I am familiar with the meaning of hippies and yuppies, but today I heard a funny new word for a demographic of people - yawns. YAWN stands for Young and Wealthy but Normal. It is a pretty silly acronym, but this is how the radio program I was listening to described this group of people.

Yawns are people in their 20s to 40s who are usually wealthy through their own work. Many of them are self-made millionaires and have a lot of disposable income. However, they prefer to live simple lives away from excessive consumerism. They usually live very much beneath their means and like to purchase local produce. They are also more environmentally friendly and philanthropic because they want to save the world with their money and they really think they could do it. They live relatively muted lives they do not have as much entertainment value as other rich people, and thus the Sunday Telegraphy of London coined the acronym YAWN to indicate that these people live somewhat boring lives.

The radio program also suggested that the amount of Yawns is increasing because recent history has seen several cycles of pro-materialism and anti-materialism. For example, the communists and hippies of the 50s and 60s spawned a materialistic backlash in the next generation and produced the selfish yuppies. Now the rampant consumerism is once again producing a generation of people who hate the mainstream materialism. I think that may be true because I am seeing a growth in the popularity of frugality and "green" products amongst my friends and colleagues.

As much as I like to be a person fitting the description of a yawn, I would hate to say, "I am a yawn!" because that just sounds like that I am admitting I am a boring person. I am glad that there are so many rich people who are living beneath their means and conscious about helping others, but why do they have to be stuck with such a silly moniker? So what do you think? Are you a yawn? Would you like to be one?