FOLLOW US ON:
GET THE NEWSLETTER
CONTACT US
Queer, boho or just plain gorgeous: Photographer captures the beauty of counterculture youth
04.02.2015
08:47 am
Topics:
Tags:


 
Like every generation before them, millennials endure the scorn of their amnestic elders with obliviousness and eyerolls. I’ll concede that bitterly railing about “kids these days” is the prerogative of anyone over 45 forced to listen to Miley Cyrus, but I truly think intergenerational amity is a worthy and plausible goal—and I’d advise all those baffled by millennial bullshit to start by looking at the margins of youth culture, rather than their commercial representatives, who are obviously appointed by old millionaires anyway. 

Photographer Poem Baker‘s captivating series,Hymns from the Bedroom, shows a gorgeous array of young people—some bending gender, some subverting conventions, some simply looking beautiful. Her subjects are her friends, and she captures them with a vulnerability that reveals the intimacy of the shoot—an informal affair where she might snap only a few unpretentious candids before putting away the camera. From her site:

Hymns from the Bedroom is a personal journal of friends and people I’ve encountered whilst wandering around London. Most of whom are creative twenty-something’s on the threshold of their dreams and ambitions, ranging from performance artists, musicians, actors and fashion designers to strippers, transvestites and those who live on the fringes of society.

 

 

 

 
More after the jump…

READ ON
Posted by Amber Frost
|
04.02.2015
08:47 am
|
Insane market research: ‘Understanding millennials: How do potatoes fit into their lives?’
11.10.2014
06:56 pm
Topics:
Tags:


 
Kids today—amiright?

I mean, there’s no denying that millennials (those alien creatures born between 1980 and 1995) represent an entirely unique breed of person, never-before-seen and bearing absolutely no likeness to any generation before them. For example, millennials tend to wear clothing like blue jeans and t-shirts, while older humans wear naught but sack cloth and regalia made from the fur, feathers and bones of slaughtered animals. Millennial-types are very “connected”—through texting and social media—while their predecessors only communicated via flag semaphore, carrier pigeons, smoke signals, or interpretive dance. In order to convey happiness or good will, millennials often engage in what is known as a smile, but for anyone born in 1979 or earlier, baring one’s teeth is a sign of aggression or dominance, and likely to proceed a battle to the death for land rights or a contested mate.

As the newly elected National Spokeswoman for the Bureau of Millennial Affairs (I’d like to thank the voters, my brilliant and dedicated campaign team, and last—but not least—my darling wife Barbara), nothing frustrates me more than seeing millennials just lumped in with our ancient barbarian forefathers—not even our disproportionately high unemployment, debilitating debt, or inheritance of a dying planet! I am heartened however, to see the United States Potato Board giving millennials the specialized attention we deserve with incisive, atomizing consumer research. This press release “Understanding Millennials—How do Potatoes Fit into Their Lives?” was posted last year, and I think it behooves us all to touch on some of the highlights if we’re to understand the millennial mind.
 

The United States Potato Board (USPB) is committed to designing and conducting consumer research that enables the industry to identify opportunities and make informed decisions to increase demand for potatoes. In order to identify new opportunities and promote a proactive and forward-looking approach, the USPB is taking a closer look at a younger audience. The up-and-coming generation (18–30-year-olds), just now forming new households and starting families of their own, is big! In fact, the Millennial generation is about 80 million people, about the same size as the Baby Boomer generation. To stay relevant and increase demand for potatoes, it will be critical to understand Millennials and how potatoes fit into their lives—now and in the future.

With this in mind, the USPB is conducting research to…

Better understand the Millennial audience, especially attitudes and behaviors related to potatoes
Explore opportunities to increase potato consumption among Millennials
Identify sub-segment(s) within the Millennial audience with the greatest potential for growth in potato consumption

Sub-segments! Very important! Like urban LGBTQ millennials working in graphic design or video game production? What about pet-owning millennials who don’t have a Facebook, but who sometimes check Twitter, enjoy chocolate and finding the essence from within? What about millennials who unironically eat at Applebee’s? We are legion, and we contain multitudes.

Moving on to the three-phase research project:

Phase 1: Secondary research and database mining

Data on the Millennial audience from past USPB consumer research
Online databases for information on Millennial attitudes and eating habits
Articles and syndicated studies relating to Millennials

Phase 2: Consumer segmentation (quantitative)

Online survey among Millennials to identify and size different consumer groups within the Millennial audience based on food and lifestyle attitudes and behavior

Part 3: Segment deep-dive (qualitative)

In-home interviews and focus groups with select segments of Millennials

I hereby volunteer to be a participant in a millennial potato focus group, provided my compensation is paid entirely in potatoes. Yukon Gold, preferably, since all discerning millennials prioritize the critical balance between tradition and starch content. But what do we already know about millennial potato consumption?

Findings to date:

As a generation, Millennials are highly food-involved. Along with being food-involved comes an interest in and affinity for cooking. For many Millennials, cooking isn’t a job or responsibility, but rather a passion, as is going out to eat. They’re looking for more from their meals—not just something to fill them up, but something to experience.

However, Millennials are also a highly budget-minded generation. Good value for the money is the most important attribute when choosing food for a meal at home or in a restaurant.

That is soooooo dead on—“highly food-involved” is like, my middle name! Like the majority of my fellow millennials, I eat food like, every single day. I’m a total food-aholic, but the habit can get a little expensive if you get into specialty items like “fruit” or “vegetables.”

When it comes to potatoes, though, Millennials are not significantly different from the rest of the population. Potatoes are primarily consumed for dinner at home as the main component of a side dish. Mashed, baked and French fries are the top three potato preparations. When preparing potatoes at home, 73 percent are using fresh, and of those, 51 percent are using russet. According to previous USPB studies, this is right in line with what older generations are doing.

Attitudes about potatoes among Millennials are very positive. Eighty-nine percent rate potatoes “excellent” or “good” for being a good value, and 88 percent rate potatoes “excellent” or “good” for being something everyone would enjoy. In fact, potatoes rate highest on what’s most important to Millennials.

I’m sorry—“not significantly different from the rest of the population?” Excuse me?!? Are you suggesting that millennials are somehow… pedestrian, or (god forbid), conventional in their/our/MY tastes and habits? I’m grossly offended, but the United States Potato Board pulls a fast save by giving us some fun new identities, so I tentatively forgive them.

Avoiders prefer routines and packages. They want meals to be fast, quick, easy and convenient. Therefore, avoiders often eat frozen or boxed foods, and if they must cook, refer to their go-to routine of what to make. They skew a little older (late 20s) and Midwest.

Nurturers are similar to the current target (moms). They like to experiment with new recipes and cook for the taste and enjoyment of it, not for nutrition. Nurturers are looking to put something on the table that everyone will enjoy; so flavor, satisfying cravings and ease are all of upmost importance. They also skew to the Midwest.

Entertainers are foodies at home. They love to experiment with new, creative recipes that use start-from-scratch ingredients and enjoy sharing their cooking with others. Entertainers aspire to be at-home gourmet chefs and find relaxation through cooking. In addition, they are also health aware and nutrition conscious.

Explorers are foodies outside of home. They want adventurous foods that are new and exciting. Explorers are health involved and watch their diets and weight; however, they are more concerned with convenience than nutrition. Explorers are likely to be male, single and living in the Northeast.

Health Seekers base all food choices on health and nutrition. They watch their diets, exercise consistently and choose natural and unprocessed foods. However, they are also looking for meals that are easy to prepare. They are more likely to be living in the West.

Potato People, if I may: while we don’t necessarily resent your farcical attempts at spud-mongering, millennials are well on our way to replacing all food with delicious, nutritious soylent. Potatoes are great for now, but after the Great Millennial Uprising (projections suggest sometime around 2017), you will have outlived your usefulness to us, and you will most likely be sent to Carrousel.

All remaining potato stock will, of course, be converted into artisanal vodka.

Posted by Amber Frost
|
11.10.2014
06:56 pm
|
Fabulous Emo hairdos of China’s Millennials workforce
03.03.2014
10:49 am
Topics:
Tags:


 
Photos of Chinese Millennials hard at work, sportin’ some fun-loving, kind of elaborate, hair’dos:

It is 8:30 at night. A group of young workers are busying processing products at a plant in Zhuhai city, South China’s Guangdong province. They have been working for nearly 10 hours. All of them are born in the late 90s and come from rural areas outside the province. Wearing blue uniforms and having peculiar hairstyles, they make a living by repeatedly working on the assembly lines and contributing as one of the forces of the city’s construction.

There are more images over at China Daily.


 

 

 
Via Nerdcore

Posted by Tara McGinley
|
03.03.2014
10:49 am
|
Will crushing student loan debt and worthless college degrees radicalize the Millennial generation?


 
This is a guest post from Charles Hugh Smith. His newest book is Why Things Are Falling Apart and What We Can Do About It

The existing social and financial order is crumbling because it is unsustainable on multiple levels. The central state is not the Millennials’ friend, it is their oppressor.

No generation of young people is ever politicized by hunger in distant lands or issues of the elderly. It’s no rap on youth that self-interest defines what issues have the potential to radically transform their political consciousness; the transformative cause must reveal the system is broken for them and that it intends on sacrificing their generation to uphold the status quo.

The Millennial generation, also known as Gen-Y (Gen-Y comes after Gen-X), is generally defined as those born between 1982 and 2004.

The oldest Millennials were children during the first Iraq War in 1991 (Desert Storm) and just coming of age in 2001 (9/11 and the war in Afghanistan) and the start of the second Iraq War (2003).

The Millennials have entered adulthood in a era characterized by permanent low-intensity wars and central-bank/state managed financial bubbles—2001 to the present. In other words, the only experience they have is of centralized state mismanagement on a global scale.

The gross incompetence of the government and central bank—not to mention the endless power grabs by these centralized authorities—has not yet aroused a political consciousness that the system is irrevocably broken, not just for older generations but most especially for them.

Anecdotally, it appears the Millennial generation is still operating on the fantasy that all they need to do to get a secure, good-paying job and a happy life is go to college and enter the status quo machine of government/corporate America.

There are two fatal flaws in this fantasy: the $1+ trillion student loan industry and a transforming economy. The higher education industry in the U.S. operates as a central state-enabled and funded cartel, limiting supply while demand (based on the fantasy that a college degree has critical value) soars. This enables the cartel to keep raising prices even as the value of its product (a diploma) sinks to near-zero.
 

 
Since the Federal government issues and guarantees all student loans, the higher education cartel is (like sickcare, national defense and the mortgage industry) effectively socialized, i.e. funded and managed by the central state.
 

 
If you understand the student loan system is predatory, parasitic and exploitive, you have reached first base of a meaningful political awareness. If you understand the central state (Federal government) funds and enforces this system, you’ve reached second base. If you understand the vast majority of college degrees do little to prepare you to be productively employed in the real economy, you have reached third base.

If you understand the status quo is unsustainable and does not operate according the the fantasy model you’ve been told, congratulations, you’re close to home base.

I have covered all the salient issues repeatedly:

The Fatal Disease of the Status Quo: Diminishing Returns

College Grads: It’s a Different Economy

Bernanke’s Neofeudal Rentier Economy

Degrowth and Anti-Consumerism

Centralization and Sociopathology

Present Shock and the Loss of History and Context

Generation X: An Inconvenient Era

The Nearly-Free University

The central state is not your friend, it is your oppressor. The loan shark that won’t let you discharge your student loan debt without appealing each ruling against you three times is the government (and its hired-gun proxies).

The oppressor who demands you work your entire life to pay interest on public debt squandered on neocolonial wars and various cartels (sickcare et al.) is your central state.

The entity who demands you pay higher taxes so the generation entering retirement gets all that it was promised, even though the world has changed and the promises are no longer sustainable? The central state.

The oppressor that will devote its enormous resources to investigate and crush you if you actively resist the bankers and financiers who pull the political lackeys’ strings? The central state.

At some point, the Millennial generation will have to awaken to the fact that the only way to change its fate is to grasp political power and redirect the policy and mindset of the nation. Centralization is the black hole that is destroying the nation’s social and economic vigor. Decentralization, transparency, accountability, adaptability, social innovation, a community-based economy—these are the key features of a sustainable social order.

The existing social and financial order is crumbling because it is unsustainable on multiple levels. The status quo will cling to its false promises and corrupt centers of power until the moment the whole thing implodes.

Related links of interest:

Dear Class of ‘13: You’ve been scammed: How the College-Industrial Complex drove tuition so high

Overdue Student Loans Reach Record as U.S. Graduates Seek Jobs

Bureaucrats Paid $250,000 Feed Outcry Over College Costs

Welcome, Robot Overlords. Please Don’t Fire Us?

My Generation’s Disease

Podcast with Mike Swanson of WallStreetWindow.com on student loan debt and the Nearly Free University: Charles Hugh Smith On the Forces of Centralization and Soaring Education Costs. I always enjoy discussing issues with Mike, a polymath with a wide range of interests and experiences.

This is a guest post from Charles Hugh Smith. His newest book is Why Things Are Falling Apart and What We Can Do About It
 

 

Posted by Richard Metzger
|
05.31.2013
05:06 pm
|