Research Roundup

Lifeline: Risky Business

• May 31st, 2012
• ypulse

Introducing Ypulse's new syndicated subscription service, Lifeline!

Lifeline is simple: a feed of Millennial insights into your organization. More in-depth than our Daily Update, the annual subscription includes 10 topical deep dive reports delivered throughout the year (including an interactive webinar presentation of each), consulting hours with our team of experts, as well as question units to be run in our omnibus tools. Each report also includes full data tables from the 1,500 13-34s we poll. These reports are going to cover a broad range of key industry categories and topics throughout the year — from Food Culture to Politics to Entertainment — always positioned to look at how businesses are evolving to reflect this unique generation of youth, the Millennials.

Though known to be a risk-averse generation, we took a close look at how Millennials' are interfacing with traditionally risky teen behavior such as illegal activities, alcohol, drugs, and sex.

Perhaps the greatest risk Millennials take — knowing the danger involved — is texting while driving. Despite the number of public service campaigns targeting young drivers, more than a third use their phones to text or go online while behind the wheel. Although they’re a risk-averse generation, the allure of their phones is too great for Gen Y. The messages about the dangers of smoking and drugs that Millennials heard while growing up seem to have gotten through. As a result, very few are smokers, and under 18s particularly eschew smoking. Very few use drugs. Marijuana, however, is a slightly different story. Most don’t see it as a serious drug, so they’re far more likely to have tried it than other, harder drugs.

Millennials also don’t think drinking, including underage drinking, is a big deal. Their parents and the media treat it casually — it is depicted in their favorite TV shows and movies. In some cases, their parents (“peerents”) are the ones who introduce them to drinking, allowing them to drink under their supervision. Even if the law says they should be 21, most Millennials have sampled a wide variety of alcoholic drinks. On average, they start drinking, unsupervised, at age 17.

To download the report — free until June 30! — visit the Ypulse store. Visit the Ypulse Research page to learn more about the Lifeline subscription.