Here’s what a random day in my life looks like, told through the eyes of brands:

0900. Good morning, Dave.

0930. The costume

1047. Rise and shine

1105. What’s going on in the world?

1247. Let’s do lunch

1442. You’re on

1807. Refuel and reconnect

2028. Productivity

2345. Y halo thar, internets!

0108. Power down

The brands listed had a somewhat significant impact on that particular day. If I took a crack at putting down every single brand I came into contact with, this post would be larger by several orders of magnitude. For example, I could have included the bands I listened to, the ads I saw, the branded clothes of people that I saw walking around. If I went into a grocery store or a mall, this could have gone on forever.

It’s amazing at how much of your daily life is comprised of interacting with or talking about brands…and how you become self-conscious of publicly associating yourself with certain brands. It makes me wonder whether I’d put down Metamucil, Barry Manilow or Vagisil if it applied to me. In short, it made me think about how much of my identity is ascribed to brands.

Whether this is isolated to Gen Y is debatable. Though I’m still not convinced that this exposure to brands on this scale makes us marketing savvy.

In talking about finishing school and stepping into the quote-unquote real world, the conversations revealed some interesting generational contrasts. I noticed that I was saying a few things that are unique to the twentysomething Gen Y:

“My boss just added me on Facebook.”
Despite being firmly entrenched in our daily (hourly?) lives, Facebook is still relatively new in our culture and a lot of social norms have yet to be defined. Even though I get along great with my supervisors, the potential for things to get awkward in a hurry is not lost on me. I’m grateful for limited profiles.

“What’s wrong with moving back with mom and dad?”
The people I’ve been chatting with are amazed at how many of my friends are moving back home and not making a big deal out of it. Frankly, I didn’t even give it much thought until an X’er told me her story about how she counted down the days until she could leave the nest. For me, the move is just the reality of the situation…I could go and live on my own, but my bank account would get pretty thirsty. My folks and I get along pretty well, anyway. Chalk one up for helicopter parenting!

“I don’t care about a huge salary, I want to make sure I’m happy.”
Maybe it’s just my youthful naivete, but I am intent on working for my sanity and fulfillment rather than for being a mercenary for a fat paycheque. From what I’ve seen, this is a concept that is rare among the Boomers and Gen X’ers that I know. Discussions with my millennial friends echo my thoughts on this. Gen Y believes that money follows happiness, not the other way around. I suppose time will tell.

“A pox on all these loans!”
I’m not sure if I’ve the Gen X’ers I’ve befriended are just keeners, but a lot of them paid for their own education or at least worked hard to finance a significant part of it. While I’m not drowning in debt, I can definitely feel the impending doom that hangs over my head now that I need to start repaying them. It also didn’t help that Canadian tuition fees have increased a lot over the last two decades.

Apparently, it’s common for graduates to think that they will soon take over the world. Then, the weight of said world crushes them and they sober to the cold reality of life.

We’ll see. I’m still pretty optimistic after some grim X’er conversations. I think I’ll be a little more upbeat when a Gen Z’er comes along and asks me out for a cup of coffee.