Born in 1989

An abandoned generation? Pragmatic? Calculating? Apolitical? Streetwise? Uncultivated? For older generations, the arrival of the next often represents some kind of end - something is lost with the new generation. But of course the new generation is just different. hvg.hu spoke to sociologists, teachers and cultural studies researchers about the generation born at the time of the regime change as its members prepare to enter adulthood.

© Végel Dániel

For the generations that grew up under the previous regime, the regime change represents a dividing line in their lives. Independence, changes to the political and economic system, the arrival of freedom and the establishment of democratic institutions were indeed a turning point that meant something for everybody. But now a generation has grown up that never knew the previous regime. They barely relate to 1989, or if they do, they do so only for personal reasons, since that is when they were born. They are the children of the "new" Hungary. This generation is now coming of age.

"I don't know if Hungarian society has ever known a generation that was left to its own devices as much as this one," says the sociologist Kalman Gabor. More and more young people are spending more time in education and are becoming independent earlier on, while they enter into working life and have children ever later. Their environment is also changing: family and school play a lesser role, while the media and consumption are becoming ever more central in shaping young people's attitudes. There are more opportunities open to them, but this goes with a degree of uncertainty. Expanded opportunities lead to more experimentation, meaning risks are ever greater. "They don't get any help because adult society, families and schools don't understand their desires and needs," says Gabor, explaining why the young frequently have trouble with the institutions that exist for their benefit.

The sociologist does not agree with suggestions that this is an "apolitical" generation. They are not indifferent, but their attentions are focused on non-traditional forms of expression: demonstrations, building occupations and even terrorism. But the adult generation is reluctant to take all this seriously. Adults do not understand and do not react, making it easier for these misunderstood young people to drift towards radicalism. This is not a unified generation with a common ideal. "This is a very divided generation: the gap between different social groups is growing wider, rather than diminishing," Gabor says. Some groups have no opportunities, while others are just reinforcing their advantage.

Their value system also contains surprises. They are alarmed by a globalised world and they are less tolerant than their elders. There is a conservative shift taking place: families and private life have acquired greater value. These young people are not reacting against their parents' "conventional" value systems, but seeking to adopt it themselves. But new lifestyles are also emerging. It's trendy to be single, since people are having children much later.

"When I was at college in the mid- to late-1980s, the world began to change around us. It was possible to demonstrate on the Chain Bridge, to show off the bruises from policemen's truncheons in the halls of residence, to be a hero. The old system was still in place, but we could laugh at is. It was a Happy time," says Gyorgy Broszman, deputy director of the Mikszath Gymnasium in Paszto. He says that while his generation liked "to do things together," to create things, the current generation "was born into a consumer society and their relationship with the world is very different, much more individualistic."