ASK a young person, and they’ll likely tell you it’s a cruel, cruel world.
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Now Tasmanian researchers want to know what’s getting them down.
University of Tasmania lecturer and sociologist Dr Nicholas Hookway is turning to Gen Y and iGen to take his pioneering research on human kindness to the next level.
Dr Hookway and sociology honours program student Anne Berends are calling for participants aged 18 to 30 to share their personal experiences and opinions of kindness, or unkindness.
Dr Hookway said the ultimate goal was to flesh out results from his national survey that showed most young people saw the world as an unkind place, despite being more likely to report acts of kindness than older generations.
‘‘We want to know what is driving this generational paradox, we want to find out why younger people see the world as a harsher place,’’ Dr Hookway said.
He said contributing factors could include uncertainty around employment and finances, and a culture of episodic relationships.
‘‘We have suspicions that young people have grown up in an ‘until further notice’ world – a world that is less predictable and secure than their parents experienced,’’ he said. ‘‘It’s a world where there is a massively casualised workforce, and personal relationships are more episodic or of a liquid nature.’’
His push to further the kindness survey results comes after an Instagram competition and the filming of short video clips, both of which were Youth Week activities based on young peoples’ understanding of kindness.
If you want to add to the research, you can register for a focus group via Anne Berends at ahanlon@utas.edu.au.