Talkin' 'bout my generation: From Generation X to X Factor!

Sarah*, 22, an undergraduate, still feels burning shame when recalling her dad's 60th birthday party. After knocking back her third Vodka Coke, she was about ready to hail a cab and pass out in it. Her dad and his entourage of aging city bankers, were just getting started.



Young people like Sarah* are not alone in their reluctance to party as hard as the freedom pass wielders lurking in the corner of your average Central London nightclub. According to sociologists, cycles of generational change can adequately explain this distressing phenomenon. Repelled by the behaviour of our parents, the theory goes that we’re disinclined to repeat their mistakes. Thus, Generation Y has embraced stability and conventional values just as vehemently as the babyboomers had rebelled against them. According to popular American authors, Strauss and Howe, we’re also locked in a cycle of ‘crisis’; unlike our parents who had a major war behind them, we feel that the episodic disasters since the 90s are part of a build-up to a catastrophe of even greater proportions.

A survey of 100 University of London students suggest that we are simply more traditional and stable than our parents: 72% claimed to be in a relationship and when pressed on their drug taking, 68% only' fessed up to the odd toke of a 'dubie' at a particularly riotous house party. My own experiences corroborate this; while my American mother loves to remind me how she skipped her high school prom in favour of an anti war demonstration, my most rebellious memories revolve around smuggling contraband Smirnoff Ice past an overzealous PE teacher. Contrary to the media hype of today’s troubled youth, the US News World Report released in May 1999, reported that alcohol consumption among 17- 18 year olds had dropped from 20% since 1980 and drug usage, teen pregnancy and homicide rates had also decreased.

The recent Taylor Swift and Kanye West scandal was both an example of MTV's marketing genius, and proof that the public will side with the innocent girl next door over the bad boy, who even the President deigned to call a 'jackass' on national television. Whereas the babyboomers and Generation X had made rock gods out of the Rolling Stones, Kurt Cobain and the Sex Pistols, our pop stars are so PG that a stint on the Disney channel now seems to be a prerequisite to career success. Even the iPhone has jumped on the 'born-again' bandwagon, with a new application available this month where users can download a purity ring for just 59p.



Advances in science have confounded our piteous attempts at rebellion as quite frankly, we know too much. While our parents could legitimately argue that they didn't know that cigarettes were bad for you, a typical pack of Marlboro Lites could confront you with anything from images of decaying, yellowing organs to warnings of 'low sperm counts'. As a result, we're no longer interested in the romanticism of the 'live fast, die young' message and instead we want to remain healthy and wrinkle free for as long as possible. Generation Y are also more fiscally cautious. As demonstrated by the rather uplifting Times ad campaign featuring a graduating class under a giant banner with the words “unemployment is at an all time high”, it's no longer viable for us to believe that a good education will automatically pave the way for a comfortable, middle-class life. Instead of partying through our student years without a care in the world, we're facing a prospect of insurmountable overdraft in a limited graduate job market. Joy.

The sad fact is that sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll have been replaced by puppy love, Pinot Grigio and sentimental Indie music. On the upside, if there’s any truth to the pendulum theory, we owe it to our future children to make the most out of our youth, lest Generation Z become a population of pill poppers. So the next time you're contemplating a night in to watch the X Factor, just say no.

CF