Dear Generation X:
I think we need to have a talk. As a member of Generation Y who has, like many of my generational cohorts, recently advanced into the world of business (especially the business side of Social Media), I’ve noticed a few things about you all. Firstly, that you’re more social network savvy than we might have given you credit for; but secondly, that you’ve forgotten that despite the fact that you’re ahead of us in age, that we totally had a hold on Social Media first.
You’ve taken these huge networks and made them quality, productive tools for advertising, corporate networking, and conducting business. That’s impressive. What we used to use for expressing our emotions through tortured song lyrics, you’ve made a legitimate business. And it’s brilliant.
However. . .
A few recent articles have brought to my attention the idea of “surprise” when it comes to the fact that people ages 18-29 use status updates more than any other age group. Really? That could surprise anyone? I know that Twitter is growing for business right now, but we started updating statuses, or AIM away messages, at around age twelve. It’s been a part of growing up for us. It defined or demolished our social lives IRL (that’s “in real life,” fyi) from middle to high school. Going into adolescence, we’ve always had the need to know where and what our friends are doing at any given time.
This eventually translated and graduated into Facebook statuses, which don’t forget, was only available to us college students for a while. And honestly, though we’re glad to welcome everyone into our Facebook networks now (including businesses, moms, and even you, grandparents), we really appreciated our own private niche online while it lasted. Oh well. Now that we’ve moved into the corporate world, we totally recognize the possibilities here.
This shouldn’t come as a surprise, though. Just think, back when you Generation Xers were between the ages of 18-29, you were the leaders in your own media. You had ICQ and Friendster, witnessed the birth of Google, and brought about SEO as it exists today. You witnessed some of the coolest technological advances so far, and while you were out busting into the corporate world making a difference, we were still stuck in desks looking for ways to procrastinate from our Biology homework via the internet. And we found them.
Continuing on – one more “surprise” surprised me: college students still use e-mail. Has it been so long since you’ve been there? Have you forgotten the joy of listservs? You could e-mail everyone in your organization, dorm, or even the entire graduating class of 200_ (I don’t feel inclined to reveal how young I actually am at the moment) directly in an instant if you wanted to. It’s unfortunate that you’ve never known the ease at which you can look like you’re doing something legitimate in class by being on e-mail but actually just reading your Facebook updates without logging into Facebook.
Just remember Gen X: before Social Networking was all about business, it was also just a lot of fun – a natural part of how we communicate in Gen Y.
We’re Social Media/Social Networking natives.
Welcome to our world.
Love,
Generation Y
