensions, social security and personal savings – about to be whittled down to just a single leg, saving earlier in life will be more important for Gen Y than in previous generations, explained Collinson.

“For Gen Y people who can start saving in their early twenties, that ten years can make a huge difference in getting a head start,” said Collinson, who says the biggest step for millenials is often just setting a goal. “They have to remember that it’s a journey and a destination and you cant make that journey if you don’t have a destination in mind.”

Transamerica’s annual study on the “Future Early Retirees” revealed that no matter what destination Gen Yers have in mind, they believe it will be reached entirely by personal savings—three in four millenials who participated in the study expect to fully fund their retirement.

“Gen Yers will truly be trailblazers when it comes to retirement,” Collinson added.

Despite the chance to get a head start on their self-funded retirement, more than 65 percent of Gen Yers have not even thought about saving, according to a new study from the Scottrade investment company. Scottrade’s A New Study on Retirement: Gen Y is Generation Procrastination highlights not only the lack of retirement saving in Gen Y, but also the risk that this procrastination poses to the first generation hoping to retire without pensions or social security.

“What Gen Y may not realize is that older generations based their retirement planning on the three-legged stool of Social Security, savings and employer pensions,” said Chris Hogan, director of customer intelligence at Scottrade when the study was released. “By the time Gen Y retires, they may have only one reliable leg to stand on – their own savings – and they need to plan accordingly.”

The study, released in 2010, also revealed a shockingly high benchmark for Gen Yers looking to pay their way through retirement. The majority of investment bankers consulted for the study suggested a retirement savings goal of at least $2 million for Gen Y, an especially high goal for the first self-funded retirement generation.

“If Gen Yers focus their interest in investing toward their retirement portfolios, there is still plenty of time for them to get where they need to go,” added Hogan.

But taking the steps necessary toward building successful retirement savings might be difficult for 20-somethings, many of who have had their financial outlook groomed by a turbulent economy and the poor spending habits of their baby boomer parents

“Twenty-somethings are more likely to have self-destructive beliefs about money and given the horrific financial behaviors in the past decade,” said Brad Klontz, a financial psychologist based in Honolulu. “Healthy financial behaviors were not modeled for most Gen Yers, as they watched their parents wrack up record high amounts of consumer debt.”

As the co-author of Mind Over Money: Overcoming the Money Disorders that Threaten our Financial Health, Klontz studied generational finance characteristics and the effects that they have had on today’s 20-somethings. Scared by the snapshot image Gen Yers have of the economy in the last five years, today’s 20-somethings suffer from what Klontz calls “scared rabbit” financial saving.

Klontz believes that millennials are more prone to put their limited savings into more stable bank accounts instead of diversifying their interests in the stock market. Although this over protective saving style might protect their principle investments in the short-term, Gen Yers who fail to diversify their savings in stocks and bonds will suffer in the long run, explained Klontz.

“There may be a sense of learned helplessness for [Gen Yers] who have seen their parents’ lifetime of saving and investing diminish,” said Klontz, who released a study on Money Beliefs and Financial Behavior last year. “They may walk away from that experience saying to themselves: ‘Why bother saving and investing, what’s the point?’”

But Klontz believes that the saving and investing mindset is something parents should teach their children long before they leave for college—even before all their adult teeth grow in.

“If you don’t learn to save your $10 allowance as a kid, how can you expect to save for retirement when you are earning a $100,000 salary?” he asked jokingly.

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.

This past Halloween, New York University student Tess Manning dressed up as Helga from “Hey Arnold!,” furrowed uni-brow, pigtails and all. “I saw tons of clips from the show floating around Facebook this summer. That’s how I got the idea,” says Manning who received many nods of approval from her fellow Gen-Yers while out in Manhattan for the holiday. “The 90s, those were the iconic glory days,” she says.

Some experts attribute millennials’ premature “nostalgia” for yesteryear’s Polly Pocket and Easy Bake Oven as a symptom of restless uncertainty. Once happy-go-lucky rugrats, the twenty-something’s are next in line to “grow up,” and in a teetering economy no less. “Millennials are looking back because they don’t really know what’s next,” says Melanie Shreffler, editor-in-chief of Ypulse, a New York based youth marketing company.  But is Generation Y really panging for days-gone-by in light of such wariness? Is the sentiment even nostalgia at all? Perhaps the 90s progeny are still  smitten by Lisa Frank and Double Dare because they have unparalleled access to these remnants of their youth.

Nostalgia is not a unique trait to millennials; after all, the Baby Boomers are still talking about Woodstock. But one thing that sets the two generations’ recollections apart is the Internet. “Gen Y grew up alongside information share and interconnectivity. The Web makes access to their memories much more natural,” says Colleen Dilenschneider, social media director for IMPACTS Research and Development.

Unlike many of their elders, today’s emerging adults are accustomed to seemingly unlimited informational access. Forget Lady Gaga, millennials are reverting to the days of Third Eye Blind because they’re archived and obtainable online. It’s no phenomenon: “The same things would’ve happened to our parents if the Internet had existed back then,” Dilenschneider says.

Remember those catchy commercials for games like Gator Golf and Skip It? How about that music video for The Spice Girls’ “Wannabe”? If not, the metaphoric trip down memory lane is as simple as typing in the proper search terms on Google and hitting “enter.” From commercials and songs to cartoon snippets and photo slideshows, iconic residue is alive and well on blogs and sites like YouTube. Add social media to the mix and one’s reminiscing becomes a shared experience. “The Internet has become a catalog of culture and an ever-growing trail of breadcrumbs by humanity,” says blogger Daniel Skubal in a post about nostalgia.

Prior to the Internet, cultural data was out of immediate reach, but nowadays, search engines have bulldozed barriers to such information, siphoning bygone popular culture into the present, everyday life. “The presence of the past in our lives has increased immeasurably and insidiously,” says Simon Reynolds, author of “Retromania,” a new book about modern popular culture. “Old stuff either directly permeates the present or lurks just beneath the surface of the current.”

Even mainstream media outlets are tapping into retrospective trends. This past July, the children’s television network, Nickeloden, launched a late-night programming block that brought back 90s favorites like “Clarissa Explains It All” and “Kenan & Kel.” Aptly dubbed “The 90s Are All That,” Nickelodeon executives sought to resurrect the shows when fan interest data suggested that some 15 million people wanted them back on the air.

In a similar vein, ABC is taking cues from reminiscing millenials with their programming. “Last Man Standing” is Tim Allen’s first sitcom role since “Home Improvement,” where the actor played family man Tim Taylor from 1991 to 1999. “Tim Allen had been gone for a while and people wanted him back,” says ABC casting intern Nicholas Borenstein. “Attaching talent can make or break a show. ‘Last Man Standing’ is funny but I’m not certain it would’ve been picked up without Allen being a part of it.”

Although reliving the 90s wouldn’t be possible without progressive technology, many millennials pine the olden icons . “Let’s face it, the 90s were simply the best,” says Marymount Manhattan College senior Joseph Goulart, who still listens to Britney Spears’ debut album on CD. And current fashion trends make it clear. At Scout Vintage, a vintage t-shirt store in New York City’s NoLita, the 90s graphic shirts sell the fastest. “People come in looking for Space Jam, Marvin the Martian and Nirvana shirts,” says sales associate Hope Bowers. “The 90s are definitely back in fashion and culture too.”

More than 250,000 people follow @90sGirlProblem on Twitter, an account that makes references to music, celebrities, games, television shows, movies and fads of the era. Born over “Felicity” reruns and a bottle of wine, @90sGirlProblem is the brainchild of Nicole Auerbach, a 22-year-old University of Michigan graduate, and Stefania Davia, a 23-year-old George Washington University grad student. The duo initially started the account to jokingly document memorable pieces of their childhood and continued upkeep as followers and re-tweets grew. To Davia, members of Generation Y look back to find solace in the things that are virtually obsolete in modern popular culture. “Instead of reality shows we had Figure It Out. There were floppy discs and dial-up Internet, body glitter, Limited Too, pogs and Britney before she shaved her head,” says Davia. “Life was different and interesting and hilarious.”

Some turn-back-time because the 90s seemed more original and genuine than today’s idols and images. “I miss how unpredictable the movies and TV shows were. You can’t really find that anymore,” says Ohio State sophomore Olivia Ross. “Nowadays, pop culture icons are just sell-outs.” Others find the 90s to be more substantive than current culture. “I would watch ‘The Adventures of Pete and Pete’ over the Kardashians any day,” says 20-year-old Walt Disney World performer Kelly Ball.

At age 27, Dilenschneider is at the upper cusp of Generation Y and knows what being a 90s kid was all about. “We were all to young to appreciate or even take notice in the stable political and socioeconomic climate of the decade,” she says. “We’re not wishing for better times, we’re just continuing to enjoy them.”

The video is part of “The People’s Fleet,” a campaign in which Ford provides cars and camera crews to various charitable organizations in Los Angeles. The nonprofits then upload videos of their employees working–not so coincidently in the Ford autos. For example, though the shot of Savage using the Focus’ GPS system seems innocuous, its inclusion is hardly accidental.

Fundamentally, the video is a car ad, but it won’t run on TV and it never explicitly discusses the car, its make or model, its features or price. The people the Ford marketers hope to reach don’t watch TV and aren’t just concerneed with the car’s features.

For years, Millennial was synonymous with unmarketable in advertising circles. As stated by a 2002 study in the Academy of Marketing Studies Journal, “While the potential of the Generation Y market is obvious, determining how to win over Generation Y isn’t.”

Television, mail, and other vehicles of mass marketing are not effective with the under-30 crowd. Instead, they go online to read product reviews before making purchases. Other research suggests they have even as little brand loyalty as their notoriously fickle predecessors, Generation X, albeit with three times the purchasing power.

Now, however, as Generation Y reaches financial maturity, companies have found at least one strategy that works: cause-related marketing. By partnering their for-profit brands with nonprofit organizations, an increasing number of companies hope to curry favor with this burgeoning demographic.

A 2006 survey from the Cone Foundation found that 70 percent of Millennials had bought a product tied to a cause in the previous year, with 89 percent claiming they would switch brands to support a worthy charity.

Haägen-Dazs sell sweet flavors to promote the preservation of the honey bee. Send in 100 box tops and Betty Crocker will send a laptop to a child in Africa. The Pepsi Refresh grants award $20 million to people with worthy ideas. Starbucks sells bracelets that fund new American jobs.

Why does cause marketing work for Gen Y, where other strategies have failed? Experts and Millenials agree it succeeds by appealing to what makes Gen Y unique as a generation: their focus on peer-to-peer communication, their obsession with fairness, and their need to do good.

Tyler Simmons is a Millennial with a unique understanding of how marketers try to reach his generation. Just 28, Simmons runs his own advertising agency, along with three friends, also all Millenials. And because these Generation Y ad men like cause marketing so much, their agency, SEW Creative, specializes in it.

The LA-based SEW created “The People’s Fleet” campaign for Ford. And Simmons claims “The People’s Fleet” perfectly exemplifies his company’s mission: “to make the right thing the profitable thing.”

He also claims the campaign succeeds in reaching Millennials by thinking like them. By using social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube—and of course, promoting worthy causes—“The People’s Fleet” seeks to create a word-of-mouth buzz about Ford in Generation Y.

“The most powerful marketing is peer-to-peer and when you have other people talking about how great you are,” said Simmons. “‘The People’s Fleet’ seeks to accomplish these things. It wasn’t perfect but I believe its core parts are what will be the future of marketing.”

This peer-to-peer focus may explain why cause marketing sidesteps the millennial instinct to tune out ads. Hearing about a product straight from a company causes suspicion, but a friend’s endorsement can lead directly to a purchase.

“They have grown up with so much advertising they’re skeptical of it,” said Pauline Sullivan, associate professor at Texas State University-San Marcos and coauthor of the 2003 study “Cause-related marketing: how generation Y responds.” “They like getting advertisements that are personalized, but they don’t actually believe in the sincerity.”

Certain cause marketing products obviously play on this importance of trends. One campaign, Product RED, supports AIDS research by selling trendy products, such as iPods, sneakers, and laptops, in limited edition red colors. Another recent Nike promotion, “Back to the future,” sells highly collectible shoes, just like the ones Michael J. Fox’s character wore in the movie of the same name, with proceeds going to the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s research.

Other experts, however, think cause marketing goes beyond just about fitting in with a crowd. Kara Peterson, a Dallas-based public relations executive, put the question to Millennials in a 2009 study, using focus groups of individuals age 18-26 to gauge their opinions on cause marketing. In explaining their infatuation with cause marketing, she invokes one of the generation’s more pejorative nicknames: “the Trophy Kids.”

“I think Millennials interest in and affinity for cause marketing is representative of this generation’s desire for fairness where it doesn’t organically exist,” said Peterson. “This is the generation that has grown up getting awards simply for participation – not just winning. Perhaps this has created in Millennials a desire to move toward fairness in all situations, whether it is making a purchase that helps the less fortunate or holding back their spending from companies that treat consumers or employees unfairly.”

And no company simulates the Little League pizza party ethos quite like TOMs shoes, the cobblers that match every pair of shoes sold with a pair donated to a person in need. If everyone deserves a trophy, no matter how hard they hit the ball, why should everyone not deserve fashionable footwear, no matter how little they can afford?

This mindset, however, only partly explains TOMs’ appeal for many Millennials. Jonathan Mayfield, 26, lives in Nashville, Tennessee and works for Apple. He initially discovered TOMs through a magazine article about their philanthropic work. The cause only got him to the TOMs website, however. Mayfield admits he then probably would have bought the shoes regardless of the company’s good deeds. He simply liked the look.

“After viewing the style, and purchasing other styles, they have become a part of my wardrobe,” said Mayfield.

Robin Marantz Henig, author of the influential article “What Is It About 20-Somethings?” and a forthcoming book on Generation Y, believes this compromise between good deed and good buy represents the real appeal of cause marketing. If you were going to buy shoes anyway, why not do something charitable at the same time?

“Millennials in particular often mention ‘making a difference’ as one of their most important life goals,” said Henig, herself a parent of a millennial daughter. “Buying something that’s linked to a charity is an easy way to feel like you’re ‘making a difference’ just by buying stuff you’d buy anyway, but having it be attached in some way to a charity or cause you believe in.”

Henig compares the Millennials to their parents, the Baby Boomers, whose consumerism represented an affront to their parents’ generation. To avoid growing up to be just like their parents, the Echo-Boomers hope to turn their consumerism into an activity that benefits society, not just themselves.

“If there were cause marketing when Baby Boomers were in our twenties, made super-easy by just purchasing something online and clicking on the right button, I think it would have worked really well for us, too,” said Henig.

Consider the original example of “The People’s Fleet.” Perhaps no one will buy a Ford Focus, just because they agreement saw it in some Youtube video. But Ford and Tyler Simmons hope that maybe a Millennial, looking to buy a sedan, with “The People’s Fleet” in the back of their mind, may simply choose the Focus over a similar car.

“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.

In her book “Hooking Up: Sex, Dating, and Relationships on Campus,” sociologist Kathleen A. Bogle attributes this confusion to the use of slang terms. “Slang by definition is an informal and nonstandard language subject to arbitrary change, so it is not surprising that there is some confusion and disagreement over the meaning of the term[s],” she stated in her book. “They mean different things to different people, particularly men compared to women.”

A University of Nebraska-Lincoln study showed that while college students discussed “hooking up” with their peers regularly, they often were not clear about what “hooking up” entailed. The study found that more than half of the students described “hooking up” as “unplanned sexual intercourse,” about 10 percent described it as “not having sex,” while the remaining third indicated that the term was “ambiguous.”

The ambiguities in meanings makes it difficult to know what partners are getting themselves involved in. “I was hooking up with a guy for a long time, going out with him, talking every day, so I thought it was assumed that we wouldn’t hook up with other people,” said Emily B., a junior communications major in California. “But one night he hooked up with three girls. We were clearly not on the same page.”

In an attempt to define these widely-used phrases, an informal, online survey was conducted of 18 college students across the country who gave their own interpretations of these modern-day terms.

Hooking Up: The most ambiguous term used by Generation Y. It can mean anything from making out to sexual intercourse. Generally agreed: hooking up requires no commitment.

Friends With Benefits: Friends who hook up without emotions attached. “People like friends with benefits because they are sexually frustrated and lonely, and it’s an easy way to satisfy that frustration without having to romantically like the person,” said Emily.

Boyfriend/Girlfriend: Exclusivity with someone sexually and emotionally, putting a title on a relationship and being committed. “Once Nick and I made each other our ‘boyfriend’ and ‘girlfriend,’ we were 100 percent exclusive and told other people about each other,” Sara said.

Together with someone: Hooking up exclusively with this person without a title, generally seen as avoiding the final step of commitment. However, some Millennials see it as “hooking up and probably having sex, but not exclusive” or “exclusive, but no love yet.”

Seeing Each Other: Described by Gen Yers as “casual dating,” but can range from just hooking up to “the possibility of a relationship in the future.” In the beginning, Sara would tell people she was “seeing” Nick. “For us, that meant it was more than hooking up. It was dating without being official to the rest of world. There were times when occasionally we would hook up with other people.”

Dating: Ambiguously viewed by Millennials, it is often seen as the same as having a committed boyfriend or girlfriend. However, others define it as going on dates with multiple people. Laura Sessions Stepp, author of “Unhooked: How Young Women Pursue Sex, Delay Love, and Lose at Both,” sees dating as more than hooking up, as there is something more to the relationship than just sexual interest. “This could mean going out with someone and doing something fun, such as going to movies, bars, dancing,” she said.

Going on a Break: Breaking up, but for only a short period of time. Allowing your partner to get involved with others varies from couple to couple. But Millennials find that going on a break is sometimes dangerous. “Don’t kid yourself, just break up already,” said one survey response. Stepp agrees: “Sometimes, a partner may use the phrase as a way to break up without admitting that’s what he/she is doing.“

Open Relationship: Most commonly described as a relationship in which you are allowed to hook up with or date other people. The two people have an “emotional investment” in each other but still can have sexual experiences with others.

Booty Call: What distinguishes a booty call from a hook up is that it is usually sexual intercourse that occurs late at night resulting from a phone call or text, fueled by alcohol or purely sexual desires. It is described by Gen Yers as “no strings attached” or “hit it and quit it.”

Ultimately, because of all this confusion and misunderstanding between couples, Millennials feel as if they are having a harder time finding relationships where they feel comfortable enough in their situation to emotionally connect.

“It’s really hard for things to progress because in most cases, both people don’t know how to act,” said Emily. “Or if they want to become more serious, they don’t know how to get out of the type of relationship that they’re stuck in.”

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.

A new study, however, challenges this presumed link between social networking and self-centeredness. With the lofty title, “Millennials, narcissism, and social networking: What narcissists do on social networking sites and why,” the study found no relationship between narcissism and how much time individuals spend on social networking sites or how often they post “status updates.”

And while the study’s authors—four professors from Appalachian State University and High Point University in High Point, North Carolina—admit social networking may appeal to narcissists, they assert it does not actually create narcissists. Instead, the experts agree with an argument posited by many Millenials: The narcissistic reputation results from the misperceptions of older generations. What looks like self-centeredness to many is actually a vital means of communication, self-expression, and professional advancement for Generation Y.

Shaun Davenport, an associate professor at High Point University and one of the paper’s three authors, believes his and his colleagues’ relatively young ages for academics (all under 40, unlike Jean Twenge) uniquely allowed them to challenge the stereotypes associated with Generation Y and social networking.

“Social networking is so transparent in some ways—you put yourself out there,” said Davenport. “With the older generation that isn’t as comfortable with that openness, they could perceive that as narcissistic because [Millennials] want to be open and have more shallow relationships.”

Indeed, the paper concludes, “While previous generations accomplished this via letter, telephone, or email, the Millennials may simply prefer to connect and communicate via SNSs. Thus, this may not be a sign of pathology, but a product of the times.”

For many, Facebook and similar sites are the easiest way to keep in contact with friends, It’s an update to the phone book, says Matt Vanek, 19, a student at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, adding that making personal information available to so-called “friends” is not self-aggrandizing, just functional.

“When I didn’t know my lab partner’s name after three sessions I tracked him down on Facebook,” said Vanek.

Yet, according to Twenge’s survey data, it is not the type of behavior that makes Generation Y unique, but the numbers. In one highly publicized study, Twenge found that 57 percent of Millennials agreed that their peers used social networking sites for “self-promotion, narcissism, and attention-seeking.”

Wes Davenport and his colleagues, however, argue that, while such behavior might be narcissistic, it does not make the majority of Millennials narcissists. Their research delineates between clinically diagnosed narcissists and subclinical narcissism, “a personality trait that normal, healthy individuals possess to varying degrees.”

Twenge asked if social media was used for attention seeking and self-promotion. 37 percent “agreed somewhat,” while 20 percent “agreed strongly.” To extrapolate these results as proof that 57 percent of Millennials are clinical narcissists—a classification that applies to just one percent of the world’s population—is a stretch, at least for Davenport and his colleagues.

Even Twenge’s use of “self-promotion” as a synonym for “narcissism” betrays a bigger misunderstanding. For some Millennials, the ability to self-promote on social networking sites has become a professional necessity for networking and making other work-related connections.

Indeed, as Davenport concludes, social networking only makes it easier for people to behave in certain ways, not more likely to do so. Social media can help either a budding narcissist or sports reporter, but it will make you neither.

“It’s a lot easier to be a narcissist on social networking sites than via telegram,” he said with a laugh.

Pacing the sidewalks of Zuccotti Park as part of the ongoing Occupy Wall Street protests, Dorman, 28, has  one demand scrawled on his simple cardboard sign: “dissolve all student debt.”

“People are always saying we don’t have a single demand, well here it is,” said Dorman, who failed to find a job after receiving his  environmental engineering major from Rutgers and works instead as a Fedex delivery man to help pay back $30,000 in student loans. “The system is structured so that you enter the workforce already a slave to debt.”

With record tuitions and a fluctuating economy, the risk of investing thousands of dollars into a college education for a guaranteed payoff is greater than ever.

Two weeks ago, President Obama unveiled a loan forgiveness plan limit to 10 percent as the maximum percentage of income that students will have to pay on their loan bills. But some experts believe that the real crisis begins long before graduates start the uphill battle to pay back the loans.

“Every investment is a risk, and the risk is getting a little bit greater today than it was ten years ago,” said Barbara Ray, author of “Not Quite Adults.” “Is college worth it? The answer is ‘yes, but’ and it’s the ‘but’ we have to start thinking about.”

Ray points to the 14 percent unemployment rate among recent graduates as evidence of the increasing risk of investing in college. “What a lot of people forget to add to those unemployment numbers is how many people are ‘underemployed,’” said Ray.

In interviews for her upcoming book about the future of Gen Y in the recession, Ray met many “underemployed,” citing a computer science graduate working as a taxi driver as one poignant example.

Her anecdotal findings were borne out by a study done by the John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers. It found that recent graduates working in a field unrelated to their degree earned roughly a third less income than fellow graduates who found a job in an area related to their major.

Nevertheless, college graduates still earn almost twice the amount of their high school educated peers. So, the tough question for many perspective students is not only “is college worth it,” but “How much should I invest?”

“There is a preponderance of evidence that going to college is worth it as far as a return investment,” said Zac Bissonnette, columnist at the Huffington Post specializing in Gen Y college issues. “But you can’t increase that return investment by going to a more expensive college.”

In 2010, Bissonnette wrote “Debt-Free U: How I paid for An Outstanding College Education Without Loans, Scholarships or Mooching Off My Parents,” while working his way through the University of Massachusetts. In his book, he challenges the idea that spending more money on tuition will significantly increase the return investment after graduation.

And the numbers appear to be on Bissonnette’s side—that same Rutgers study demonstrated that public and private graduates both earned the same salary in their first post-college job. Meanwhile, four-year private colleges charge $28,500 in tuition on average, nearly four times the amount for public universities.

“It’s like buying a Prada bag and then complaining about the credit card bill,” joked Bissonnette about students overpaying for private universities.

Despite Obama’s student debt relief plan, the voices of students swamped in debt seem to be getting louder in Zuccotti Park. Throughout that crisp October evening, Dorman’s sign was a magnet to students, parents and teachers who were eager to discuss news that the nation’s student debt had reached $1 trillion.

Pausing for a moment to look at the sign, one mother lamented about the $100,000 in loans her son had taken out to go to NYU. “The banks own him now,” she said despairingly.

http://www.shinyshiny.tv/2011/02/the_facebook_break_up_notifier.html

Too much information killed college student Katie Ulrich’s relationship. The NYU junior began to suspect her romance was on rocky ground when she and the new flame were not exactly simpatico: She dressed up for dates while he sported sweats; they’d make plans for a day’s outing to Coney Island and he changed his mind just before boarding the train.
Ulrich was willing to let the faux pas slip until an indie concert they planned to attend together. “He called to say he was not feeling well enough to go,” Ulrich said. “I decided not to go either, even though I already bought my ticket.”
That night when Ulrich checked her Facebook newsfeed, she saw her “sick” date’s status: He was going to the concert with a number of tagged friends. After that, “I was done seeing him,” Ulrich said.
Many people have experienced Facebook postings have ending a blossoming relationship. Through the constant status updates, location check-ins, and photo postings, Facebook puts a relationship in hyper speed.
With Facebook, the need for introductory conversations is eliminated. One can find all the information they need simply by friending a person and viewing the profile. A profile is a goldmine listing the entire history of a person’s life through pictures, postings, and status updates. The information overload creates problems for dating — no longer do people learn about each other through interpersonal relations, all it takes is some snooping on their Facebook profile.
NYU graduate student Kristin Buettner experienced an early ending to one romantic relationship thanks to Facebook. “I met a guy, and we started Facebook chatting, G-Chatting and texting all the time,” Buettner said. “He knew everything from what I was doing at work to what I was eating for lunch, and it killed the mystery.”
Buettner realized that while Facebook may seem like a practical replacement to developing a relationship with someone, it is completely artificial. “A computer can do a lot of things,” Buettner said. “But, it can’t replicate romantic chemistry!”
Buettner’s experience with information overload is why Laurie Davis, founder of eFlirt Expert, warns “Friending a match before your first date encourages snooping,” Davis said.
Yet, avoiding Facebook is not an option, says Davis. “The reality of today’s society is that nearly all of our lives are digital,” Davis said.
Facebook’s effects on relationships prompted “Your Tango,” a love advice blog to post an article detailing “Six Things You Do on Facebook That Turn Him Off.” Red flags include ex-bashing, overdoing the “duck lips” pose in profile pictures, too many status updates, hitting the “like” button once too often, having over a thousand friends, and playing online games like Mafia Wars or Farmville.
Facebook can also offer accessibility to a person’s family, perhaps not always the best idea. NYU junior Alexa Modungo decided to get even with her ex-boyfriend when he disrespected her: she found his mother on Facebook.
Modungo dated her ex-boyfriend for five years; they were childhood friends. Growing up in the New York City private school scene, Modungo said they cultivated a deep, intimate relationship. Although, his behavior showed otherwise, “He told me he cheated on me at his grandfather’s 80th birthday party, while I was sitting between his mother and him,” she said.
Modungo’s relationship reached a point where she could no longer tolerate her ex-boyfriend’s behavior. “I took it upon myself,” she said, “to send his mother Facebook messages explaining what a chauvinist she raised.”
Modungo sent 42 messages to be exact, and she blames Facebook to what she now admits was  an over-the-top reaction. “Facebook provides an alternate reality,” she said. “It’s a lot easier to say something on Facebook than in person.”
Modungo’s messages to her ex-boyfriend’s mother fall under what The Wall Street Journal’s Elizabeth Bernstein calls the hover parent (or friend) issue with Facebook. “Before social networking, when you broke up with someone it was easier to disconnect. Although, you could still drive by your ex’s house or call his phone and hang up, to try and check up on him,” Bernstein said. “Now you can spy on that person via Facebook, constantly monitoring his (or her) behavior and analyzing it.”

Vegan dish from the Wild Ginger restaurant

Lucy Drummond became a vegan just before her freshman year at NYU after seeing a documentary on animals suffering on factory farms. Growing up, she and her family regularly ate meat, but since going vegan, she has become an officer of Cruelty-Free NYU, a student-run animal rights club, and has saved approximately 60 animals per year – just by not eating them.

Drummond’s experience is shared by other millennials, who are making the change after watching documentaries on animal cruelty, reading about the vegan lifestyle, or trying to improve their health.

In a recent study, the Vegetarian Resource Group, an organization providing guides to the vegan lifestyle, indicated that the number of vegans increased from roughly 500,000 to more than 1 million over the past three years. Millennials were in large part responsible for the increase, making up roughly 40 percent.

Vegans differ from vegetarians by adhering to more strenuous dietary restrictions. Aside from not eating meat, they refrain from using all other animal products, including eggs, honey, milk, fur, leather, silk and wool.  Despite these restrictions, the lifestyle is attractive to millennials because there is more awareness of what they — and organizations like PETA and the Humane Society— say is cruelty on factory farms.

Marguerite Campbell, NYU senior and president of Cruelty-Free NYU, is another millennial who became vegan after watching a documentary on factory farming, where livestock are raised in a highly crowded and confined area. “When you see dairy cows cry because their calves were dragged away and killed for veal or make chicks thrown into wood chippers on egg farms because they can’t produce eggs, it’s disturbing,” she said. “These animals suffer just like we do.”

Drummond and Campbell represent the new group of socially active vegan students. Over the past few years, they have organized a series of events for prospective vegan students. In one instance, they held a walking tour around NYU’s campus, where students who were interested in going vegan learned where to eat, buy clothes, and grocery shop.

“Students were surprised by the availability of vegan food,” Drummond said, adding that many students were already eating at vegan restaurants such as Wild Ginger, Organic Avenue, and Angelica Kitchen.

At NYU, Campbell and Drummond continue to see an increase in their club’s attendance and in the number of students interested in veganism. Over the past year, attendance to their events has doubled. Yet, outside of urban areas, it is more difficult to follow a vegan lifestyle.

Joseph Gigante, NYU student, found it hard to maintain his vegan lifestyle while at home in N.J. Gigante, who became vegan after reading “Skinny Bitch,” used the vegan diet prescribed in the book as a way to lose weight and stay healthy.

When he initially became vegan, Gigante’s family thought he was going through a teenaged-phase and didn’t take his new lifestyle seriously. Even after he had been vegan for months, his family often forgot he was vegan and cooked meat or bought dairy-products, leaving him with few options for food in his home.

“While veganism is a good way to prevent heart disease and diabetes, staying vegan is hard when you don’t have as many health-food stores around,” Gigante said. “It’s even harder when your family doesn’t understand the lifestyle or when people assume you’re less healthy because you don’t eat meat.”