According to  a new survey conducted by Right Management, recent college graduates aren’t feeling very confident about their job prospects as they enter the workforce.  This may have something to do with the economy and may also be affected by the fact that this generation of young people are looking for work opportunities that are different than what a lot of employers offer.  It’s been widely documented that this generation is going to comprise a much different workforce than the one before them and employers are working hard to understand how to properly motivate these young people. 

Here are some key findings from the survey:

• Confidence levels: Of the 236 recent and soon-to-be college graduates surveyed, 72% indicated it will be “somewhat to very difficult” to find the ideal job — up from 59% in 2007. Only 26% of this year’s college graduates believe it will be “somewhat to very easy” to get the jobs they desire — down from 37% in 2007.
  
• Duration in first job: Nearly two-thirds of college graduates (61%) expect to remain with their first employers for less than three years, consistent with the 2007 findings. 28% expect to stay 3-5 years and 11% more than 5 years.
  
• Key motivators: Consistent with last year’s findings, the top three key motivators for college graduates when considering employment are (1) Opportunities to develop new skills; (2) Appreciation for work/life balance; (3) Establishing and maintaining a good rapport with their managers.  
  
•  Balance more important than pay: Work/life balance is more important to 2008 college graduates than compensation when choosing a job. 38% of recent college graduates said work/life balance is very important, while just 21% rated compensation as very important.  
  

 

To read more, click here. 

 

  Teen fashion is like all other parts of teen culture: constantly evolving. Because of this, teen targeted fashion retailers must always be 2 seasons ahead of the current wave of fads in order to anticipate what young people will want to wear in the future. So what happens to teen fashion when the economy isn’t doing so hot?  Historically, it’s been believed that teen targeted clothing chains would fair better than other retailers but new numbers released from GAP and Abercrombie & Fitch show that that isn’t true this time around.  Brands that have been historically seen as the red badge of coolness in high schools around America are now seeing lower sales and less popular brands like Aeropostale are seeing big jumps in their sales.   

As teens begin to spend more money on food and fuel and less on things like clothes I think we’re going to see a big change in what is in and what’s out in terms of fashion.  I believe that as hipster culture rises and teens become not only more economically but also environmentally conscious, we are going to see more teens going to thrift stores to purchase clothing.  If you ask me this is a great development in teen fashion because not only are young people seeing the value of the dollar more and choosing to be thrifty.  But by buying clothes at the local Goodwill or Salvation Army, teens are breaking away from the tendency of dressing like the mannequins in storefronts and are developing their own sense of style.  This is a great way for teens to explore identity and individualism.  For more about how the economy is affecting teen trends visit this link. 

When I was a teen I found the entire concept of dating to be pretty stressful. I worried for weeks about how to talk to the girl I sat next to in history class and whether or not she liked me. One time she offered me a piece of gum and I was convinced that it was a sign that she wanted to date me. However, I was too scared to actually ask her out and nothing ever developed. A few weeks later, I found out that she shared my feelings, but by then I had already developed a crush on a girl in my art class.

As I look back on these pathetic attempts at dating I realize I knew absolutely nothing about relationships. Today’s teens are in a similar position. They are transitioning through adolescence and discovering that the opposite sex doesn’t have cooties and that they are, in fact, quite interesting. But as they begin to ask questions about love, sex, and relationships many teens receive little or no preparation from their parents. As a result, teens embark on the journey of romance with little more than tips from magazines and the examples set forth by characters on TV. With such limited and unrealistic information, many teens’ forays into the dating world prove disastrous.

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Its Labor Day weekend which of course means the kids have gone back to school and fall is about to kick summer, and it’s warmth, out the door. As the weather gets colder and night falls earlier, it looks like we’ll all need a new TV show or three to watch this fall. Y Pulse has released this summary of the TV shows that will be beginning their seasons this week. It struck me as helpful because it offers parents and other adults an idea of what TV shows young people are likely to start talking about and how to know what’ good, what’s bad, and how to handle it. Below I have outlined some of the shows that caught my eye:

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While researching teen culture I often stumble upon books, blogs and magazine articles that claim that today’s young people are an illiterate generation of tech junkies who squander their time and mental ability text messaging, watching MTV and playing video games. While there seems to be a large body of evidence to back this up, I still have a hard time believing that my generation is “The Dumbest Generation.”

However, Mark Bauerlein, of Emory College, thinks we’re in some serious trouble and he wrote a book about it called “The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future”. Those that share Bauerlein’s view contend that the decline in adult literacy over the years, and the growing lack of geographic, historic, and literary knowledge of the current generation are all evidence that today’s teens are less intelligent than previous generations. This has people worried because if this is the case, the consequences will be catastrophic. In a few short years today’s uneducated young people will become intellectually deficient adults that control every corporation, government, and educational institution in the world.

While I find it disturbing that in 2001, 52% of my peers identified Germany, Japan or Italy, and not the Soviet Union, as America’s World War II ally, I don’t think that today’s teens are any less intelligent than previous generations. If anything they are actually more intelligent as is evidenced by the fact that IQ scores worldwide have continued to rise since the 1930’s. What I do worry about, however, is how today’s young people acquire and retain knowledge.

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I’m not a gamer. This is painfully evident everytime I sit down to  an Xbox to play Halo 3 and within the first 5 minutes of play the other players call me a “noob”.  Sure gaming is a nerdy pursuit , and I’m prone to delighting in nerdy pursuits, but I never really got into the whole video game thing.  Maybe it’s because I have poor coordination or maybe it’s because I’ve never been very competitive. Either way, I think I’d rather watch a documentary about video games rather than play one myself.  

Even though I don’t count myself among these armies of “Couch Commandos” that daily strive to save planets and princesses, I do think they are a bit misunderstood by the rest of the world.  For example, I don’t believe that every young person that plays a violent video game on a regular basis is going to stockpile weapons and try to recreate this game in real life.  I also don’t think that video games make teens more violent.  I believe that if someone is set off by playing a video game, then there was likely something going  on in that person’s life long before he or she picked up a controller. I also think that some video games are actually making people smarter.  To read more about this I suggest you pick up Stephen Johnson’s “Everything Bad is Good For You.” 

Anyway, I understand that there needs to be a scapegoat for the world’s problems and that things that are misunderstood are often the ones that get blamed.  I mean TV was supposed to be the downfall of our civilization and it seems like the majority of people have learned how to balance that pretty well.  In the same way that adults in the past didn’t understand TV, many adults today simply don’t get why teens love video games so much.  

As a result, the majority of the public view video games as something that primarily male children play and that cause them to be aggressive, violent, socially isolated, desensitized, and is an all around waste of time.  But according to MIT professor Henry Jenkins, the public is wrong.  To walk you through each of these misconceptions he has posted an article debunking the myths about video games.  It can be found here. Meanwhile, I’m going to go play Tetris.

Sometimes I read news stories that just sound crazy.  Today that news story comes from The Dallas Morning News  and is about Abercrombie & Fitch’s practice of discriminating against employees based on their level of attractiveness.  In the article, several employees of the teen targeted retailer report being pulled from sales positions and placed in the stockroom because managers determined they weren’t beautiful enough to talk to customers.  To me this just sounds crazy and I would imagine that it is somewhat illegal.  However, it would only be illegal if employees were discriminated based on race or gender, not ugliness. The danger in all of this is that it communicates to young employees that their worth to their employer and the rest of the world is based solely on their appearance and not on their ability to do a job well.  There’s a lot more to say about this subject, but it might be best if you just read the article here. Comment with your take on this issue and I’ll keep you updated as this story develops.

  Here a couple quick links about teens heading off to college.   One big concern for young people heading to the dorms is how to furnish the place. Will your coffee table match with your roommates futon?  What can I get that will look good but not cost too much?  These are important questions and before you head out to Target or IKEA with your college freshman, take a look at this article in the New York Times.  

If you think you have your teen’s dorm room under control but your student still isn’t sure how to answer the “What do you want to be when you grow up?” question, then head on over to the Futurist and read this article about some unusual college majors. 

As tuition increases at colleges across America,  incoming freshman at some universities may see a little added value in those costs  This of course will come in the form of a free Ipod of Iphone.  THe New York TImes reported in an article found here, that schools around the nation are giving students these cutting edge tech devices for a variety of reasons.  One reason is that a school that gives away cool tech gadgets must be cool and tech savvy.  According to the recent State of Our Nation’s Youth survey, better technology is one thing that high school students feel would make their education better, so as recent graduates choose schools, the one giving away the latest Apple gadgets might also be the one that seems to be the best choice.  

Giving students Iphones could also allow schools to track where students congregate and allow the school to contact them in case of class cancellation or other emergencies.  However, this seems to worry some professors.  When students just had notebooks, it could be hard to keep them from doodling long enough for them to hear the content of a lecture.  Now with cell phones and laptops, students have even greater distractions at their fingertips. Iphone’s complicate things even further as they are small and compact, but also packed full of distracting possibilities.  

Of course, one thing we know about the current generation of young people is that they love to create things.  As a group we are always pushing the limits.  The Iphone is a great indication of this.  When first released, the Iphone and Ipod Touch were pretty basic devices.  But young people saw the possibilities of this technology and a 15 year old boy found a way to break into the software and create his own applications.  Developers around the world used this to create games, themes, communication programs, productivity utilities and more.  As a result, Apple launched the App Store as a way to provide an outlet for these creative minds.  Similarly, I believe that through providing college students with these devices, schools are going to find that their students are utilizing this technology in amazing ways that they never could have guessed.  I’m excited to see how this unfolds.  

Do you ever think your teen doesn’t hear a word you say?  Well, that may be the case.  In a blog on cnet, Steve Guttenberg (no not the Steve Guttenberg of Police Academy, Three Men and a Baby, and Dancing with the Stars fame. I already checked.) asks whether teens today are doing irreparable harm to their hearing by cranking up the volume on their Ipod headphones.  My opinion?  Yes they are.  

I say this because once every couple of weeks I’m approached by a teen asking if he can borrow my Ipod headphones because he blew his out.  Now I’ve owned a few Ipods in my life and I’ve never blown out a speaker on my earphones.  So for this to happen regularly to so many teens, they must be really turning that music up.  

Another threat to their hearing is live events.  Last night I went to a show (that’s what the kids are calling concerts these days) and my ears are still ringing from the experience. There were about 100 people under the age of 18 at the show as well and I’m guessing that as they wake up to go to school today their ears are ringing too.  That is until they drown it out with their Ipods.  

So what can parents do?  Well,  while it’s unlikely that you’ll get your teen to hand over their ultra cool Ipod headphones and replace them with some big earmuffs straight out of 1985, but you can try to get your teen to reduce the volume a bit.  I know it’s a typical parent thing to say “turn that down!”, so you might want to explain to your teen that they risk long term hearing loss from listening to music too loud.  Also, if your teen likes to go see their favorite bands perform on a regular basis, invest in some disposable ear plugs.  They’re cheap and your teen can keep them in her purse or his pocket and throw them away when they are done with them.  

For a do-it-yourself hearing test click here. And for more information about the possible harmful effects of earphones click here and here.