For our parents, tech was a function… you either did it your self or had technology do it for you, a luxury. For us (Gen X), technology is a feature, e-everything from shopping to dating etc. For them (DigiNatives), technology is a benefit… their natural state is applying it for its own purpose.* A hyves page just for the sake of being cool is not the thing. So don’t think digital or tech, think impact… real-time, instant, 24/7, virtual, connected are keyword we learned in a recent FreedomLab study.
“Why send an email with a question to somebody? You don’t know if that person knows the answer! And than you don’t know of he or she is online? You might have to wait days for an answer and the mail might even not be read! I rather use MSN”
“Second life, never heard of!” (answer by 75% of the respondents) — “The father of a friend of my plays it”
Very tempting to use one of these perspectives in codifying this generation… but let’s be real… is tech really the big thing marking their childhood. Is tech really the event formatting their values? I doubt it… How about 9/11, terrorism, war, violent crime, clash of religions and last but not least… global warming?! Sociologists start to call the new generation: Generation RISK!
Here some quotes from the same study. Answers on the question: What is on your mind?
“I would like to walk outside without the fear of being raped.”
“Global warming”, “Hyrbid fuels”, “Stop wars”, “Send Bush away” etc. etc.
SO, WHAT DO YOU THINK… WHAT IS THE UNIQUE ASPECT OF THIS GENERATION THAT WILL TYPIFY THEM?
* By the way… the same is to say for marketing & brands… These are the Marketing-Natives… they were born with banners on their site with baby-pictures =)
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Maybe it is Generation NEAR: every step they (you) take is a footprint in multiple realms. And the boundaries are, apart from unclear, very close. That’s why privacy is such an issue in different respects; online, with regards to religion, in dealing with your actual neighbors and the very inprivate way you deal with your environment (i.e. everything you do has an effect). This generation is under the spyglass of itself: see Google Maps/Earth Street View.
What about Generation Participatory, it makes them connected and involved. http://www.google.com/search?q=define%3Aparticipatory
Participation in what??
participatory to everything surrounding them. Being the first generation growing up with all the information of the world surrounding them and within reach. Open book exams, in touch with up to hundreds of people over msn, reflecting opinion but defining their own (uniqueness), co-creating.
Interesting. Counter question:
Indeed they grow up in an environment surrounded by access to all info available. That makes them different than their previous generation and therefor a logic way to identify the new generation. BUT… does something that is already there, a commodity, omni-available, natural to them, really fundamentally characterize a generation? OR is it not what is omni-present but what is about to change more formatting the values?
So what I mean is…
Most of the comments are typifying a generation with something they have which we haven’t. But unfortunately ‘what you have’ is normal to most of us and thererfor less significant in the formation of values. That’s what I mean with features, functions, benefits… what is the impact of all this info-availabillity etc.
A good example are blogs. To GEN X, blogs are POWER TO THE PEOPLE, hence… it is the first time ‘we’ can determine what’s on in the media-space… For the new generation, access to mass-media is normal… so blogs are fun (gossip) but by no means POWER TO THE PEOPLE?!??!?!
The impact of all the info-availability seems to be a certain numbness. I just came across a pamphlet of Rob Wijnberg which describes a number of ‘features’ and ‘benefits’ of youth culture. I haven’t yet read the whole thing (ordered it), but some of these features seem to be:
- apathy and numbness, both expressed in low political and social involvement
- broad-minded, moderateness, skepticism
- pimping as in upgrading and personifying, hedonism and individualism
A number of criteria identifying youth culture. Now I still need a label under which all of these criteria fit.
i don’t know how to typify them now, but they might grow into generation CARE!
on the one hand we have the ‘risky’ society. everything speaks of danger and danger is often disproportionally enlarged. on the other we have the wikipedia’s, flickr’s abd hyve’s of this world. places where you can make a difference, alone but more often (un)coordinated as a group. the younger generation is brought up with the sense that they CAN make a contribution.
if this confidence in creating is accompanied by a growing consciousness it can only result in the urge to do good. and this generation is learning to give in to urges and act! because it matters what they do.
Check out the explanation of Prof. Becker (sorry, in Dutch) on ‘formative years’.
http://www.freedomlab.org/2007/06/26/formative-years-10-25-years-old-values-determined-for-a-lifetime/
I think the unique thing for this generation is that they are completely at ease with information overload, communication overload, marketing overload etc.
Previous generations have experienced an sharp increase of applications (divergence), for me that is the first computer, voicemail, gsm, internet etc. which have made life increasingly complex thus creating a feeling of technology going ‘too fast’ or ‘overload’ of various aspects in life.
This generation doesn’t see it as complex, that is just the way life is. Eg. having ten msn conversations at the same time is not a lot, it’s normal.
I think this generation does not have the need to diverge, but picks its own personalized course in a world in which we label a lot of things, that they see as normal, ‘overload’.