Generation Y, the Unsatisfied Consumers

Part of my job involves spending hours at a stretch driving my car to various places around western Victoria. This has a number of results. Firstly i am single handedly keeping some drink manufacturers in business as i purchase beverages to consume during my travels. Second, i may wear my iPod out before it runs out of warranty due to it's providing me with many and assorted tunes whilst on the road. Thirdly, i get plenty of time to think and contemplate and pray about many different things as i drive.

One such thing that has been on my mind recently is something that i heard Mark Sayers talk about at the youth workers conference a while back. much of my thoughts are a result of Mark's information so much of the credit goes to him, but here is what i have been thinking about:

Generation Y are pretty much everyone aged 25 and under. this means that i just fall into this category. Gen. Y have been described as an A.D.D generation, and when you think about it, this is a fair and true statement. Just watch any gen. Y person during their daily life. Think of the teenager doing their homework in front of the TV with the stereo on, texting their friends on their mobile with msn on their computers in case any of their friends are on there too.

For gen. Y life is all about experience. Think about it, when you are introduced to people you are told about some of the experiences that a person has had. Look at the new ads for the Xbox 360, slogans like "Space travel for only $499" or "Visit new places for only $499."

Now look at the increase in use of substances like Ice and Ecstasy and other so called "Party Drugs."

Mark Sayers labels this sort of marketing and lifestyle as Hyper-reality.

Mark Sayers sites people like Paris Hilton, one of the few people who are really only famous for being famous, as examples of this Hyper real world.

Hyper Reality is a culture where everything must be realer than real. Look at some at these so called reality TV shows like survivor, the amazing race and the biggest looser that invade our homes through the TV every night.

When was the last time you heard of someone really being stranded on a deserted island and then getting to vote members off? Reality is that if you are stranded on a desert island the only way off is by rescue or death.

Why would you want to race through so many countries, sometimes only being there for a day at the most, when you miss what a holiday is all about; visiting a new place, seeing the sights, soaking up the atmosphere and learning a new culture?

Loosing huge amounts of weight is easy in short periods of time when you do nothing all day except exercise for four hours with your own personal trainer, have healthy food cooked for you or are shown how to cook healthy food and manage a good diet. Now try doing that in the real world, you show me where i can find four hours to exercise with the personal trainer that i can't afford? Show me how to maintain a healthy diet when you're on the road travelling up to 2 or three nights a week.

But the Hyper real world doesn't stop there.

When was the last time you saw someone express a need to go to the toilet on Home and Away or McLeod's Daughters?

When was the last time something disastrous didn't happen or wasn't just about to happen on one of these shows.

Generation Y is the first generation to be marketed to since they were old enough to understand the TV.

Is it any wonder that so many young people around the world are suffering depression when they realise that their life has none of the experiences that TV and other influences promised them they would?

Can you blame them for turning to Ice or Ecstasy or whatever to find a new 'experience'?

Do the youth of today see God as just another experience that will work for some, but not for them?

Perhaps we need to show people that although God can be experienced in the High times of life, God is also in the mundane parts of life; the dragging of one's self out of bed on a Monday morning to shuffle off to work or school again; eating the same food again and again; doing the dishes yet again 'cos they're dirty yet again; etc. etc.

I believe that Jesus offers a reality completely different to the hyper real world, and even to the real world.

Jesus offers a reality where we love our neighbours, AND care about them, a reality where we bless those who curse us, love those who hate us, offer more when much is demanded of us, simply turn the other cheek when we are struck, perhaps even provide aid to countries that are hotbeds of unrest and anti-west sentiment, not so that we can trade or use it as leverage for our own gain, but simply because they need it and we have it.

Imagine what the world might be like if this was the reality in our lives?