By way of introduction to this blog

This blog represents a study of young people between 18 -30, the so-called emerging adult generation, and of the way they interact with members of older generations.   It contains a series of posts, each intended to describe what I perceive to be a central characteristic of the life style and experience of this age group.  Of course the lives of these post-adolescent semi-adults are far more complex than can be captured in the description of any one characteristic.  It is only through the cumulative portrait of all these items combined that it may become evident what these young people are all about.  Together these items can be likened to individual strands in a multi-coloured scarf my wife likes to knit in her spare time.

Furthermore, the posts are grouped under six headings to highlight the broader dimensions of the experience and life style of emerging adults.   One deals with basic characteristics of emerging adulthood.  Another describes the way these young people interact with information technologies, the impact of which is so pervasive in their lives.  A third set of items tells the story of a subgroup of emerging adults, the so-called hipsters, to highlight the place of irony in the lives of today’s young people.  Items under heading four chronicle the way this emerging generation interacts and communicates with preceding generations.  Then follow items under heading five in which I attempt to place this generation historically in relation to post-modernism.  Lastly, the blog ends with some concluding personal postscripts about what this all means for the way we intergenerationally live together in the twenty-first century.