Youth Culture –Consumer Culture

Youth Culture – Consumer culture

In the 60-ies of the XX century the young people hit the streets, announcing themselves as a particular

social group with its rules, rights and intentions.

First of all, where does the concept of youth as a social group comes from?

Youth Culture – Consumer culture

With the development of consumer culture, creating new and new markets for products aimed primarily at young people,

youth culture as it is now has become a part of the culture of consumption…

How it came to it? Let’s try to figure it out.

Youth Culture – Consumer Culture

Young people as a distinct group, different from children and adults, has attracted the attention of researchers and policy makers throughout

the twentieth century.

Youth Culture – Consumer Culture

Young people created interest at the state level for:

• Youth Policy

• Youth Education Programs

• Apolitical Mood of Young People

Youth Culture – Consumer Culture

Political movements and parties remain unattractive for young people, they denied volunteering and

participation in public speaking was justified primarily by material rather than ideological reasons. This should not be seen as falling morals of young people, but as a natural reaction to the commercialization of all parts of

the political sphere and as a consequence, skeptical attitude to participation in the official policy for

ideological reasons.

Youth Culture – Consumer Culture

The concept of "youth culture" was created to describe a particular type of social space that is inhabited by people who are relatively powerless and depend on someone or something.

This social group has no real access to resources The dependence of young people is seen in the fact that they are

considered "socially mature" adults not for being as valuable as a social group itself, but only as a natural resource of the future society that needs to be socialized, nurtured and used.

Youth Culture – Consumer Culture

According to Stanley Hall's theory, and also to Karl Mannheim and Talcott

Parsons, "drama" of teen development is due to the collision of irresistible forces of nature ("sex drive" caused by "hormonal

awakening") with "fixed" barriers of culture - social institutions

Youth Culture – Consumer Culture

Youth culture is an independent social space in which young people can gain authenticity, while at home or school they have no real rights and fully controlled by

adults. Young people are at a vulnerable position, being a part of two value-world, between patriarchal models of family socialization and adult roles that are given by market rationality and bureaucratic structure. Another concept introduced to describe the characteristics of

youth identity - is a subculture or counterculture.

Youth Culture – Consumer Culture

Development of such subcultures and their confrontation with the majority culture emerged

due to the significant weakening of the patriarchal order, the transformation of young

people in the independent subject of consumption due to own earnings, plenty of free time,

development of recreational infrastructure, relative independence, the separation of private

and public space, cultural pluralism.

Youth Culture – Consumer Culture

Since then, much has changed: reformatting of youth culture, its structural transformation from

"moratorium" to the resource of business profits contributed to profound changes in the general modern culture, which occurred at the end of the twentieth century. They became the

foundation for the transformation of youth culture in a distinctive style.

Youth Culture – Consumer Culture

Youth culture - not a separate, delimited space anymore, but a part of the overall consumer

culture in which people are constantly pushing to make purchases that contain a sense of

youth, supporting them in the expectation that the possession of these products will help them

save (renew, restore) their youth.

Youth Culture – Consumer Culture

The idea of a youth in the modern world have not explicitly attached to a certain age group, and has become the focus of global consumer

culture in general.

In the search for new market niches consumer culture will master all types of needs, if their

satisfaction will make profits.

Youth Culture – Consumer Culture

But if we want to see the whole picture, we should consider what impact youth culture has on consumer culture: In recent years, parenting style has shifted

somehow. More often, parents are asking their children for opinions on food, clothing and other

everyday goods. Marketing experts realize this, so most brands have divisions or specific products that appeal directly to children and teenagers so parents

are asked to spend money in a certain way.

Youth Culture – Consumer Culture

Children's three main categories of spending and influence in spending are food, toys and

clothing. It's thought that households with two working parents are more susceptible to youth-

aimed advertising, since these parents may have less time to spend with their children and,

therefore, guilty feelings which prompt consumer spending.

Youth Culture – Consumer Culture

Teenagers have staggering buying power in today's consumer culture, in part due to their ability to work (and lack of monthly bills such as rent) and their position of influence over their parents' money. Advertisers long ago

isolated what is called the "cool factor," going so far as creating movements in youth fashion,

music and food, among other products.

Youth Culture – Consumer Culture

Marketers loosely call this "taking the brand to the street," and it includes using high-profile

celebrities to endorse products on television or in their personal lives. While all segments of consumer culture are affected by marketing

strategies, teenagers are specifically targeted in many instances (especially fast food, fashion

and technological gadgets).

Conclusion

Youth culture, which is initially positioned itself as something independent of the general culture and the culture of consumption in particular due to changes, which occurred over the course of its existence as well as due to market development, advertising and marketing evolution, became not much more than a part of the consumer culture. It is possible that with the fall in the birth rate and a simultaneous increase in life expectancy older people may become a new target audience for the production of goods. The relationship between consumer culture and the natural social

processes is really very strong.