Ypulse Exclusive: Judy Woodruff On Generation Next

The folks at PBS led by veteran broadcast journalist Judy Woodruff have spend the past year traveling the country interviewing "Millennials" and experts for a series called "GENERATION NEXT: Speak Up. Be Heard." which will debut on PBS stations January 12. They also worked with journalists at USA Today who have been reporting and blogging about Gen Y for the past several months. I interviewed Judy Woodruff over email about her experience working on the project. Mark your calendars. This program is a "must watch" for Ypulse readers.

Ypulse: What surprised you most about this generation or challenged a stereotype you may have had before you started this project?

Judy Woodruff: Everyone has their heroes – leaders, visionaries, people they admire in public life. Or so I thought. As part of the poll we conducted with the Pew Research Center which will be released in conjunction with our hour-long special on PBS, we asked young people to name some of their heroes. Although some named public figures, unlike older respondents many young people named people they have personal relationships with, including family members, teachers and bosses. When I asked Andy Kohut of the Pew Research Center, he said he thought that politicians had lost their allure some time ago. Whereas older generations knew the likes of Kennedy and Reagan, this generation has never had the same type of galvanizing public figure. Recent scandals in Washington have not helped politicians’ images either.

Another point of interest: Gen Nexters’ relationship with their parents. Almost half of all young adults talk to their parents everyday on the telephone (not to mention email, text messaging and, for some, instant messaging). Young people today seem to have a much more open relationship with their parents than previous generations had. Marketers, employers, and Gen Nexters that I spoke to all seem to agree that the parent-child relationship has changed. This is a generation is characterized by “helicopter parents” who told their children to follow their dreams and that they could be whatever they wanted to be when they grew up.

Newsletter readers: Visit the site for the rest of the interview.

YP: This generation is often referred to as armchair activists — or a generation that expresses their politics through their pocketbooks - texting donations or buying socially responsible products as opposed to taking it to the streets. What was your impression of how this generation expresses social activism and their connection (or disconnection) to traditional electoral politics?

JW: Buying socially responsible products is certainly one form of activism, and this generation has a huge amount of buying power, to the tune of $485 billion, from figures that I have seen. Certainly using one’s pocketbook to express their politics is one way to effect change. But I’m not sure that it replaces “taking it to the streets,” or taking it to the voting booth.

One stereotype that’s well known — and perhaps justified until recently — was the lack of political participation by young people. In the 2000 election, only 36% of 18-24 year-olds voted, compared to 63% of older citizens. With the exception of the presidential election in 1992, young voter turnout had been on the decline since 1972, when 18-20 year-olds first had the opportunity to vote.

But in 2004, the number of young adults who voted jumped 11 percentage points, to 47% participation. That was a larger increase than any other age group, and outpaced the increase among 25-and-older voters by eight percentage points.

Young people aren’t out of the woods yet; they still vote in far fewer numbers than their elders. The 2008 election will determine whether youth participation will continue to rise, or whether 2004 was an aberration.

YP: What is stressing this generation out the most and why (as compared to previous generations)? What are the effects of this stress?

JW: These young adults want to be successful, both at home and at work. Doing well in high school and (for those who attend) college, finding a job that both satisfies them and provides job security, managing their finances, and having a family — they are the same concerns that prior generations had as they came of age. However, for Generation Next, I think some of the problems are more acute.

For those who attend college, it takes an average of five years to obtain a degree, assuming that the student stays in school and does not drop out for a period. Two-thirds of 4-year college graduates have to take out loans to finish school. By the time they graduate, they owe about $19,000, nearly 60% higher than a decade ago (inflation adjusted). Whereas they may have been told that they had time to figure out a career after college, such a high debt burden adds pressure and tends to speed up the decision-making process!

I’ve also heard this generation described as “entitled” by many experts and Gen Nexters themselves. Young people want jobs that reward and challenge them, and they’ve been encouraged to follow their passions. But when they have college debt to manage and they’re looking for the perfect job to satisfy them, that adds pressure as well.

For those who don’t finish college or go at all, they face a job market that increasingly values a college degree. Outsourcing and globalization put pressure on blue-collar professions and workers across the board think that loyalty between employers and employees has dropped.

However, as you’ll see in our poll, this generation is still incredibly optimistic about the future. Youthful naiveté? We’ll see…

YP: What do you think the biggest challenge for this generation will be as they move into adulthood - at work, as parents, etc.?

JW: For one, getting along with older generations! I filed a report for The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer on generational differences in the workplace. Young adults have such a firm grasp on technology – computers, the internet, cell phones, and so on. Not only are they more familiar with the different technologies, but they also know how to use them to increase flexibility in their schedules and with regard to where and how they do their work. As Stan Smith, who studies generational differences at Deloitte & Touche, told me, the fact that young people are used to working at all hours of the day means that they want to be valued more on their work product than how they actually get it done. That’s much different than older generations.

YP: This generation is often referred to as "color blind" or having moved beyond race (increased tolerance of interracial dating, friends of different races, etc.). What was your impression of their attitudes about race and racism?

JW: I think your characterization is accurate, with a few caveats. This is the most diverse generation ever in the U.S. It’s certainly not fair to say that every one of them is color blind, but on the whole they seem to be moving in that direction. Their tolerance extends beyond race as well; they are also more likely to agree that homosexuality is a way of life that should be accepted by society.

YP: Are they more conservative, more religious?

JW: For the most part, young adults look a lot like previous generations when it comes to religious engagement. A new study by Baylor University, however, suggests that two interesting trends may be emerging. First, young adults are polarized when it comes to religious affiliation, being over-represented in both the evangelical category and the unaffiliated category; moderate and liberal religious groups may be losing youth attendance. Secondly, their data, combined with data collected by the Barna Group, suggests that even the most religious Christians of Generation Next, young evangelicals, may be more liberal on certain social issues, such as gay marriage, than their religious elders are. In this past election compared with 2004, 18-29 year old white evangelical support for Democratic candidates jumped 10 percentage points — the largest shift among any age bracket.

YP: Millennials are the most marketed to generation in history - did the young people you interviewed talk about consumerism at all and being the target of so much advertising?

JW: They know that marketers love them, and many we spoke to loved to shop, but this didn’t come up as a major point of conversation in most of my interviews.

YP: Since I've written a book about how "Totally Wired" this generation is, I'm curious to know whether you saw the beginnings of a backlash or desire to unplug at all?

JW: MySpace, Facebook and Web 2.0 are all the craze right now among members of the mainstream media and we wanted to find out more about the phenomenon while we were out on the road (we stopped by Facebook and filed a report on the company, MySpace, and social networking for The NewsHour).

In general, Gen Nexters generally have a more positive attitude towards technology than older generations. They’re more likely to say it improves friendships and helps people stay in touch. Many more young people also use online dating sites to find that perfect match.

But some young people certainly did note that all that time spent on the computer takes away from face-to-face interaction, and a lot believe that their peers post too much information about themselves on social networking sites. I don’t think they want to “unplug it all,” but they are cognizant of some of the downsides of technology.

YP: What can we all learn from this generation? What did you learn?

JW: Tolerance is a hallmark of the generation, I think mostly by virtue of the fact that they have grown up with people of all different races, ethnicities, religions, and other differences. They value personal relationships and balancing work and home as a means to finding happiness.

I also learned that they are passionate about their work, creative, entrepreneurial, and filled with optimism about the future. We spoke to some young people who are truly struggling on a day to day basis, but it was a general sense of optimism that was most refreshing to me. From the young political activists at Generation Engage that I interviewed, to single mothers, college dropouts, young men who have struggled to stay away from gangs and other bad influences in their communities, to soldiers, entrepreneurs and just “regular” Gen Nexters, there’s the expectation of success in the future. That’s something that we should always hope to have in all of our minds, and it is something that will carry this generation into the future with confidence.

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