By Ashley Kindergan From the Finacialist

It’s one of the few certainties of life: Every generation is somehow baffling to the one that came before it. To help us older folks better understand kids today, Credit Suisse’s fifth annual Youth Barometer Survey asked more than 1,000 people between the ages of 16 and 25 in Brazil, Singapore, Switzerland, and the United States about their goals, ambitions, and preferences. Some of the findings are exactly what you’d expect from the first generation of digital natives – more than 40 percent of young people in Brazil, Singapore, and the U.S. spend more than three hours per day online, for example. But a closer look reveals some truly surprising insights.

Materialism lives – but not everywhere.

Young workers are idealistic about their careers, both in terms of where and how they want to work. Money still talks – just more loudly in some places than others. Fifty-nine percent of Singaporean youths say making as much money as possible is an important career goal, while 70 percent of Brazilians value achieving a better standard of living than their parents. Ask Swiss youth the same questions, though, and just 29 percent and 31 percent of them, respectively, feel the same way. Switzerland’s 8.4 percent youth unemployment rate, the lowest of the four nations, surely makes it easier to emphasize other priorities, but the difference is still stark. There’s more agreement, mind you, when it comes to those other priorities. Youth in all four countries say achieving work-life balance is their most important career goal, while more than 70 percent say it is important to work for an environmentally friendly firm.

No apron strings here.

In the West, young people have often been characterized as spoiled and sheltered by overprotective parents. But only 30 percent of respondents in Brazil, Singapore and the U.S. say they can fall back on their parents if they fail to achieve their goals. Switzerland, where 53 percent of youth can ask mom and dad for help if they need it, is an outlier.

Americans are looking inward…

American business may be going global, but American youth are less interested than others in doing the same. Just 67 percent of U.S. youngsters say they want to work at a company that offers training or job placements abroad, compared to around 90 percent in the other three countries. Likewise, just 42 percent of Americans want to work for a large, multinational corporation, compared to 73 percent in Switzerland, 79 percent in Brazil, and 81 percent in Singapore.

…and Brazilians are fed up.

The widespread student-led protests before the World Cup weren’t an anomaly. Eighty-six percent of young Brazilians aren’t proud of their country, 81 percent believe the government often fails on important issues, and 78 percent say the political system is in need of fundamental reform. Fully half of Brazil’s young people agree that the future of society is “rather bleak.” American cynicism ranks a distant second, with 33 percent of young people saying they aren’t proud of their country, 42 percent saying the government often fails on policy, and 28 percent wishing for fundamental reform.

So much for sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll.

Youth has always been more focused than their elders on what’s cool and what’s not. So what’s “in?” What’s “out?” Smoking made the Top 10 list of uncool behavior in all four countries, with sentiment particularly strong in Brazil (60 percent) and Singapore (55 percent). Thirty-two percent of Brazilians say engaging in many sexual encounters is passé, whereas twice that — 64 percent — said the same of taking drugs.

The digital realm, however, is unquestionably cool. Smartphones, email, and downloading music get high marks in every country. And authenticity still counts. “Being yourself and not pretending to be someone else” made the top 10 “in” list everywhere but Singapore.

Texting is so 2013.

Messaging service WhatsApp has exploded in popularity since last year’s survey – except in the United States, where the company was founded and has its headquarters. Fully 80 percent of Swiss youth say it’s their favorite or second-favorite way to communicate, up from 66 percent in 2013, and compared to just 4 percent in the U.S.

Don’t call them uninformed.

At least 60 percent of respondents in all four countries say they check in on current events at least once a day. But only Switzerland’s young people have held on to the quaint tradition of newsprint – 29 percent list free and paid newspapers as their favorite news sources.

Photo courtesy of Ollyy / Shutterstock.com

For more on this story go to: http://www.thefinancialist.com/kids-today-7-surprises/