Stylized Facts

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July 11, 2005

GenX seeks newness

The GenXers are a substantial group of people representing about 27
percent of the total American population-while the entire population
of Baby Boomers account for only 30 percent. For the Xers, social,
political, racial, sexual, family and religious beliefs are all
relative. With a larger concentration of females, they epitomize an
unprecedented culture of diversity in which all choices are equally
valid. It is a culture of serendipity; a culture where nothing is
sacred, where uncertainty characterizes their daily living, and where
someone new and interesting is preferred over someone they know and
trust.

Their paradoxical aesthetic ideals play a prominent part. First, as a
reaction to their predecessors, the GenXers are oblivious to nostalgia
or tradition; in their minds, the old and the new are equally valid.
Therefore, the GenXers are the most eclectic generation America has
ever seen. Like in a multimedia CD, their design method includes
mixing, patching, quilting, rearranging, superimposing, editing,
reproducing and collaging the old with the new. They have no
allegiance to tradition, and their most emblematic cultural
characteristic is what J. Walker Smith calls "the retro-eclectic
chic." Whilst they rework the old into new fashion and styles, with
new values and meanings, they are also easily seduced by
unconventional forms and advanced architecture. Theirs is a skin deep
aesthetic in which the concepts of image, meaning and iconography are
all that matters.

Second, the GenXers cannot escape the feeling that it's all been done
before. Their constant quest for newness and innovation is a response
to the feeling that there is nothing new left to be experienced or
discovered. They look forward to a brand new aesthetic, but they do
not discard the traditions inherited from the Boomers. The Yankelovich
Report on Generational Marketing states that, "almost 80 percent of
Xers feel the need to find more excitement and sensation in life." For
them the word "new" means nothing but finding the extreme edge of
what's there already. As no surprise, they prefer to be residents of
metropolitan environments or historic downtowns. Their urban quest
includes contrast, excitement and multiple perceptions. They prefer
New York, Chicago or Boston over Atlanta, Houston or Ft. Lauderdale.

-- Jaime E. Correa

Posted by omor at July 11, 2005 05:52 PM

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