Leading trendspotter Marian Salzman, president of Euro RSCG Worldwide PR, North America-part of the company whose global CEO, David Jones, founded One Young World-has isolated 10 key trends that mark this generation of young people:
•The Real-Time Generation has real-time expectations. If information or communication is not happening in real time, it's not considered relevant or even interesting.
•Life is lived locally by the Real-Time Generation. In a strange twist, the universality of social media lets 20-somethings locally configure their social networks and online information.
•Radical transparency is an assumed part of their lives. Reality TV and the openness of the Internet means that for the Real-Time Generation, if it exists or occurred, it can be found online.
•The world is free, or at least cheap. The Real-Time Generation came up in the age of inexpensive manufacturing and free Web service. To them, rock-bottom prices are simply expected.
•Luxury is the norm. The steep rise in standards of living and the proliferation of what once were considered luxury goods got the Real-Times used to the good life.
•Entertainment is a must. Whether it's to learn a new language, make a phone call or even pump gas into their car, entertainment is an ever-present reality that Real-Times won't go without.
•Global concern underpins their lives. Even as they insist on entertainment, they're ardent about the environment, economic justice, world health and poverty.
•Pro-business, but anti-multinational, the Real-Time Generation sees global business as a potential for positive change but is well aware of its tendency toward excess and abuse.
•Media bias is understood as a constant, and, thus, regulation is required, according to Real-Times, to ensure that the media maintains its independence from government and business.
•Naturally focused on "me," but aspiring to "we," the Real-Time Generation learned from boomer parents about the primacy of individuality but still believes that no individual is truly happy while others suffer.
The cost of the London Olympicsis expected to rise significantly when the Government reveals how it will fund maintenance and security at new venues in the gap between their completion and the start of the Games.
