We often hear the terms “millennials” and “generation Y” being used in the media but “Generation K” may be new to many. Not so if you have heard about Noreena Hertz’s research into what drives this generation of young people born between 1995 and 2002.
In her efforts to understand the hopes and fears of this group as they rapidly approach adulthood, Hertz interviewed 2000 young Brits and Americans. The economist, originally from East Finchley, unveiled her research at the World Economic Forum in 2015 and has provided us with some startling insights.
She observes that the way this group see the world has been shaped by having grown up in a time of uncertainty, having witnessed the effects of the 2008 global recession, the threat of terrorism, and growing concerns around climate change.
It might not come as a surprise then that worrying about the future is one of the defining traits of this generation. The threat of terrorism and climate change were both major anxieties held by the young people surveyed. As were worries about personal future employment and debt.
This dystopian outlook was the inspiration behind the name “generation K” , borrowed from hunger games heroine Katniss Everdeen.
Hertz’s research isn’t all doom and gloom though. A more hopeful finding of her research was “generation K’s strong sense of social justice. This generation gives more money to charity than any other in terms of percentage of income. They also believe strongly in gender and race equality and fairness. It may be that these ethical young folk are reacting to some of the injustices they have seen, perhaps not first hand but readily available on their smartphones.
It seems they are also prepared to work hard to reach their lofty ambitions. This group see career success as an imperative, ahead of marriage and children. And they are prepared to sacrifice the hedonistic lifestyles of their predecessors to get there, with this group drinking and taking drugs less than past generations.
The findings of this research as Hertz notes will have a profound impact on things like consumption and spending patterns. It may also indicate a short fall in the usual way we measure societal wellbeing. Of the 1000 young girls and women who took part in the survey, some 22% percent had considered suicide, reflecting a darker side of this dystopian outlook. This worrying statistic may not be visible in large scale economic studies but warrants attention. Perhaps information gathering tools like the national census should dedicate more of their questions to personal wellbeing in order to get a fuller picture of society.
It seems like a mixed bag for generation K, but as this group rapidly enters adulthood, the more we understand their motivations and fears the more we can support them.
