From+Huckleberry+Finn+to+Princess-Bitchface+Syndrome-A+move+from+Gen+X+to+Gen+Y

media type="youtube" key="He9FwRtB7rA" height="315" width="420"

Student Number-n8301611 Student Name-Britainie Price Tutor Name-Judith Meiklejohn

This cultural Artefact was chosen from a TV series named '//The Chaser's War on Everything'// tha had three series from 2006 until 2009 on //The Australian Broadcasting Channel (ABC).// This youtube video is from a segment in the series called //What have we learned from current affairs this week?,// which discusses topics such as //Youth Gone Wild,// on Today Tonight and A Current Affair, while taking a more realist approach to these topics. Effectively injecting political satire and mocking social issues within Australia and provoke debate. This episode of The Chaser's War on Everything discusses the portrayal of youth, particularly focusing on Generation Y and the behaviours of this generation. In this episode hosts Andrew Hansen and Chas Laciardello bring to light the medias portrayal of Generation Y and provoke debate between the differences of Generation Y compared to previous generations.

Within the video, generation y is introduced within the first few lines of the Today Tonight segment, stating "ask anyone of the age of about 25 do refelct on their childhood and most will have hapy memories of a carefree youth, live it seems was simpler then, there was less pressure, less consumerism and more outdoor fun", effectively comparing generation y to generation x. However, as the program reveals the concerns it has for gen y, we must consider the comparisons it has to generation x. Generation Y have often been thought of as generation 'I' because of its indivudualist and selfish approach to life, being mostly disloyal to employees and having little respect for older generations, however these ideas of gen y are changing with the invetion of social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter, a more community feel has been shown by the generation, who are also known for their donations to charity and volunteering. A common trend withing gen y is also it's closeness with friends compared to that of family, which has brought about peer pressure and has had some influence on the decisions teenagers have been making, compared to if they were closer with their parents or other family members. Today Tonight shows footage of a number of children who are "completely unsupervised", and even shows children enjoying themselves on a porch, or a young boy riding his bike, by represnting tis generation like this in the media, the become to think that this is appropriate behaviour for their generation and older generations begin to expect this type of behaviour, stereotpying younger generations. Today Tonight has ran 33 of these Youth Gone Wild video's compared to A Current Affairs 21, showing that media has continued to hound generation y, and compare it to previous generations. However, when we looks at statistics on generation x, it is clear that the use of drugs has decreased as the next generation became more aware and educated on the dangers of drugs, government campaigns to warn teenagers of people spiking their drinks and the harm that the illegal substances have on your body have made generation y more aware of the safety risks. Drug testing in the workplace has also decreased the drug use of generation y, with most companies giving regular drug tests to their empoyees, generation y can no longer hide their drug use. Scare campaigns for smoking have also been proven effective, with only a small population of generation y smoking cigarettes. Today Tonight has reported that Australian's are now wanting to "take serious action towards thugs that are hell bent on destroying everything", with a plan to publicly name and shame juveniles for their crimes, following this claim with a seemingly unrealsitic statistic of 99% of Australian's agreeing with this as an effective punishment for children who break the law. 'Scientific' journals such as the Dolly youth monitor report, admit teenagers are now having sex at around 14, however this is still unreliable evidence, George W Bush recently ran an abstinence approach to sexual activity targeted at american teenagers, although evidence of this approach's effects on society are still being determined, it seems some teenagers have listened with the median age of first sexual encounters now rising slightly. As we look at this data produced by magazines such as Dolly, we also forget that generation x were once known for their sexual promiscuity, changing times has meant that sex before marriage is normal for most teenagers, without the scare of diseases such as Aids that was still prevalent in the Baby boomers and gen x, they see no harm in having multiple partners, however new data shows that cases of Aids are on the increase again, with other diseases such as chalmydia and herpes also on a rapid rise. Its a very rare condition, its call the princess bitch faced syndrome, children in gen y have known to be spoilt in their younger years, this is because of the nurturing parental technique that gen x and the baby boomers have adopted. Generation Y know nothing of times like the Great Depression or other global reccesions in which many starved, this also means that generation y are more risky with financial decisions and often spend a large perecntage of their money on entertainment and holidays. It has been clear that many generation yers have also been brought up in hardworking families, in which divorce rates were high, this has made generation y have a less relaxed approach to work, they 'work to live, rather than live to work'. Most of gen yers parents were also unable to buy houses, prefering to rent, this has changed with generation y as the price for buying a first house is on average age 30. Generation y is also known for its use of technology and understanding of the internet, having a more global appraoch to life, many want to travel overseas often and this is becoming easierfor todays generation, hence a backpacking crazy has come about. It is also the most well educated of the generations, with most having completed grade 12, and over half going onto tertiary education, this means that many are skilled and qualified in many skill areas and want a larger annual salary. Combining this with generation y's short job term means that employees now have to compete for highly trained workers and are given incentives other than salary. Generation y is now less known for its consumerism compared to that of generation x, largely wanting to support local and Australian business and preferring to shop locally for fresh products rather than relying on a single brand. It has also been seen that gen yers prefer businesses that support environmental and social issues in the world and raise money for these, such as MAC's Aids fund, Starbucks boasts about its ehtical sourcing, environmental strewardship and its community involvement.

It can be seen that generation y, is extremely different to its predecessor generation x, however due to medias depiction of gen y they are often misunderstood, with time for generation yers to grow and change in the world many different trends may be seen and this young generation will make their own path.