Why this generation will be better than the last

In the last few months I've been caught up in a back-and-forth conversation with an unnamed member of the baby-boomer generation. One line summary: they're convinced that my generation (Y, the boomer-echo) will not be able to live a better life than the generation prior. I emphatically disagree.

While they've been right calling out the economic headwind we'll face, the trials and tribulations of the geopolitical climate (terrorism included), and all of the legacy issues left to our generation by those prior (fiscal responsibility in government, moving to a preventative and distributed healthcare model rather than one that's curative and centralized*, addiction to oil and global warming, etc.), I'm still optimistic. There's obviously no shortage of problems, so why the optimism?

Well, I think that part of the disagreement is a definitional issue on what constitutes a 'better life' and the other is a fundamental yet underestimated trend well underway - specifically related to technology and the internet.

Values and definitions - a 'better' life:

To be clear, what we're debating here is the perceived quality of life  (QoL) that generation Y will enjoy - not their standard of living (SoL).  Looking solely at the SoL seems a bit myopic as it focuses too much on materiality rather than happiness. To draw the distinction:

Quality of life should not be confused with the concept of standard of living, which is based primarily on income. Instead, standard indicators of the quality of life include not only wealth and employment, but also the built environment, physical and mental health, education, recreation and leisure time, and social belonging. [source]

Given the economic climate that the previous generation enjoyed (which benefited from cheap [read: exploited] labor, reckless financing schemes, and unsustainable consumption patterns - particularly those supported by debt), it's probably a fair argument that generation Y won't see the same multiplier on their SoL as the boomers. It's very possible that those of us who were raised on the bubble will recede a little bit and those of us who slightly missed it will see marginal improvement. It's really the folks in the bottom 10% SoL that I would expect to see major gains over the next 10-50 years (based on the transparency provided by technological advancements).

While our SoL may not increase dramatically over the next 50 years, I adamantly believe that improving our QoL is well within our grasp (notably, measures of physical and mental health, education, and social belonging). Plus, maybe a little economic hardship isn't necessarily a bad thing for folks who may have lost sight of the things that truly matter in life (a slight to materialism... while my iPad sits next to my iMac... and I check a text on my iPhone... at my Eames desk). :-\

Technology and resources:
Regardless, the improvements-to-date and the potential of the world's technological infrastructure is, single-handedly, the biggest reason I'm bullish that generation Y will be able to improve their QoL as much if not more than our predecessors. The world of internet enabled devices is just leaving its nascent stages and as more information - be it status updates (traffic, health monitors, etc.), educational resources (a full suite of competing free online courses), real-time collaboration and crowd-sourced initiatives (the next wiki-[thing]... how about wiki-government?) - come online, the entire paradigm of how our world operates will shift from something offline that is often difficult and expensive to operate at scale, to something online that frequently only has limits as defined by us (e.g. privacy). Also, one of the beauties of technology is how quickly it acts; a behemoth billion dollar industry might get turned on its head in a matter of weeks.

Further, on the topic of social belonging, technologies now are allowing people to connect in ways that were not possible before; physical barriers are becoming less and less of a deterrent and folks are often finding their niches in geographically-unbound pockets; a need that may have otherwise gone unfulfilled. Well articulated here:

The very image of the lonesome blogger, or tweeter or Facebook stalker sitting at home in front of a screen, surrounded by discarded fast food artefacts, lends itself to a fast caricature of post-modern isolation. And yet, I think the opposite is true for most people.

The net and its various ways of connecting people is not driving us all apart. Quite the opposite. It’s creating virtual communities which can easily, and often do transform themselves into real world friendship circles or social networks, to use an uglier, more sociological term.

All of that said, it's not all hearts and flowers. While my generation will have a leg up on a plethora of different fronts (real-time information, improved transparency and communication, enabling more of the population to solve real problems at scale just to name a few), there are many new challenges that we face the prior generation did not (like an abundance of distractions).

In the end, let's hope that generation Y had enough pride and wherewithal instilled in them by their parents to see through short-term materialistic gains and work for the longer-term, more fulfilling, and often win-win goals.

* Alright, that might just be something I see as necessary; probably not an issue most people see as a red warning flag, but given the cost (both human and economic), it should be.