The young and the The middle aged

1. Two cross sections of the global
society
The young
The middle aged

2. Youth culture
• In anticipation of the bleak future
• Filled with anxiety: growing debt, housing crisis,
political unrest, nuclear threats and a collapsing
education system
• Uncertainty about the future
• Too informed and progressive to enjoy anything
current
• Too much information – difficult to find what is
meaningful
• Borrow things from the past to build identities
(since the present it too much to sort through) – so
we buy vintage, shop organic, and live green
• No authoritarians ‘trying to put us down’, no adults
to say ‘go to college and get a degree’
• Their enemies are global warming, waning energy
resources and nuclear destruction
• A culture of entrepreneurship
• The older generation is not against, but with us –
with hope that our innovation will save the world

3. The sandwich generation
• Financial support for aging
parents and grown children
• Providing care and emotional
support
• A stressful life
• Anxiety about the future
• Financial burden – debt and
housing concerns
• Increasing lifespans and
Having children at an older age

4. Common/overlapping points
• The tendency to define oneself by one’s age
• Anxiety about the future
• Financial insecurity
• Need for an emotional anchor (in a person, in
an activity)

5. http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2013/01/30/the-sandwich-generation/4/
http://seniorliving.about.com/od/babyboomers/a/sandwich-generation.htm
http://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/sandwichgeneration.asp
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandwich_generation