Interesting Times

I guess that I shouldn't admit it, but even though I continue to write my blogs, I seldom take time to read the works of other bloggers.  But one of those that I do read regularly is "ApPARENTly Blogging" which is sponsored by Awana.  Recently the blog commented about a book, Artificial Maturity, by Tim Elmore.  His premise is that kids today are growing up faster in some ways, but in more important ways, not being ready to face adulthood.  Now if that premise is true, it is a very sad situation with potentially devastating results for our families in particular and our country in general.  In his book he points our some differences he sees between Generation Y (born in the 1980's) and Generation iY (born in the 1990's).  Here is a summary of his key comparisons.  Highly compassionate ... Low empathy.  Activists ... Slacktivists.  Technology as a tool ... Technology as an appendage to my body.    Passionate about a cause ... Only if my friends are involved.  Civic-minded ... Self-absorbed.   Ambitious about the future ... Ambiguous about the future.   Accelerated growth ... Postponed maturation.  Now that gives you something to think about.  The blog also shared some statistics from Statistic Brain, about teens and shopping.  Here are some of them.  80% of teens listed shopping under "hobby or activity."   75% would choose new shoes over 50 mp3 downloads.   63% would choose a new pair of jeans over concert tickets.   27% of girls said they would break up with their boyfriends for $10,000.   40% said they were regularly saving money -  57% are saving for clothes.  54% for college.   38% for a car.   Total teen spending is more than 208.7 million a year.   Average income of a 12-14 yr is $2,167.  Average income of a 15-17 yr is $4,032.    Interesting world we live in.