High dependence on leisure trends

Today's youth define themselves more than ever through leisure consumption. However, the high value placed on expensive leisure activities has its price: many can hardly escape the pressures to consume. A clear majority of 14 to 29-year-olds now feel that they „spend too much money in their leisure time“ (1986: 47 % - 1989: 53 % - 1993: 56 %).

At the same time, more and more young people are complaining that they are „more dependent on offers that cost money“ in their leisure activities than they would like (1986: 43 % - 1989: 46 % - 1993: 54 %). This is the result of a representative trend analysis by the BAT Leisure Research Institute, which analysed the consumption habits of 2,000 West Germans aged 14 and over in a comparison of the years 1986, 1989 and 1993.

„The consumer kids want to be consumption pioneers, but at the same time they are at the lower end of the income scale,“ says Prof Dr Horst W. Opaschowski, Director of the BAT Institute. They are increasingly plagued by a guilty conscience. „The longed-for pleasure of consumption is turning into consumer stress and spending money is only one step away.“

„Born to shop“: one in five young people in a shopping frenzy

In contrast to the war and post-war generation, which learnt to live with material hardship, today's young generation in West Germany has largely grown up in prosperity. Even in times of recession, they continue to indulge in their consumer pleasures. „In“, „new“ and „fashionable“ - this formula can be used to describe the desires of a young generation that is increasingly developing into a new experience generation. Knowing what is „in“ and being on trend has now become a basic need for the vast majority of the younger generation (1986: 51 % - 1989: 61 % - 1993: 68 %). More than two thirds live in the here and now - wanting, indeed needing, to always belong. The proportion of young people who attach particular importance to „fashionable leisurewear“ is constantly increasing (1986: 55 % - 1989: 65 % - 1993: 71 %). „Out-fit“ and „clothes“ are and remain „the“ status symbol. Ultimately, all things that are „new on the market“ are attractive (1986: 40 % - 1989: 42 % - 1993: 54 %).

The young experience generation seems to be „born to shop“, born to buy. Shopping always means two things to them: a lust for life and the prevention of boredom. Shopping centres and arcades are not only havens of consumer experience for them, but also refuge castles to escape boredom and loneliness. The desire to spend money rules here. One in five West Germans (22 %) aged between 14 and 29 now openly admits: „Sometimes I shop like I'm on a high“. 

For them, buying in a frenzy means not giving up until they have found and purchased a specific item - regardless of whether they actually need it or can afford it. Professor Opaschowski: „More than other population groups, teenagers and young people are under an almost social pressure to consume. The social pressure comes primarily from the leisure clique: If you want to belong, you have to fit in with your peers.“

Young people want to set themselves apart from the adult world and use the consumer goods that adults have provided for them. The supposedly unconventional exit from the adult world becomes a customised entry into the consumer landscape. Through appropriate leisure consumption, group affiliation can be signalled and sometimes individuality expressed. For many young people, it is obviously becoming increasingly difficult to free themselves from the cycle of consumption because leaving it is quickly branded as being an outsider.