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.”

Evan maintains relationships through Facebook with his friends from high school and his two ex-girlfriends. He checks what his friends have been doing through photos, and he talks to them through Facebook chat and video chat.“I find myself constantly logging on, whether I’m at home or in class,” he said. “I talk to the same people, and this has allowed me to become closer with them.”

The growing number of interactions on Facebook can make people unsure of how to present themselves online warns Patricia Wallace, author of “The Psychology of the Internet.”

“The individual is in a quandary about how to present their persona,” Wallace said. “They might feel free to make a dumb joke that high school friends might admire, but people they met more recently may find that very juvenile.”

This “audience confusion issue,” as Wallace calls it, can make it difficult for people to escape their old stereotypes, and it distracts them from focusing on their current relationships. When it comes to old friends, editor Fischoff believes the entanglement of high school could be more powerful than that of the new environment.

“It’s really a track record. What happens in high school doesn’t stay in high school if you keep putting it out there,” he said. “It might have a retarding effect on your ability to get to know people.”

While Evan enjoys how Facebook makes it so easy to stay in touch with friends, he believes that people spend too much time on Facebook  “We hold on to memories more, and we become more nostalgic as we look through old photos,” he said.

Though Facebook makes it harder for friends to detach from the pleasant memories they have together, it often has a more drastic effect when it comes to letting go of exes. A survey by yourtango.com found that 48 percent of people admitted to looking at their exes’ Facebook too often.

 Alana*, a 19-year-old fashion student at Pratt Institute, found that she couldn’t begin moving on from her ex-boyfriend until they were no longer Facebook friends. For a year and a half she checked up on his profile multiple times a day, at first watching as her old boyfriend changed his profile picture with her and then as he gradually untagged their photos together. “Facebook doesn’t generally help the healing time when you shouldn’t be talking to someone,” said Alana. “You are still so closely linked to their life and what they are doing.”

Ilana Gershon, a professor at Indiana University and author of “Breaking Up 2.0: Disconnecting Over New Media,” studied college-aged students and the habits they formed post-break-up while using new media sites.“In breakups, you often want to know what the other person is thinking or how they are doing,” Gershon said. “You have the sense that you can find out by checking their Facebook profile. However, you actually don’t always manage to get that information that satisfies through these technologies. It doesn’t seem to provide the closure you were hoping to get.”

Frustrated with the jealousy and stalking that Facebook instigates, blogger Jay Dolan started his website, theantisocialmedia.com, a satirical blog about today’s social media. He writes about issues from unfriending an obsessive ex to breaking away completely from social media sites. His posts come from experiences he personally has and the things he commonly sees on social networks.

“The constant access is a problem,” said Dolan. “It’s something we have to deal with, and lot of people don’t know how.”

Dolan’s posts reflect the turning point of these new technologies and means of communication, but he recognizes that their impact is full of possibilities as well. For Alana, Facebook made it hard for her to get over her ex-boyfriend. But it also allows her to keep in touch with friends from preschool to her old dance classes.“I think it’s beneficial that Facebook helps you keep a wide network of people,” she said. “But I also believe that you wouldn’t stay in contact with 75% of the people you usually do if it wasn’t for Facebook.”

*People’s names have been changed due to request for privacy

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.”

Gunja, a 2007 NYU graduate, is the line producer for WNYC’s early morning radio program “The Takeaway.” And though she thought her prospects for a journalism job after college were bleak, with hard work, dedication and a little bit of luck, Gunja is now running a nationally syndicated news show with an audience approaching one million. She readily admits it’s further than she imagined being just four short years ago. And though the hours are taxing on the young producer, she knows that news never sleeps.

The Last Line of Defense: The line producer job is really the last line of defense before the show goes on the air live. I’m looking at the entire show from a big picture viewpoint and seeing if what we have makes sense. The other job is to look at the individual segments and see if what we have is up-to-date, if the writing is where we want it to be and if the guest we’re putting on are who we want delivering our information.

Waking Up is Hard to Do: I try to go to bed at 7 to 8 p.m., and I make 9 p.m. the cutoff point. The other hard part of the shift is that your social life really takes a hit. But the way I’ve always viewed these shifts are when you work in journalism you’re working odd hours because things have to be fast, 24 hours a day. I guess I do see it as a sacrifice, but I also see it as a reality of this job and the type of industry I work in.

Playing the Game Right: I think if you want to be a journalist, and you live in a city like New York, it’s almost no excuse not to take advantage of all those elements and to make them work in your advantage. There should be no semester, no summer when you are not applying for everything that’s available in New York.

Getting Her Start: I think people get caught up in the idea that if you don’t work at the biggest places, then you aren’t making it. For me, I started working in really tiny places. My first internship was at the online magazine, the Gotham Gazette, which I’m sure no one has heard of, but it’s an incredible publication. My next internship was at a really small news magazine called The New York Resident. And then, I got an internship at NPR. But for me to get my internship at NPR all I had to do was intern at two very small places and do well. So I would say really intern anywhere, but while you’re there do a really great job. Don’t get caught up with names.

Her Takeaway: My one piece of advice is while it’s really important to know how to be a journalist, the most important thing is to be smart. What I mean when I say to be smart is to have some sort of expertise in something. I would say major in something else, minor in something else – it doesn’t matter what it is as long as you know it really, really well because that’s ultimately what you’re providing as a journalist. Sell yourself on that as much as you sell yourself on being a great journalist.

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 expressed face to face. With texting, also makes it easy to deceive other people about actual whereabouts. Perhaps most damaging to relationships, the immediacy of texting—and the expected response– creates insecurity when it comes to unanswered texts. According to AT&T’s 2008 survey on texting, 84 percent of those surveyed believed that text messages can sometimes be misunderstood by a date or suitor.

Dating coach Vanessa Taylor, author of  “Text. Love. Power. The Ultimate Girls Relationship Guide for Texting and Dating in the New Millennium,” rejects texting entirely when it comes to relationships. She tells women to put down their phones if they and approach dating by acting as the hard-to-get girl. A woman is supposed to act busy, carefree, with a hint of mystery. “I see no benefit to texting and have several clients who never text with men,” explains Taylor, “It has been my experience that relationships fare better and make it through the beginning stages of courtship when women are not easily accessible.”

While it might seem nearly impossible for the current generation to even imagine not texting a date, Taylor believes texting is a too casual way to communicate with someone, and a girl should never be treated casual when it comes to dating. Taylor explains that a woman should not settle for texting and if a man really wants to be in a relationship with her he’ll call her. Until then, Taylor says a man who can’t pick up the phone and call a woman isn’t worth dating in the first place.

Todd Perkins, an NYU junior abroad in Prague this fall semester, uses texting because his girlfriend is in New York City. “It’s great that I can stay in touch with my girlfriend, but you really have to be careful because you never want to have all your interactions via text or rely on texting too much,” said Perkins, “Especially if there’s an important discussion that needs to be had, texting is by no means the proper medium for sorting anything out.” Instead Perkins thinks that whenever there is a conversation that has to be had that could be misunderstood if discussed via texting, that the effort should be made to either call or video chat your significant other.

Another dating coach, Nina Atwood, author of “Temptations of the Single Girl: The Ten Dating Traps You Must Avoid” and explains that texting can be a “fun tool” in a loving, committed relationship. “My husband travels with his job and we often text little love notes and pictures, but you don’t have to be married for texting to work in a positive way,” explained Nina, “You just need to be in a solid relationship and use it for little touches and checking in – never for issues.”

Atwood explains how in the past few generations of women have allowed guys to win their attention without having to do anything. She believes that in the past women set their standards much higher for men and demanded respect, and that texting has allowed men to be much more careless when it comes to dating. A man can send out multiple text messages and then decide whom to take on a date from the responses he receives.

“I think the net effect of texting is negative,” said Elsie Smith, a recent Wesleyan University graduate. “There are positives in that it can help you feel close to a significant other when you can’t see them, but the room for misinterpretation at the beginning of relationships is a really negative aspect of texting.”

When you first meet someone there are a lot of things that you have yet to learn about him or her. You don’t know their schedule and nor do you know how stressful or time demanding it is. Because of this not getting a response from someone can be switched to they’re not interested instead of they’re busy. The fact that it’s printed word, but also because so many different things can be misunderstood, even just the time length it took for someone to text back can cause confusion.

The tone of texting can make us seem important and busy, and come off cool and collected. In reality anyone in a relationship or interested in someone expects an immediate response to texts. If the response isn’t right away then questions of “Is he or she still interested?” or “Did I do something wrong?” or “Is everything okay?” are easily jumped to. Texting creates instability but the reality is that keeping on constant contact isn’t the exception now.

“Texting is the singular reason that I am in any form of relationship now, as sad as that sounds,” explained Joshua Jobs, a junior at NYU, studying abroad in London this semester can be a valuable tool when far apart. “Regardless of the fact that I’m abroad and have no other way to communicate with anyone not here, I could never be in a relationship without texting someone. I like being able to have an instant connection with someone, regardless of the distance and regardless of the misunderstandings.”

In the past a guy would say, “I’ll call you next week,” and never call. A guy now can say, “I’ll text you next week,” and never send a text. The thing about texting is that it can be much more hurtful. “By waiting longer to reply, one can implicitly communicate I have no actual need to communicate with you, I’m just choosing to do so,” explained Benjie Messinger-Barnes, a math teacher at Rutgers Preparatory School. “When a guy receives a text message from a female, they may intentionally wait an hour or two to reply to give off this impression. Of course, it can work in the opposite direction just as easily, so I don’t believe texting gives a man or woman more power. I do think that it’s much more hurtful for a guy to not respond and I think that leads to a lot of insecurity when it comes to texting in relationships.”

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.

A study in 2010 by ChildTrends.org, a group that does research on adolescence and teen trends, found that a majority of 13-17 year olds express a stronger belief in a religion and a deity. But between the ages of 18-23, the importance of religion declines.

Akers began feeling this way after spending high school surrounded by a very traditional Mormon community.  Her experiences and interactions began to affect the way she felt about Mormonism.

“I was Mormon for four years. When I came to college, I realized that every person makes mistakes,” said Akers. “Regardless of what I thought about Mormonism being an understanding religion, it wasn’t at all.”

Akers describes being criticized by her Mormon community at home after they learned she had engaged in activities like going to parties, even though she abstained from drinking.  Many millenials who are entering the college feel that the pressure of being in school makes following religion difficult.

Nick Ritacco, a 20-year-old acting student at NYU, began feeling this way after graduating from a private, Catholic high-school in Chicago and moving to an extremely liberal arts school in the heart of New York City.  He was as a confirmed Catholic towards the end of his high school career, a decision he took very seriously. But once he started at NYU, he began to realize the difficulty of maintaining Catholic traditions while balancing school.

Chatting on a Sunday morning, Ritacco laughed when asked about going to church. “Well as you can see, its noon on a Sunday and I did not wake up and go to church. I’d rather sleep,” he said.  “It’s not really appealing to get up and walk all the way to Saint Peter’s. Especially when you’re exhausted with everything else you’re doing.”

ChildTrends.org also reports that “belief in God, religiosity decline during the college years, but other measures of spirituality increase.”

Akers feels that this is what happened to her after she broke with the Mormon Church.

“I still find things very morally important. You shouldn’t hurt other people and you should pursue happiness,” said Akers. “It’s the basic rules of any religion without any deity or any sense that I might be going to hell. “

While Ritacco still identifies at Catholic, he also believes that it’s the principles that makes religion important, not the traditions.

“Being a good person is what’s important,” said Ritacco. “Sure, I’d like to be able to say that I go to church every Wednesday and Sunday, but I don’t have time and it’s not as important.”

But despite a move away from organized religion and tradition, many members of Gen Y want to maintain some sort of faith. In 2010, USA Today found that 72% of millenials classify themselves as “spiritual,” regardless of whether or not they are aligned with religion.

“I would still technically call myself Catholic,’” said Ritacco. “I follow some of the traditions – I go to mass on holidays and take communion. I’ll pray every once in a while. But I don’t feel obligated to attend any weekly services or follow Catholicism in my daily life. But I think I’d still like to have a Christian marriage.”

Akers laughed and said she hadn’t thought that far ahead when asked about a Christian marriage. But even though she doesn’t associate herself with Mormonism or any other religion, she’s very happy with her sense of faith and spirituality.

“My faith is more about people than a deity.  I have the power to see what is right and wrong and I have a strong sense of morality,” said Akers. “I’m more okay with who I am as a person and where I’m going. And I don’t feel the need to hold myself to religious standards.”

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.

Religious affiliation is declining in emerging adults, according to a 2010 study by the Pew Forum for Religious and Public Life. Today, 26 percent of Americans ages 18 to 25 say they do not identify with any religious group, representing a 200 percent increase over the last two generations. Despite this dramatic increase, however, a vast majority of Generation Y admits that while they’ve strayed from the path of traditional religion passed down to them by their parents, 72% say they still believe in God. This notion of a God outside of standard religion is one held my many young adults.

Elise,* 21, a senior at New York University, was raised in a Roman Catholic household in Buffalo. As she matured, Elise began to reassess some of the teachings of the church, realizing that many of the stories told in church services were more cautionary tales than absolute truth. “When you’re a kid you believe that if you do something bad you’re going to hell, but as I grew up I was able to stand up for what I actually believed,” she said.

While her parents – who she describes as conservative – have begun to come to terms with Elise’s nonreligious life, difficulties still arise in the parent-child relationship. “My parents aren’t stuck in their ways, they’re open-minded people,” Elise said, and yet the reality that their daughter has left the Catholic Church is ignored when she goes home. Though she doesn’t attend church services in Manhattan, Elise still shuffles along to church with Mom and Dad when she visits home, regardless of her own feelings. “I go because I feel like telling them ‘I’m not coming with you’ would put a big barrier in the relationship.”

Now living on her own, Elise doesn’t see any value in practicing Catholicism. “I feel like I don’t need religion in my life anymore,” Elise said. “It gave me the foundation for who I am, but I still have my morals. I know what’s right and wrong, so I don’t think I need to go to church anymore.” Elise attributes some of her current values to the church, but she places a greater emphasis elsewhere. “My family taught me what was right and wrong, and the church just reinforced it,” Elise said.

Like Elise, many 18 to 25 year olds often venture away from religion as they establish their own individual identities, according to scholars. Anthony Petro, an NYU Faculty Fellow who specializes in American religion, explained that the early twenties are a time for self-exploration. “Many young adults have a ‘seeker mentality’ where they are looking something different than what they were raised,” Petro said, noting that the trend of changing religion can be as subtle as switching from one denomination to another, or as great as moving to an entirely new religious tradition.

The digression from religion in the late teens and early twenties in not a new trend, according to Petro. As American culture as evolved over the last 50 years, Petro noted, the idea of having no religion has become more accepted and non-stigmatized, resulting in an increase of openly agnostic, or even atheist, citizens. Added to that, the increasing media criticism focused on Catholicism and other faiths has made questioning religious institutions more commonplace. “Many young become have become skeptical of the Church and its practices and beliefs,” Petro said. “Those who tend to be more engaged in religion today are putting an emphasis on social issues rather than the political ones stressed by religious institutions.”

The move away from organized religion can also be attributed to the introduction of Eastern religions – like Buddhism or Hinduism – that put an emphasis on individual spirituality as opposed to communal religion. While individual experience is significant in these religions, there is still a sense of collectiveness within them. “It’s not a free-for-all where everything goes,” Petro points out. “There’s a longer tradition that people are tapping into, a tradition of ‘zen’ and yoga that has emerged with this idea of the spiritual.”

The sense of spirituality drew Jimmy Burgio, 23, to Hinduism. A yoga instructor in Manhattan, Burgio was raised in a strict Catholic household. On his path to find a religion that best fit his own views, Burgio was introduced to Hinduism, and the religion stuck. “The Church’s stance on political topics – and everything that was in the media as I was growing up – made me skeptical of Catholicism,” Burgio said. “But I really liked the idea of all the Catholic saints so I was seeking something similar to that.”

Coupled with the numerous “devas” – the Hindu equivalent to Catholic saints – and the intense ritualistic devotion of Hinduism, Burgio not only took to the practices of his new religion but its belief system as well. Like many Gen Yers, Burgio describes himself as “spiritual,” not religious. Maintaining a healthy spiritual life is at the center of every day for him; Burgio believes in karma and strives to treat everyone as he would want to be treated in return. Burgio also believes that God is present in all things and in all people, meaning that everything around him should be treated with respect. “The goal is to do everything because you have to, but because you love to,” Burgio said.

*This name was changed at the request of the source.

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.”

College sex educators have found that many students have basic questions about sexuality that should have been answered in sex ed courses in middle school or high school. Here are the most common misconceptions that college students have about sex, and the ways that educators attempt to remedy them.

Dr. Paul Joannides is a walking-talking sex-advice column, minus the diva plus ten years of graduate school. Traveling from college-to-college across the United States, Joannides lectures students on the female orgasm, pornography, contraception and other sex-related topics. His book, “The Guide to Getting It On,” may make parents uncomfortable—what with the Grecian god cartoons with swollen, foot-long penises—but Joannides aims to change unhealthy, common misconceptions that college students have about sex through the frank discussion of topics that most kids weren’t taught in middle school or high school.

“Being in a room with 300 or 400 students,” Joannides explains, “I’ll ask, ‘how many of your parents, when you were little or growing up, told you what a clitoris was?’” The response to this question is usually, very few. Parents who do not want to talk to their kids about nitty-gritty sex issues normally rely on education in schools to teach their children about sex.” But sex education leaves out a lot: basic questions about sex that these kids then carry with them to college.

The average age that teens start having sex is 17, according to various sexual health sources; senior year of high school or freshman year of college for most kids.. On his college tours, Joannides sometimes meets with groups of female students to discuss sex issues directly related to women. “What has stunned me is how basic their questions are,” Joannides says. “A lot of them ask about birth control.” Although most college women have heard of the various types of contraception, Joannides has found that they still have many questions regarding usage and side effects.

According to the most recent study by the Guttmacher Institute for sexual health, most teens (ages 15 to 19) have received some sort of sex education, however, one-third of these teens have not received any formal instruction about contraception. In fact, 46 percent of teen males and 33 percent of teen females did not receive any instruction on birth control before they first had sex.

Sarah, a 20-year old New York University student, says she still has questions about birth control, even though she has been sexually active and taking the pill for almost two years. “I went to a gynecologist when I decided to start taking the pill,” Sarah says. “I just wish I grew up knowing more about it and being comfortable with it, instead of freaking out any time something unexpected happens with my period, and then calling my doctor.”

College sex educators like Joannides suggest that much of the added confusion surrounding birth control could be a result of false or deceiving information on the Internet. However, a new sex education campaign was begun last month that innovatively aims to use the Internet as a tool to teach sexually active women about contraception.

The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, a grassroots movement that provides sex education information to universities and other organizations, has launched an initiative, called Bedsider, specifically designed to create a network for women ages 18 to 29, who have questions about birth control.

Bedsider is a three-year multimedia public-service campaign, with an interactive website, a Facebook page, a Twitter feed and fun, quirky commercials, created by the Ad Council. “Bedsider’s a great alternative if Sex Ed 101 isn’t in your course catalog and a great supplement even if it is,” says Howard University student Khalea Underwood, who interns at the National Campaign.

In a blog post for College Candy, Underwood describes the limitations of college sex education: the very occasional sex awareness programs, the unread pamphlets doctors’ offices and the oh-so-cliché condom bowls at the front desk of college dorms. “Bedsider features real stories from people our age who tell us about their contraceptive preferences,” says Underwood. “I love Bedsider because of its honesty.”

The National Campaign’s use of the Internet as a learning tool comes as a welcome change for many sex educators who have seen the Internet as a hub of information that can be easily misinterpreted. Dr. Kathryn Stamoulis, educational psychologist and writer for Psychology Today’s “New Teen Age” blog, describes the dangers of online media on teens’ perceptions of sexuality. Stamoulis suggests that if kids do not get answers to their sex questions from their schoolteachers or parents, they’ll turn to the Internet, and sometimes they’ll turn to pornography. “Even if students are lucky enough to get sex education in the classroom, it’s just not enough,” Stamoulis says. “A lot of teenagers are learning what sex is through porn, which is acting. It’s not real.”

According to Family Safe Media, the average age of a child’s first exposure to pornography online is 11 years old. Porn watching has created misconceptions in the minds of women about the way they are supposed to act during sex. “These women in porn are contorting into positions that may not be pleasurable for the female body,” says Stamoulis. “Women watching porn in turn try to perform sex, instead of experience it.”

Similarly, Joannides is concerned with how pornography shapes male conceptions about sex. “Where is anyone going to turn in the absence of credible information?” he asks. “Males at least are going to turn to porn because that’s what’s out there.” This is worrisome because, Joannides explains, in porn there are no honest conversations between couples about what the two individuals want. Instead there is a very generic depiction of what turns women on. “Men just assume that all you do is whip out this enormous dick and she’s going to be in seventh heaven.”

In addition, Joannides believes that pornography reinforces the idea that men are dominant and sex experts. In his experience with college males, he’s found that most guys are insecure about asking questions relating to sex because masculinity is seen as mastery. “If they ask a bunch of questions about sex it might give others a clue that they don’t know everything,” Joannides explains. “And maybe they’re a bit of a weenie.” However, the most common questions that guys ask Joannides have to do with female sexuality: how do female orgasms work, what is a clitoris, and why do some women respond one way to sex while others respond in other ways?

For Joannides, an important lesson that he teaches to college-aged males is, “Hey you actually talk to women about sex!” This assumption that males are dominant in the bedroom usually leads to sexual discrimination and a lack of communication in real relationships, which is harmful to both parties.

In terms of asking questions, many universities have health services with comprehensive sex education councilors that are willing to answer the dirtiest of sex-related questions. Columbia University’s “Go Ask Alice!” service was rated this year’s best college sex education service in the country by The Daily Beast. It is a web-based Q&A resource for students that answer a wide range of questions, from sex advice to questions about STDs.

Reina, a 21 year-old Columbia University student, describes “Go Ask Alice!” “When I started having sex, I had no idea what I was doing,” Reina says. “I went to ‘Go Ask Alice!’ typed in my questions and realized that I wasn’t the only one freaking out! It was such a relief.”

Joannides and Stamoulis agree that having conversations about sex—with partners, friends, or on online forums—is extremely important. It may be a long time until educators find the best way to teach kids about sex, but in the meantime, honest answers to sex-related questions are becoming more and more available to those who ask.

The students interviewed for this piece asked to have their real names withheld.