Walking to a different beat

A highly identifiable new demographic group is on the rise. These young people are committed to lifestyle choices – in education, home, work and more – outside existing systems and they’re growing in visibility.

From crowdfunding to peer-to-peer subletting to Massive Open Online Courses, young adults are living and learning in non-traditional ways, writes David Mattin
These are fractious days. Historically, great change – societal, political, economic – comes in the wake of great trouble. And given this, it's almost surprising how little has changed in the wake of the financial crisis of 2008 and the subsequent Great Recession.
Yes, the world has not stood still. But in 2008, some analysts argued that the western economies were heading for permanent, age-defining change. Revolution, even. The end of democracy, which would be suspended in order to deal effectively with the crisis. The end of capitalism, which had been proven to be a system riven with flaws, unable to respond to the challenges of the 21st century. Instead, change of that magnitude was conspicuous by its absence. The system went into meltdown, costing us billions of dollars. And we meekly accepted it.
Or did we? Now, a new, highly identifiable demographic group is on the rise. These young people are committed to lifestyle choices – education, home, work and more – outside existing systems and they're growing in visibility. Let's call them the New Revolutionaries. So, what defines a New Revolutionary? These citizens are not seeking change the old-fashioned way: forget the quaint idea of political revolution. Instead, they're empowered by a belief in the social power of the digital revolution. Armed with new digital tools and a mindset that prioritises openness and new forms of peer-to-peer sharing, they are forging lives outside the pre-existing structures of social power.
Take education. For multiple generations until now, higher education has been the ultimate aspiration. Not for New Revolutionaries. They are eschewing formal higher education for a DIY, mix-and-match approach fuelled by providers of Massive Open Online ­Courses – in which university teachers lecture to thousands of virtual students over webcam – such as Coursera. In July this year, Coursera announced that it had four million students.
The traditional path after higher education? For generations it's been finding a "good job": meaning one that is secure, well-paid and respected. Again, New Revolutionaries have thrown out the rule book. They've embraced a culture of entrepreneurialism that has its foundations in Silicon Valley, and which is helping to reshape the entire idea of a "career". Helping to fuel this shift are democratised access to the tools and platforms that make starting a business possible: that includes crowdfunding sites such as Kickstarter, which saw peers fund 18,000 projects to the tune of US$237 million (Dh870.5m) in 2012, helping to create thousands of more entrepreneurs and start-up companies.
Meanwhile, another great plank of traditional life – home ownership – is falling by the wayside for this rising demographic. Across multiple cities – from London to New York and Auckland to Singapore – New Revolutionaries are being priced out of the market. They are making the most of the transience of short-term rents by embracing ­super-short peer-to-peer home swaps and by subletting spare rooms to tourists on peer-room sharing sites such as Airbnb.
Not yet convinced? A recent survey quoted by NBC's The Curve Report found that 81 per cent of those between 18 and 24 say they're already taking an alternative path in at least one area of life.
Perhaps the events of 2008 did stir revolutionary fervour, after all. But, like the best revolutions, this is one that's happening from the ground up: fuelled not by ideological thinking but by the real needs and wants of people on the ground.
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