Recently in Generations Category

I really noticed the potential for "old people" to invade what I thought should be my generation's domain of social networking this summer when my mom (prompted by a Newsweek piece on Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg) asked me if I use Facebook or MySpace. Without Newsweek, I doubt she'd even know what they were.

But the fact is a lot of adults are on Facebook and MySpace and increasingly want virtual contact with family members, creating some intergenerational clashes, as this MSNBC article discusses:

Nowhere are the technological turf wars more apparent than on social networking sites, such as MySpace and Facebook, which went from being student-oriented to allowing adults outside the college ranks to join.

Gary Rudman, a California-based youth market researcher, has heard the complaints. He regularly interviews young people who think it's ``creepy'' when an older person -- we're talking someone they know -- asks to join their social network as a ``friend.'' It means, among other things, that they can view each others' profiles and what they and their friends post.

``It would be like a 40-year-old attending the prom or a frat party,'' Rudman says. ``It just doesn't work.''

The social acceptability, or awkwardness, issue stems mostly from lack of clear etiquette guidelines on these sites (college students aren't immune: many people choose to "friend" everyone they've ever met). For instance, I didn't think it was awkward to friend my aunt after we discussed the different demographic appeal of Facebook and MySpace, but I would have thought it was really weird if she'd friended me out of the blue. I still try to limit our Facebook interaction to messaging, although she seems to be fairly active based on her profile and the number of wall posts.

It seems that navigating the frontiers of social networking will take some time and adjustment from both generations.  I may be Facebook friends with my aunt, who seems fairly adept online, but I won't be showing my mom how to set up a profile anytime soon.

Image: cambodia4kidsorg (Flickr) 

Image: (c) 2007 JupiterImages Corp.Social Technologies Futurist Gio Van Remortel was recently featured on MSNBC.com in the article: For Gen X, Time To Grow Up And Get A Broker.

Reporter Jennifer Alsever wrote:

Most Gen Xers, the oldest of whom are heading into their 40s, are woefully behind in saving for retirement. Nearly half of the 5,000 Gen Xers surveyed by Charles Schwab this year said they are so saddled with debt or live on such tight budgets they can't even think about saving.

"They're not a saving generation--they're spenders," said Gio Van Remortel, a 36-year-old who studies her generation as a futurist at Social Technologies, a research and consulting firm in Washington.

Indeed, the expenses of a house, car and all the other possessions that go along with being an adult often leave Gen Xers very little to sock away in a 401(k) system that grows money incrementally, said Van Remortel. Even if they are not supersizing their lives and living beyond their means, she said, many Gen Xers--generally defined as those born from 1965 to 1980--carry significant debt due to college alone. Once they have kids, they begin to worry about saving for their college educations, and retirement planning often drops in priority.

For more information on this trend, email us.

College students are constantly connected. Image: Nic McPhee (Flickr) I recently spoke with a reporter about how technology has changed the lives of college students over the past fifteen years. As a recent college grad, I knew about the present, but I needed something with which to compare my own experience, so I asked my Gen X and Baby Boomer colleagues. A lively email discussion ensued and it was interesting to see what my colleagues had to say:

• There was the obvious: as little as 15 years ago, mobile phones, Internet access, and laptops were rare, and therefore phenomena such as social networking sites, instant messaging services, and text messages—which college students today can't live without—didn’t exist.
• The more subtle: technology has changed the way information is conveyed and how relationships are formed and maintained. Back in the day, college students went to dining centers and the quad to make friends. It seems as though college students were a lot more friendly too; I can't imagine this happening on the campus of my alma mater, George Washington. Also, information about who was dating whom was spread through word of mouth, not text messages or Facebook.
• Tech was communal: When technologies were first developed (and much more expensive), they weren't individually owned, but shared: telephones, computers, printers, boom boxes, etc. were communally owned by students, or the university itself. Now a college student owns their own tech devices: mobile phones, laptops, iPods, etc., all of which make them more mobile and independent of those around them. In decades past, it seems like the lack of individual tech devices fostered a stronger sense of community.
• Nerds were nerds: And, for some, perhaps a bit of nostaligia for a time when everyone at college knew the pecking order: "Dorks were dorks. Now, they can be online celebrities and geniuses" (a quote from one of my 30-something colleagues).

So after this discussion, the question begs to be asked: what about the future?

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