The Wiley Blackwell Encyclopedia of Consumption and Consumer Studies

Generation Y

JOERI VAN DEN BERGH

InSites Consulting, The Netherlands

DOI: 10.1002/9781118989463.wbeccs131

Generation Y, or Gen Y, refers roughly to those born between 1980 and 1996, so named due to their following Generation X. Also known as “the Millennials,” as the first generation to come of age in the new millennium, they have many other nicknames, such as Generation Why, Generation Search, Generation Next, the Net generation, the digital natives, the dot-com generation, Echo Boomers, etc. Regardless of label, they share the experience of being the children born of the children of the Baby Boom generation.

Marketers and other observers attribute many characteristics to this generation, many of whom now are becoming parents themselves. They are thought to have been inculcated with a sense of individual empowerment, and perhaps entitlement; a generation who are impatient with standard work practices and pathways of promotion and reward. In part this attitude toward work and life is said to have been cultivated by Baby Boom parents who tended to treat them more as equals, valuing their opinions in decision making, from family life to consumer purchases, compared to earlier generations. As “stimulus junkies,” they have a shorter attention span and an irrepressible need for instant gratification. Gen Y get along well with their parents. They report fewer fights with mum or dad than older adults say they had with their own parents when they were growing up. A consequence of Gen Y's ...