Recession generation? Young adults brace for simpler lifestyle
— -- At age 26, Angela Trilli doesn't think she's one of those so-called materialistic Millennials she has heard about — young people who are absorbed with themselves and their consumption.
She says she's a saver, not a spender, but unlike many of her peers who didn't have much to lose in this struggling economy, she says she lost $15,000 — about half of the savings she built up since childhood.
"It's a very insecure world out there," says Trilli, of Kendall Park, N.J., who works in marketing for a non-profit. "It was a little shocking to the system. You think things are going in a certain way, but you can't expect that things are always going to be the same."
The Millennial generation, or Gen Y, ranges from people in their 20s to those still in grade school. But what they all have in common is the knowledge that the recession has in some way shattered the world they thought they knew. And, depending upon how long the downturn lasts, historians, economists and psychologists say it could shape Millennials' values and attitudes in much the same way the Depression shaped the attitudes of those growing up in the 1930s.
"I call it the end of Disney World," says Michael Bradley, an adolescent psychologist in suburban Philadelphia. But now, young people are reordering their values.
"It is their version of the American Dream," he says. "They talk more about having autonomy and freedom, and in so doing, not being as enslaved to material goals that they perceived their parents being caught up in. They do talk about life happiness not based on economic success or achievement as much."
Although many surveys have tried to gauge the economy's effect on Americans, few have focused on Millennials. But one survey in February by the New York City-based marketing and advertising agency JWT (formerly J. Walter Thompson) focused on the recession's effect on this group.
The survey of 1,065 Americans 18 and older, including 243 ages 18-29, suggests 60% feel their generation is being dealt an unfair blow because of the recession. But some see opportunity, as well. For example, 44% say they might be able to afford a house now that home prices have plummeted; 25% say that if they have trouble finding a job, they'll just start their own business.
Young and newly frugal
The virtues of simple living now coming into vogue especially strike a chord with Millennials, whom pollster John Zogby describes as more socially conscious, environmentally aware and demanding as consumers than previous generations.
