Where did they come from? Why is the situation getting worse?
We can only offer an educated guess as to why the Guido Phenomenon is growing, it is a vast collaboration of issues that we will try and sum up the best we can. We would like to begin with this quote - Joseph Chamie of the UN Population Agency recently stated: "People today are more concerned about their appearances, [rather than family and moral values]" (Buchanan 2002, 99).

This effect is not only present and flowing through the western world but is growing in each progressive generation as the average American two-parent family breaks down as it has over the latter half of the 20th century. With the growing absence of something such as parent's attention to their child or merely a simple dinner family conversation, the younger generation looks to television, media, and the culture around them for what they want and what they strive to be. Unfortunately, the message being pushed on us today through television, the mass media, commercialism and advertising leans much more on what is good for the individual rather than the group. Harmless on the surface it would seem, but the underlying effects of this surge in materialism and hedonism are more frightening. The basic values of love, friendship and family are being replaced with material possessions and an illusion of self-importance.

We believe that this is why the Guido Phenomenon grows. The individuals that young people look up to are no longer their family, but extravagantly rich and vain athletes, rappers and music stars they see in the media. On a more local level, they see this phenomenon being portrayed in their Guido classmates, their attention to their looks and attitude are looked up to by lost children searching for an identity. This phenomenon is the seed that has created the vast surge in the Long Island Guido population that we see today. Those who turn down the Guido's road to happiness strive for three things: vanity, materialism and attitude.