We were pitching for a client business recently when this chapter opened up again- how is the current generation dealing with life (against our generation’s ‘tackling’ it)?
A former colleague of mine, a young lady, has spent the last year traveling – working intermittently – currently at another agency, but in-between also as a construction worker. Yes, you heard it right – a construction worker, albeit not in the traditional sense of the word. There is fundamental shift coming up, if not already upon us. What is happening?
For many of us the always- on life, powered by digital leashes and seamless connectivity, meant that notebooks weren’t really the promised key to freedom from office, but instead meant that work traveled along with us and as mobile devices further compounded that, work/ career seemed to dominate our world.
It is, however, becoming clear that an increasing number of young people want to break-away from the stressful life; and, entrepreneurship, freelancing, flexi-working, creative pursuits are increasingly becoming mainstream career options. The same technologies, and a physically & digitally connected world , have also meant today that people can now work from wherever, whenever, and for whoever.
So, where our lives were linear – study, study, study some more; pick up a job; promotion; increment; buy car; marriage; baby; buy house and so on – youth today are living a dynamic life – study, study overseas; drop out; buy a camera; blog; intern somewhere; travel; job/ entrepreneurship; quit/ fail; no marriage; no house (don’t know where I will be next, why should I buy); no buy car (why buy when I can hire Uber); travel; a gig somewhere may; who cares what next.
More and more youth, free of existential worries, are choosing the carefree life – a life of freedom; of possibilities.
Of course I am over-simplifying it, but look around and you will find many such people. Some of them might come back to linear choice, and many whose circumstance may not be so fortunate are still compelled to make linear choices, but the numbers of those living the, let’s say, the Friday Life is on the rise.
As a young colleague of mine summarised “Monday is what the world wants me to be; Friday is who I am.”
