LUXURY MEETS ALTRUISM For some Generation Y members, that extreme parenting has led to a life of luxury that they don’t plan to give up now.
“The ones who are born into families with middle-class income are more able to expect good things like good entertainment and luxury,” Frey says. But he adds that not all of Gen Y grew up with the latest and greatest televisions, cell phones, and other gadgets.
So, regardless of their economic class, it is dangerous to try and stuff the generation into a neat and tidy category. Although they have high expectations about themselves, their jobs, and their lifestyle, they are also surprisingly charitable and socially responsible.
“A huge question for this generation is how do you give back to your local community?” Martin says. “The fact of the matter is that Gen Y has the highest rate of volunteerism.”
Martin says it makes sense because many of their baby boomer parents instilled in them the idea of community service. That was compounded by the fact that Gen Y experienced the horrors of Sept. 11 during an impressionable time in their young lives.
As a result, many Gen Yers, for example, spent spring break helping the victims of Hurricane Katrina instead of partying in Florida.
Such actions also suggest that a good way to build community at a Gen Y apartment property might be organizing a social activity that’s linked to a charitable cause.
MULTICULTURAL WORLD Along with charity, Generation Y has a healthy helping of racial tolerance.
“Generation Y comes from multi-cultural families,” Martin says. “One in three is members of a minority.”
Martin adds that Tiger Woods—whose late father was half African-American, one-fourth Chinese, and one-fourth Native American and whose mother is half Thai, one-fourth Chinese, and one-fourth Dutch—has become the model for the generation. Woods has called himself “Cablinasian,” which is a combination of Caucasian, black, American Indian, and Asian.