Ypulse 2008 National Mashup keynote Michael Franzini is an Emmy Award-winning director/photographer who has worked in the TV and advertising industries. Most recently, he photographed high school dropouts for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. His book, 100 Young Americans, features Michael's photographs of teenagers and musings on youth culture. It looks like a gorgeous coffee table book that doubles as a guide for understanding today's teens. Michael will be presenting a multimedia keynote with his photography, video and insights from his work on 100 Young Americans on July 14th. You don't want to miss it. We ran the following interview with Michael on Ypulse a few months back.

Ypulse: What process and/or criteria did you use to choose your 100 subjects?

Michael Franzini: This was the hardest part of the project. We really wanted this group to be a true cross section of American teenagers. In the end, I think we did a pretty good job of capturing the full spectrum of young Americans--as much as a group of 100 individuals can, at least.

We started with census data for gender, race and religion and matched these proportions. Then we mapped out about 50 'niches' in youth culture--ranging from the most mainstream (e.g. football jocks and student body presidents) to the most fringe (e.g. goths and vampires). We made sure to represent each niche. Finally, we balanced city vs suburban vs rural/country kids. And, of course, we made sure to represent all 50 states.

This was a mammoth undertaking. It required an office full of people (averaging about 8 working at one time) for half a year. They went on MySpace, Facebook and Craigslist -- often recruiting people "on the ground" in areas around the country to go out and find candidates. In the end, we looked at about 3,000 teens to get these 100.

YP: What surprised you most about teen life today during your travels and interviews?

MF: In some ways, teenagers today are surprisingly similar to those of 20 years ago (when I was that age). There are still goths just like there were then -- and stoners and skaters and geeks. But, in some ways, life is radically different. To say life has changed from one generation to the next is not exactly a major newsflash.

But things have changed a lot. I believe there is more of a generation gap now than ever before. And I believe it's all about technology. When my parents were kids, their parents told them that radio was going to corrupt them. When I was a kid, they said Pac Man was going to rot my brain. People always seem to think that technology will be the end of life as we know it, and it always seems to be a gross exaggeration.

But, for this generation, the change is more profound. This is the first generation to have grown up entirely within the technological revolution of the past 20 years. I call them the Instant Access Generation. They have access to information and people on an unprecedented scale. Some of the implications are obvious: faster answers via Google and Wikipedia (instead of a 200-pound stack of books known as an "encyclopedia" -- a term many teenagers today don't know).

But Instant Access has implications that are less obvious. Here are a couple:

- Teens have easy access to a wide range of information, some of which is harmful. Parson, the 18-year old who "robo-trips" every day, is representative of the 10% of teens who use cough medicine recreationally. And teens are abusing prescription drugs more than ever, because it's easier than ever to find out what the pills in their parents' medicine cabinets can do for them.

- Obscure niches are no longer obscure. We have a guy in the book named Angel, who lives his life as a vampire, fangs and all. When I was a kid, if someone had a vampire phase, it would come and go. But now, budding vampires have Instant Access to a whole world of vampires out there. It's far easier to choose your identity and find a whole world of support for it.

YP: How do you think today's teens view themselves?

MF: This is one thing that remains unchanged. Ask almost any teenager what they think of their generation and they will be at a loss for words. It's hard to describe the forest when you're in the middle of it. This book is the view from 30,000 feet.

YP: Describe your favorite photograph in the book.

MF: There's a guy in the book with a skateboard wedged in his mouth, like he's trying to eat it. This represents a big part of what's appealing about teenagers. I asked the guy if he'd eat his skateboard and let me take a picture of it. He shrugged and did it. This is a time of life when boundaries are loose and anything goes. If I had to pick a single image to represent "teen spirit," this would be it.

YP: Who is the intended audience for this book and what do you hope they take away from it?

MF: Parents, teens, grandparents, teachers, marketers and everyone else. I hope they feel like they know this generation of Americans. And that they are able to draw their own conclusions.

You can purchase 100 Young Americans at Amazon.com.

Posted by anastasia