Generations, the kind that provide young people with helpful media, are controlled by young people themselves. Unlike large institutions that aim to make their owners rich, generations grow successfully when they supply young people with the right information. Young members of a generation like stars who provide entertainment and information that is relevant and useful. Support for good information comes from turning members of the generation into fans. From a young age, members have the power to reject whatever generational messaging they consider bad and, if they want to, cease to be fans.
Einerson (1996) was one of the first researchers to discover how young people evaluate the entertainment they get. Let’s look at how music comes to youngsters from electronic media. A good performance may be seized on by girls and agreed that it is good. Einerson studied a voluntary organization of pre-teen girls who had just discovered the boy band, New Kids on the Block. The girls took up this band with enthusiasm. They enjoyed its music, discussed the attractiveness of its boy performers, and bought fan merchandise to discuss with each other and show their love. The New Kids quickly found that they had young girl fans.
Einerson saw an example here of how girls agreed on what was an attractive object. Girls met in person to person groups and converged into one agreed perception of what was good. Shared across millions of fans, the New Kids found their performance had rallied enough support to make them a phenomenon. Here was an example of two component parts of a generation, its fans and its stars, creating something they both wanted.
But what happened next changed all this around. The New Kids decided to behave exceedingly badly off stage. Reports in the press said that they set fire to their hotel, and wore shirts with swear words on them. In effect the band turned against their fans. The girls in Einerson’s group responded quickly. Young fans were shocked by the band’s objectionable private life which they found repulsive. The girls reversed their support for the New Kids, turning fandom to rejection. Some girls in the group had difficulty ending their former love and enjoyment, but a majority quickly gave up idolizing this band. It’s members were no longer likable. This shocked and repelled young fans. A large number of former fans felt the same way. What we are seeing here is the power of a generation’s members to change their feelings and reverse into the opposite. The New Kids were no longer a phenomenon and their career was reduced.
Einerson’s important insight is that generations can respond not only to lovability but will, in their millions, switch to rejecting entertainers if their moral norms and feelings disappoint the generation’s members. It is clear that girls can discuss and converge their ideals and feelings. But they are not simply passive followers. If an entertainment shifts into something unacceptable, a generation’s members have the power to steer society in a better direction. Media using generations can freely switch, making even young fans more powerful than money, advertising and self-important innovators.
Hey’s research showed us that girls become more mature and look more capable of improving the next generation. Einerson has added that girls are capable of finding consensus and shifting society in desirable ways.