GROWN-UP STUFF

A look at the lifestyle of today’s adults

WHY A STUDY OF ADULTHOOD?

BECAUSE IT’S WHERE THE PEOPLE ARE

Source: ONS

£0

£500

£1,000

£1,500

£2,000

£2,500

£3,000

£3,500

16-19 20-23 24-26 27-30 30-32 33-35 36-42 43-47 48-52 53-56 57-60 61-65 66-75 75+

All expenditure

per month

Source: British Household Panel Study/Abbey National, nVisionBase: 10,000 aged 15+, Britain, 2001

It’s where the money is

AND IT IS CHANGING

Life as a rollercoaster of turning points

3 career changes

55% marriages end in divorce

5+ home moves

THE LINE BETWEEN CHILDHOOD AND ADULTHOOD HAS BLURRED

We’re leaving childhood sooner:

Losing virginity earlier - 16 Leaving home earlier - 20

But settling down later:

Getting married later - 30 Buying first home later - 34Having kids later - 29

The average gamer is 29

40% of Harry Potter readers are adults

65%

of adults plan a major life change in the next 18 months

Henley Centre

OUR OBJECTIVE

How is our experience adulthood different from our youth?

How is our experience different from our parents?

THE RESEARCH

Adulthood by St Luke’s

Primary research6 focus groups among 25 - 50 year old in the midst of change:

Relocators - a new job in a new townReturnees - divorced and back in the gameChange Junkies - constantly lookingCocaine and Canapes - living without compromiseGated community dwellers - seeking security in risky timesModern Parents- liberal; strict; single; kids from different relationships

Desk ResearchQuantitative substantiation from TGI, Mintel, Future Foundation, Office of Statistics, General Household Panel Study, Nvision

Recycled Research Channel 4, Clarks, Mothercare, BT, Magic, IKEA, PepsiCo, DfES, Co-op, Dep’t of Health, Electoral Commission, Emap, Emirates, Jordan’s, D&A, Laura Ashley

BE WARNED…

“Point me out the happy man and I will point you out either egotism, selfishness, evil - or else absolute ignorance”

Graham Greene

TODAY’S ADULTS ARE…

GETTING FED UP WITH WORK

“I think: ‘what am I doing sat in front of a computer?’ I think: ‘what am I doing spending my life doing this?’ I am trapped in a cycle of the rat race.”

LEARNING FROM EXPERIENCE

“When you have gone through a major change, whether divorced or bereavement, you look at life differently and I think you are prettyshallow as a person if that doesn’t change you in some way.”

STICKING UP FOR THEMSELVES

“Even to this day the bastard still cannot get a credit card and I can.I fought tooth and nail for my house. I brought him out for three grandand the house is now worth £270,000 and its all mine.”

DEALING WITH REDUNDANCY

“I couldn’t pluck up the courage to jack in a job that was such good money. Being made redundant is a shock at first, and then you start to think thisis good. I thought, I am going to really do something about it and nothave to go back. So I sold my house.”

POSTPONING DECISIONS

“My mum had me when she was 21 and I know it was far more the trendto do it much younger then. I couldn’t imagine making the commitmentto a baby at that age.”

DEALING WITH PARENTHOOD

“I used to have my own studio but I had to give it up, but I am hopefully going to get a new studio and I am very excited about it because it’s hard when you have children - suddenly all you are thinking about is being a mum.”

FEELING ANXIOUS

“Choice can be quite confusing. Having an almost predetermined set path that most people went down maybe took a lot of anxiety out of things.”

BEING BRAVE

“My parents would never have risked anything like I’ve done because you didn’t then. Whereas now people take more risks and reassess their lives and everybody looks where they are going.”

WAITING

“I have always had this idea in my head that when I grow up I will decide on my career. And I have suddenly thought “well I can’t you now it is too late”. And that is not really such a good realisation.”

DRIFTING

“When you are starting out you can’t get off the starting block. You have to make a decision and you have this strange idea that it is going to be permanent and so you don’t make any decision. You just drift and younever do any of your dreams because you just think “how do I start”?”

HAVING REGRETS

“I feel a little bit like I missed out on the traveling side of things.Sometimes talking to people, I do feel like I would like to have beenable to do that.”

GETTING BORED

“I looked at all the magazines and it was all about these people in soaps, you know, I think I am not interested. They just have the same people in them, and how many times do you want to read about Posh and Becks?”

GROWING UP

“I don’t mind all the sex on TV. But there’s no critique, no subtlety. It’s all ‘will Dennis Rodman shag Chantelle’? That kind of titillation just doesn’t interest me.”

LOWERING EXPECTATIONS

“You never feel like you are good enough.There is always something you are not doing: you are not a PR girl in London snorting cocaine.”

FEELING GUILTY

“I do feel guilty when I am not organic enough. Because you have a budget and I suppose I am not unselfish enough to follow all the things.”

SLOWING DOWN

“It takes me about four days to get over an E. I can’t do it - four days out of my life trying to get over it. It does my head in.”

ACCEPTING RESPONSIBILITIES

“I won’t go out drinking until four in the morning ‘cos the baby will probably wake up at six.”

QUESTIONING THEMSELVES

“When I play the bars and I see the people half my age I think: ‘what the hell am I doing here?”

GETTING LOST

“Lots of my group of friends from school are all starting to settle down and really set their course in life. And sometimes I have that passing feeling of: well, what am I doing?”

AND ALL THE TIME THERE IS A GROWING AWARENESS THAT…

DEATH IS COMING LIKEA FREIGHT TRAIN IN THE

NIGHT

BURYING RELATIVES

“I am going to a lot more funerals.”

MAKING WILLS

“I think more about dying but in a different context because I think about it as a parent. I do think about it occasionally. I drive home carefully.”

AGEING

“There is this whole culture about getting old… and everyone has to try and be young and they don’t see being an older woman as a good thing at all.”

WAKING UP

“Can I say something as well, and this might not sound so nice, but you get to a point and you think “is this it? Is this it really, you know?”

DISCOVERING NEW DIMENSIONS

“So although I am bit of a boring banker by day, I do lots of amateur dramatics and I do part time entertainment as a clown.”

FINDING NEW VALUES

“I was very materialistic and wanted everything they had to offer and I got it and then I thought, it’s not worth having.”

STAYING CURIOUS

“Someone will have a CD and you say that sounds good and you listen to it. That is a sort of a connection but it’s about discovering new parts of you as well.”

TAKING EACH DAY AS IT COMES

“I used to make plans but I don’t bother any more; it always goes wrong. And I think you can look far ahead it’s like tempting fate really.”

GRABBING LIFE WITH BOTH HANDS

“I work full time, and I still want a social life and all the rest of it. Go home, get yourself spruced up and something to eat go out as well. You do have to squeeze it all in.”

SETTLING FOR LESS

“It is like you are constantly striving to attain something. Being happy with what you have got is central to having a good life.”

APPRECIATING SIMPLICITY

“Happiness is being up to my knees in mud with my horse”

WALKING THE WALK

“I am one of these people who will only shop in certain shops. Everything I buy I make a conscious choice about. I look at where it has come from. I think it is the only way that we have power.”

BECOMING OPEN-MINDED

“If I thought of someone as cool I would mean: a pretty non-judgmental person, not very hung up, someone who is just kind of going about their own business in a completely relaxed way.

ENJOYING LIFE.

“I was working hard in a job that I hated but it was well paid. I would rather compromise and have a nicer life in general”

“We are all of us resigned to death: it’s life we aren’t resigned to.”Graham Greene

THE BIG QUESTION

How do I make the most of my life?

TO BE INTERESTING, DO INTERESTING

“If you are going to be interested in something, whatever the subject may be, then you have the potential to be interesting.“

Looking good isn’t enough, it is what we do that defines our individuality

During prime time, 35-55 ABC1’s:

51% more likely to in a bar or restaurant

36% more likely to be exercising

41% more likely to be at the cinema

28% more likely to be visiting friends

49% more likely to be using the internet

FILL EVERY MOMENT

“There are so many things I want to do, so many books I want to read, so many places I want to go.”

Time squeezed? Only because we want to fill our lives.

There are not enough hours in the day to do everything I’d like

59%

FIND A LIFE BEYOND WORK

“It’s still tough when you go through life defining and being defined by what you do then what you do changes. You go through this whole period of self-examination, well who am I?”

Burnt-out, bored or just disappointed with our careers, we look for approbation outside work

37% involved in voluntary work

Big Britain

FAIL WITH PRIDE

“I spent my 20’s trying to earn as much money as I could and spent the weekends shoveling coke up my nose. I do feel that was a waste of time and I feel a lot happier now earning less money having a more relaxed lifestyle.”

Self-help culture and a steady diet of confessional TV has made us self knowing and not afraid to admit our regrets

EMBRACE CHANGE

“I’m always changing. All sorts of stuff. I just think I am going down the wrong road and I’ll change the road.”

Our ability to cope with new situations is greater than any previous generation

You should seize opportunities in life when they arise

85%

What I want out of life is to have fun and enjoy life’s pleasures

76%

CREATE SPACE FOR YOURSELF

“Travelling was the kind of transitional stage for me …enabled me to make the next change.”

Independence of mind is worth holding on to

LOWER YOUR EXPECTATIONS

“If you set your expectations too high, make it too hard you are just going to fail every time.”

How we spend our time is more important than the money we make.

FIND YOUR AUDIENCEFrom spiritualist website designers to design anthropologists and reggae gardeners, there is an audience for you out there.

50.6 million bloggers

70,000 new blogs appearing each day

And billions of personal websites

“Check this out, it’s a bit like your BT thing.”

HAVE SOME SELF RESPECTAfter decades of hedonism, we are learning the value of dignity

“In your twenties you are up for drinking 18 pints and having fun if you could stand up. But you could have even more fun by drinking less. Your options are much, much wider the older you are.”

TO STAY SANE, GO CRAZY ONCE IN A WHILE.

The clubbing generation find it hard to do without a monthly blow-out

“You feel like you have to be reasonable and sensible all the time. When you are out with friends it doesn’t matter.”

MAKE YOUR WALLET A BALLOT BOXConsumer action is more direct than voting

“People can make a difference. There is so much more choice of organic things. You find them everywhere and that must be because they are answering a demand.”

Currently recycling as much as they can

65%

FEED YOUR DEEPER SIDE

“Music is the only thing I feel a connection with. Listening to music and discovering new music that you like. Which I am doing at the moment. Listening to different stuff like local bands.”

For £50 Bloke and MP3 Woman music, books and movies are the things that connect most with them.

ABOVE ALL ELSE, BE TRUE TO YOURSELF

“Forget your inner audience and celebrate your uniqueness. Everything you don’t do, you are thinking about what other people might think and you can’t live by what anyone else might think or believe.”

“I’m more comfortable in my own skin. I accept that not everyone is going to like me and quite frankly it doesn’t matter if they do or not.”

Knowing who you are is the most important value. Being true to yourself demands the awareness that you will constantly change

“Sanity involves learning to enjoy conflict, and giving up on all myths of harmony, consistency and redemption.”

Adam Phillips, Going Sane