tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19346366.post7840247732130007237..comments2024-03-28T21:56:51.675-04:00Comments on Face to Face: The generational structure of status contests: Competing over careers vs. lifestylesagnostichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12967177967469961883noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19346366.post-13819399697939813632014-06-21T15:22:02.092-04:002014-06-21T15:22:02.092-04:00Hi, I'm older but I spend a lot of time around...Hi, I'm older but I spend a lot of time around a prestige college campus, one everybody fights to get into. Since you're tuned in to the 20-something crowd, could you interpret this event for me? I didn't know what to make of it.<br /><br />About 3 yrs.ago I was walking up one of those bucolic, leafy paths behind a petite girl with red hair. Peeking out from her backpack was a copy of Valley of The Dolls. So as I overtook her, I asked her why she was wasting her college years reading "literature" that was 3rd rate even when it came out 40 yrs. ago. She turned out to be fairly cute, if lacking in curves.<br /><br />She immediately went ballistic, demanding to know who the hell I was and how I dared to question her taste. I continued with my critique, listing books of the 70s and 80s (Tom Wolfe came to mind) that she could be reading more profitably. She continued to be enraged, and I started cracking up, and then just moved on.<br /><br />As I accelerated past her, she began running alongside me, staring daggers but just sort of sputtering incomprehensibly. I then asked her, "where we going, your place?" I can't remember much past that, just that as we came to an intersection there was a cop car, and I figured she'd use her privilege to accuse me harassment. Miraculously, she passed up the opportunity. <br /><br />Is this the average college woman now?<br />money in the flownoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19346366.post-18162573556622786642014-06-20T14:52:33.612-04:002014-06-20T14:52:33.612-04:00Pretty interesting. I guess this explains the exp...Pretty interesting. I guess this explains the explosion of "social gaming" on Facebook(think Farmville), where you have to spend months playing to advance, and often put in a lot of real life money. <br /><br />Anyway, is it really all about competition though? In some instances, finding the right brand is not competitive, but more about finding likeminded people or weeding out those you don't want to associate with.Curtisnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19346366.post-66498587910208850002014-06-20T03:15:04.864-04:002014-06-20T03:15:04.864-04:00And although both are lifestyle competitors, Gen X...<i>And although both are lifestyle competitors, Gen X wants to be cool, Millennials want to be famous.</i><br /><br />I might be tempted to think of it like broad but shallow connections over narrow but deep - Rising Crime sounds more ganglike (or vigilante style if you prefer) in people's social arrangements and behavior.<br /><br />Think of the Gen X slacker archetype who opts out of the game of the system that's rigged against them. Or a lot of the try hard "authenticity" focused hip hop and rock of that generation, as artists. Neither really interested in generalised fame, wealth, or influence, compared to respect and status from a narrow social grouping, coupled with a degree of hostility to outsiders. Weird combination of disengagement from wider society, from the cocooning zeitgeist, with a preference for tight knit social structures, left over from the rising violence age.<br /><br />This despite the fact that Gen X are actually more socially approach oriented (outgoing) and risk embracing, which probably makes them more socially competent and probably more fun than Millenials.<br /><br />Not like the Mil hipsters who are cheerfully, superficially, campily, blandly "eclectic". Since no one cares about a narrow but deep connection with a scene or clique any more (opposed to being everyone's superficial buddy). See all the microgenres and microscenes, which aren't really a sign of an increase in ganglikeness of the youth but the opposite, since they're so low commitment and practically almost individual in their narrowness.<br /><br />(This might also be particularly pronounced when we take into account the trend of even more delayed family formation.)<br /><br />Reading through this article about Jap fashion a couple of weeks ago and was struck by this sentence - http://www.fromjapan.co.jp/blog/en/fashion/contrasts-and-similarities-between-western-and-japanese-fashion-movements.html - <i>The main creative difference between Western fashion movements and Japanese fashion movements is that whereas the West is caught up in political statements or a quest for identity, <b>Japanese style is fashion for fashions sake, playing with materials and colors the way an artists plays with paints and canvas.</b> Individual designers create their scenes, complete with music, magazines, models and hot places to be seen, rather than an organic outgrowth of a social movement.</i> <br /><br />I wonder how much of this comes from their lower income inequality society, where we would expect to find more playfulness, less oneupmanship and less clash of politics and ideology (like what typifies the punks). And how much comes from the social anomie, where no one cares enough to form real scenes or join groups, rather relatively fake and cocoon like personalised facsimilies, that you sort of describe as common to ultra-low violence societies, of which Japan is at the far end.Mnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19346366.post-34711210698455310532014-06-20T03:14:33.217-04:002014-06-20T03:14:33.217-04:00What options does this leave for the status strive...<i>What options does this leave for the status strivers among later cohorts such as Generation X and the Millennials? Compete over your leisure pursuits, rather than pursuing your career.</i><br /><br />Hmm. This is an appealing idea, but pushing against it to test for a bit - If it's true that there isn't much room for status competition by wealth among Millenials and X, it seems like we should find that they have narrower standard deviations for income and wealth, relative to the general trend of age increasing in group wealth disparities. Is this the case?<br /><br />I get the argument that there isn't much room at the entrenched very top of society for them, the question remains whether they're competing with the top of society or their peers.<br /><br /><i>Remember that in the '70s and '80s, the Silents and Boomers faced almost no pushback from the incumbents ... It doesn't take much of a soldier to wipe out a bunch of pacifists, now does it?</i><br /><br />Fighting the pacifists that fought for the peace (the Missionary and Lost Generations), that might take a good soldier. The complacent kids of the pacifists that fought for the peace (i.e. the Greatest)? Maybe not so much. Thus the trend of Greatest Generation leadership presiding over stall outs and changes in the direction of equality. No real commitment or toughness to policing attitudes, even if they don't personally have self aggrandising norms.Mnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19346366.post-88788804075180402842014-06-20T00:50:10.144-04:002014-06-20T00:50:10.144-04:00A lot of trendiness isn't merely about being d...A lot of trendiness isn't merely about being different from some, but similar to others. This has been shown in studies on music and the "Matthew effect", which Gabriel Rossman has written about.<br /><br />Wendys is like McDonalds or Burger King. It's not going to be trendy like Whole Foods.<br /><br />Internships were really common when I was college-aged (and I kind of regret not bothering with it, though that diminishes in importance with time). As far as I know I've never encountered anyone who did the "year abroad".TGGPhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11017651009634767649noreply@blogger.com