By Karen S. Peterson, USA TODAY
The Gulf War? That's ancient history.
Snail mail? What a quaint way to communicate.
Letters are just so yesterday for the 2.5 million members of the Class of 2000 who are
about to graduate from public high school. They are the first graduates of the century and
the leading edge of what some call the Y2K generation. "These kids will shape the
millennium," says Gerald Celente of Trends Research Institute.
In many ways, the young adults live in a world unlike that which produced their parents,
for better or for worse. These teens grew up in the glow of a beneficent stock market but
in the shadow of AIDS. Divorce is commonplace, and school violence dominates headlines.
Ask them what has most shaped their generation, and they will instantly answer: the
Internet. They have grown up embracing the tools that changed the world so quickly.
"Computers are the most important thing to happen while I was growing up," says
Paul Sutusky, 17, of Columbia, Md. "I can get more information a lot quicker than,
say, going to the library."
Mike Baab says the Net is just a given now. "I have several friends who are on the
Internet at least two or three hours a day," says Baab, 18, of Seattle. "They
used to watch TV that much, but now they are compulsive e-mail addicts."
Jenifer Scheyer is amazed how the Net has become a central part of even her sixth-grade
brother's life. "He talks online to all his friends. It is amazing to me how quickly
it has become the standard way to communicate," says Scheyer, 17, of Northbrook, Ill.
And then there are pagers and cellphones. "I can't imagine life without my
cellphone," says Molly Heimert, 18, of Cincinnati. "It's so convenient. I don't
have to be home for my friends to get ahold of me."
Trendmeister Celente watches such developments closely. "This is the first generation
that was born into a wired world. They have been fed a software formula since infancy, and
(Microsoft) Word is their first language."
Teens do fret sometimes that life moves too quickly, leaving them and their parents with
so little time. "What sets this generation apart is 24/7," says Irma Zandl of
the Zandl Group, a trend consulting company. With faxes, phones, cellphones, beepers,
round-the-clock news coverage, movie rentals and takeout food, young people's social lives
are active 24 hours a day, seven days a week, she says. "Everyone is on the go."
Sometimes it wears the teens out. "It has made the world a smaller place. Everyone
can get ahold of you," says Ari Goldberg, 18, of Boca Raton, Fla. "There is no
private time."
Teens feel overscheduled. "It is exhausting," Baab says. "I've done so much
stuff so it looks good on my résumé for college: sports, volunteering, jobs. It is
really good to have a work ethic by 15. But it is stressful. . . . For the last three
months I have worked 40 hours a week while I went to school. I was swamped. And I was
filling out college applications, writing essays and trying to have a social life."
Some social transformations seem positive, at least to those who value diversity.
"They go to schools with blacks, Hispanics, Asians and whites," says Isabel
Walcott of SmartGirl.com, a buyers guide for teen
girls. At many schools "there is a lot of interracial dating, a melting-pot
effect" that differs from their parents' generation, she says.
A USA TODAY/Gallup Poll of teenagers across the country found that 57% who date have been
out with someone of another race or ethnic group. Although some parents are still
uncomfortable with the phenomenon, "for me and my peers, interracial dating is just
not an issue," says David Earley, 18, of Columbia, Md.
There also is increasing acceptance of gays at many schools, Walcott says. "There has
been a really dramatic opening up to gays since the late 1980s." One study shows the
number of gay and lesbian clubs meeting on high school grounds has grown from fewer than
100 to more than 600 in two years. Still, acceptance is hardly universal. "I don't
know anyone who is openly gay at my high school," Heimert says. "I don't think
they would be accepted."
Other social trends are depressing, including a high divorce rate that research shows
causes children grief. Though the divorce rate has plateaued, one in two new marriages
will end in divorce; the rate is worse for remarriages.
The Class of 2000 is getting used to the fracturing of families. "Our school has
special groups that meet every two weeks, like a support group for kids who have gone
through divorce," Earley says. "Every two weeks, half my math class is
missing."
Lorrie Crizer says that when she was little, each kid had two biological parents.
"Now basically everybody has divorced parents," says Crizer, 17, of Columbia,
Md. And stepfamilies are common. "A stepfamily is all I've known, and I just know
that we have made it work."
Celente says: "The whole definition of family has changed. We see more of
single-parent families, splintered families, his-and-his and hers-and-hers families. The Ozzie
and Harriet family has changed to the mix-and-match family."
Other trends threaten teens. "Since the late '80s, they have seen crack, crime,
homelessness become big issues," Zandl says. "They see things like gated
communities and road rage. They don't assume they will have a pension plan or work for one
company all their lives, because they have seen their parents getting laid off. They have
the idea they will have to fend for themselves."
Jason Leonard has noticed. "It seems like in the past a lot of things were
community-based. People knew their neighbors, and kids were allowed to do things more
freely," says Leonard, 18, of Fayetteville, Ga. "And if you got into trouble,
the neighbors could discipline you. That is just gone."
And, of course, there is the impact of school shootings. Actually, the number of
school-related violent deaths decreased 40% from 1998 to 1999, according to the Justice
Policy Institute, a Washington, D.C., think tank. But headlines about mayhem at places
such as Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo., have made an indelible impression.
"It is so sad to be scared to go to school," Scheyer says. "It is the place
you should feel most comfortable."
The Class of 2000 mentions drugs, teen pregnancies and the danger of sexually transmitted
diseases. Some studies show that teen pregnancy rates have dropped dramatically in the
1990s, and there has been a decline in teen sexual activity. But teens worry about peers
growing up in an era that equates sex with death. "Kids think they are
invincible," Goldberg says. "If Russia couldn't kill us, why would we think a
stupid virus can?"
The fallout on teens from a strong economy has been both good and bad. Many of these
members of the Class of 2000 seem so affluent, whether because of money from their parents
or their own hard work at after-school jobs. Certainly, they are the darlings of
advertisers and merchandisers who sell them designer labels on everything from hats to
shoes.
"One thing that has shaped us is advertising," Baab says. "We have seen
movies like Wall Street that said greed is good. Kids today live in an immense
consumer society, paying $50 for T-shirts that look 3 years old."
They do spend. "Female teens spent $67 billion of their own money all together in
1999," says Roberta Caploe of Seventeen magazine. Although many still suffer
in poverty amid plenty, "what is different for them is they have come of age never
having been exposed to an economic downturn," says Allyson Clarke of Roger Starch
Worldwide, which researches the youth market.
Many worry about the extraordinary increases in the cost of college. Tuition and fees at a
public, four-year college averaged $1,359 in 1987-88, when the Class of 2000 entered
kindergarten. The cost now is $3,356, according to the College Board, a non-profit
membership group for colleges.
In spite of scholarships and grants, "the fact is some people can't afford it,"
says Chad Jensen, 17, of Columbia, Md. "It is going to separate the haves and the
have-nots."
The Class of 2000 has many reasons to be cynical, the experts say, capped by President
Clinton's impeachment. "This generation has seen evidence that the established
institutions, the family, the political system, our belief systems are not meeting the
needs of the time," Celente says.
Some seniors are truly pessimistic. "The country is in moral and ethical
decline," Goldberg says. And he worries about the mettle of his own generation.
"We have never been tested. We have never seen a continued bad stock market, or a
really ugly world war. We have never had to fight or struggle. We have had everything
handed to us on a silver platter. When bad things do come, what will happen to us?"
But other teens and experts see the glass as half-full. "This generation has the
potential to bring major revolutionary change," Celente says. "They are the
movers and shakers of the millennium, and they are an exciting group."
You can finds teens who are "doom mongers," says Rachel Hickson, a consultant to
the Gallup International Institute, which polls teens. "But they mostly see
themselves as a generation that will make a positive contribution to the future, who will
bring a sense of hope and purpose to the world."
Hickson points to strong spiritual beliefs: 92% of teens say their religious beliefs are
important to them; 93% believe in God.
Seventeen-year-old Chad Jensen is a prime example of those who embrace the future.
"All my beliefs are based in my religion, from abstinence to not believing in
violence or drugs. If you follow your religion, people accept that and respect your
beliefs."
He is optimistic for the Class of 2000. "There are so many possibilities, so many
good things that can happen. There can be so much change and improvement."