When you receive an invitation to an industry event, what makes you accept? The topic? The speakers? The venue? Or the opportunity to network? In the media, communications and marketing industries, there is always a plethora of events to attend, but the question is, how does one decide on the best type of event to hold in order to achieve the desired outcomes?

It seems that whether the event is a less interactive seminar or conference; a presentation that encourages interaction, questions, and debate; a networking session, where the main objective is to forge new relationships; or an expo, where brands and consumers can interact in an informal setting, the general consensus is that some form of networking should take place, almost as an added value for attendees – learn something new, but also meet someone new.

This is understandable, considering networking is useful for raising your profile; sourcing new opportunities; strengthening relationships; and gathering information. It is a way to exchange knowledge and benchmark performance, as well as to stay abreast of the latest industry news and developments. At the same time, I have attended many events where people stand around awkwardly wondering who they should speak to, furiously typing away on their phones while waiting for the formalities to begin. It seems that this is often the case with younger generations, who feel more comfortable communicating using email and SMS, and shudder at the thought of networking, while older generations stand by the belief that face-to-face communication remains the most effective.

TomorrowToday.biz’s Barrie Bramley discusses that this is exactly why Baby Boomers come into their own at networking sessions, already forming the bases of important new relationships which they might later follow up with a phone call, while Generation Xers and Millennials would prefer to quickly grab a few business cards and then hide behind their phones and laptops and let the speakers do the talking, before going back to the office and following up with an email.

In my opinion, whatever the type of event, what is important is to understand your target audience and what it expects, and to ensure that it goes off without a hitch, giving the audience something meaningful to take away, whether that is interesting content or new business relationships.

How do you feel about networking? What have been some of the memorable events you have attended and why? Leave your comments here.

➜➜➜Huh➜WhaaaaT??➜➜➜➜➜➜What’s that u say????????????

A national study fresh out of SDSU is confirming that Generation Y really is Generation Me . The jaw-dropping conclusion? 57% of young people believe their generation uses social networking sites for self-promotion, narcissism and attention seeking.
Article

The fact that young people believe their generation uses social networking sites for self-promotion, narcissism and attention seeking is important for you as a product developer/designer because this emotional-need forms the basis for creating virality in your products. People don’t just share messages to be nice to their friends. Take a look at Facebook or Twitter, for instance – often status messages are equally about saying something about the sender, so the important question you should ask yourself is: “How will the message I want spread make my audience look cool or clever to their friends, colleagues or customers?”
Article

Compared to other age groups, Gen Y is more inclined to share their opinions about purchases, both online and off line.
Article

22 Social Media Marketing Trends for 2010
Article

“For marketers, the Millennials represent a multifaceted challenge that defies easy categorization. Beyond their demographic diversity, marketers need to recognize distinct behaviors, preferences, attitudes, and values that set this group apart from the rest. We need to realize that consumer-driven marketing integration is not a dream but a critical reality. And this starts with understanding who these young adults really are.”
Article

Being the baby of the family isn’t always the glamorous position that everyone might think it is. While there are some perks to this position of having the older siblings get in trouble for you because they are responsible, there is sometimes the opposite effect because you are the youngest, therefore blamed for everything.

Since you’re the child bringing up the rear of the family, you may be the family’s last hope for achievement if your other older siblings have ‘failed’ your parents in some way. You also may have it tougher in the discipline department because your parents discovered what mistakes they made with your older siblings because they were too lenient with them.

You are the wearer of the hand-me-down, hand-me-down, hand-me-down…. And your parents may be too tired to do things with you by the time they are done raising all your older siblings so you may not get to do all the activities that your older siblings did. But on the flip-side, you may get to do more because your folks are feeling ‘empty nest’ syndrome and they hang onto you tightly and want to do all the things with you they didn’t have time for with the others.

It’s a very unique position to be in – to be the baby of the family. Most likely you will have to take on quite the load in caring for aging parents also – because your older siblings will be too busy with families of their own.

But there is hope for you. As the observer you can watch all that came before you – including your siblings, your parent’s ever-changing behavior and society. Unless your parents had the kids in your family back-to-back every year- there’s a pretty good bet that there is at least 5 or even up to 10 or more years between you and your oldest sibling. Times change and this can be to your advantage.

Seeing this while growing up gives you leverage in being more adaptable to life, life’s changes and challenges and you have more flexibility in your overall personality and coping nature in daily life. As the world changes, you can readily adapt with it a bit more easily than your older siblings. You have the role of ‘teacher’ – and can teach your nieces, nephews, older siblings and aging parents a thing or two as the world progresses. This is your opportunity to be the educational cohesive component in your family unit. This not only will provide you with essential life skills to handle it better than most, but you have a chance to be more of a humanitarian/good will peacemaker in your family as well.

You can help your family adjust better to life/death situations that will inevitably come up and be the stronger and the wiser for it. Wisdom is priceless.

Ultimately it’s the youngest child who has the opportunity to help the pull all of the family pieces together and help older siblings see the bigger picture.

***** STAY TUNED FOR PART FOUR ***** THE ONLY CHILD

http://www.100percentrealwords.blogspot.com

© 2010 Queena Verbosity 100% Real Words
Media Monster Communications, Inc.
Stacey Kumagai
http://hubpages.com/profile/mediamonster http://www.braingasm.com

“WE SAMPLE BEATS, YOU SUE AND TRY TO FIGHT US; MAN YOU’D STILL BE HOME WITH ARTHRITIS.”-Big Daddy Kane (Young Gifted and Black)
Listen: http://tinysong.com/7rKp

Generation War? In the workplace and social settings I’m hearing more and more about this gap between the generations. Baby Boomers, Generation X, Generation Y and Millenniums. I’ll share the proverb my dad always shared with me, “Si Jeunesse Savait, Si Viellesse Pouvait.” Translated, “If the young only knew, if the old only could.” What’s missing from the “youth?” The wisdom of the older folks. What’s missing from the “older folks?” The energy of the youth. Basically, we need each other. Listen to each other and remember we can learn from each other.

Affirmation of the Day: I’m open to learning from someone who is older or younger than me.

Question of the Day: What really gets in the way of you connecting with a different generation?

Action of the Day: List the stereotypes you hold when it comes to different generations (i.e. those old folks are…; those young kids are…) and have discussions around those biases.

Run the Point, from where you are, with what you have!

Your Ambassador,
Mike Bruny

AMBASSADOR BRUNY’S HAITI RELIEF EFFORT:
Help me raise $2000 for Haiti’s Earthquake relief through my DEVELOP YOURSELF WHILE WE DEVELOP HAITI MOVEMENT. Checkout my video and website to learn how you can win a brand new iPod Touch: http//tinyurl.com/haitibruny
100% of all proceeds from sales of my audio book, “Move the Crowd: 30 Days of Hip Hop Affirmations to Change Your Life,” goes towards Haiti’s Earthquake relief
100% of all proceeds from my 1hr coaching session, “Your Essence” goes towards Haiti’s Earthquake relief
50% of all proceeds from sales of my book, “Move the Crowd: 30 Days of Hip Hop Affirmations to Change Your Life,” goes towards Haiti’s Earthquake relief.

In the blink of an eye, January has flown by…

It was a month of mixed emotions for me and mine…being that, the start of a new year will always for us, be associated with the loss of my brother. This year marks a year since he’s been gone and believe it or not…we made it. Yup – through all the stages of grief – from denial to acceptance, we hobbled through, individually and collectively – we survived. Now begins the process, or at least I hope it does, the process of moving on…which for me personally, means remembering the happy times and memories, of which, thankfully there are many

But lets start at the very beginning…New Year Day is also my anniversary and we had a cozy, quiet family celebration. I was never a fan of the big, wild, themed celebrations that I see around  me, where most people are invited to make up the numbers! Have attended a few and have always felt rather out of place! And now, as I grow older, I treasure the company of a few select friends and family, a quiet dinner and interesting conversation. The hoopla is just not for me. Been there, done that…moving on…

But thankfully,  January hasn’t been all about sombre moods and depression. No indeed, far from it – it’s been enjoyable in bits and pieces…and as a family, we’ve taken tiny steps…baby steps in the right direction.

So, this month, finally got my Dad to see a psychiatrist and though it was painful to hear him say some of things he did, I understand where he’s coming from. As his child, I realize, I’m carrying a whole lot of anger, guilt, and pressure, most of which I bring on myself. Every time  my parents sneeze I think ‘it must be something I did or didn’t do’…you know what I mean, the classic ‘damned if I do and damned if I don’t’ scenario. It’s totally irrational, completely illogical and so utterly predictable! Just recently, I’ve begun to learn to let go, to understand that not everything in their lives is about  and because of me.  So I’ve been staying out of their way (which is easier said than done!) and trying to let them make their own decisions and mistakes, all the while…feeling like a parent twice over…cause in addition to parenting my toddler, I feel like I’m parenting my parents too! A lot of my anger had to do with feeling unworthy – like after my brother passed, I wasn’t enough to keep them interested in living, in being happy no matter how hard I tried. I understood of course that they had to grieve, so did I, but as I said before – was being totally irrational! Now, I’ve reached a place of acceptance and understand that we need me more than either of us will ever admit! And that’s cool

Relationships and the generation gap have dominated my life since moving back home. In a continuance of the theme, my Granny, my  Mom and I, saw a wonderful Marathi musical play called Avagha Rang Ekachi Zhaala, which loosely translated  means ‘All Colors Are One’. My Granny’s 82 year old cousin, stars in this drama about the ‘generation gap’ and how differences between parents and children can be resolved, if both sides are willing to listen and compromise, all through the beauty of music I love Marathi ‘natya sangeet’ as it’s called. Songs sung in a particular style, live by singer-actors. It’s an inherited love that is shared by the family, especially my Granny, cause one branch of the family has been closely involved in Marathi theater since she was a kid. Maybe that’s the reason why, she braved the crowds, and the AC to step out of the house in years! And it was worth every aching joint, as she would say!

We enjoyed the play, laughed non-stop and were very sorry to see it end! 3 cheers for my Granny’s cousin, Padmashri Prasad Sawkar, who plays the aging, conservative patriarch of a small middle class Maharashtrian family with panache! His duels with his son, who much to his horror, wants to remix his religious hymns to allow present day youth to enjoy, rediscover and identify with the lost are of the ‘abhang’, are the crux of the story. The son’s struggle with his desire for independence and his love and respect for his father are quite wonderfully enacted by a young singer-actor Amol Bawdekar. Equally well -handled is the father’s understanding and acceptance, when his young grand-daughter arrives from the US, ostensibly to learn music in the old ‘guru-shishya’ style but teaches him a few valuable life lessons along the way! She says much the same things his son has been for years, but her youth and her language are new, novel and so the old man allows himself to learn from the young girl. Perhaps it’s easier for him, cause he doesn’t have to feel like he’s lost a point to his son!! Many important lessons, in this deceptively light-hearted musical! Saw my Mom and Gran laugh out loud in a long time and for that alone, this one gets 5 stars Can’t wait to see it again!

Also in January – met up with close friend Usha from Singapore She was here with the family to celebrate her nephew’s wedding to a Goan girl. It was wonderful meeting up with her, and we spent a wonderful day together She’s moving back to Mumbai around mid-year and it will be nice to have such a good friend just a car-journey away!

The 18th was hard. It was the day of my brother’s passing by the Hindu calendar and we had a puja to mark the occasion for close family. I don’t believe in religious rituals (another bone of contention between my parents and I)  - certainly not the way they are performed by most modern-day priests – in a hurry and tailored to suit their time constraints. If you believe, your soul needs today’s priests and their ministrations for salvation – well my sympathies! I believe, the soul is eternal and doesn’t need any middlemen to speak to anyone or anything – so I’m home free! But I guess, as a friend said to me, the rituals allow those of us who need it, celestial permission as it were, to move on…so be it!

Read some great books…The case of the Exploding Mangoes, The Virgin Suicides, Chocolat, got started on the Percy Jackson series…and some not so great…The Twilight series, though I persevered through Book I, couldn’t make it through any of the rest and cannot believe it’s such a phenomenon! The book shop I frequent here in Goa, is quaint and dreamy. Located in a sleepy little old Goan home, with a wonderful garden, it has atmosphere  It’s a place where you can curl up with a book and loose yourself in the magic and fantasy of a good story. A far cry from the endless, brightly lit shelves of Kinokuniya – my favorite bookshop in Singapore, I still managed to find Chocolat here, which I didn’t there! And they have a book club, which I am looking forward to!

So, that’s the report card for January 2010 – Some B’s an A or two, not bad!

The monthly forum series provide a fun and flexible environment for local businesspeople in Steamboat Springs to learn. Last Friday, January 29^th was the first series The Generation Gap: Effective Communication at Your Workplace and it was wonderful.  Karen Goedert from One Steamboat Place described the multiple generations in the workplace and discussed challenges and opportunities for working together and then representatives from each generation answered a series of questions. The generation gap isn’t new so why are there a plethora of books addressing intergenerational communications? Because as older employees defer retirement and new ranks of workers come of age we see more generations melding in the workplace. It was great to learn the different generational traits, how to avoid conflict and bring out the best in each generation.

Join us for the next forum series on February 26^th: Building Organizational Capacity Through Internal Sustainability where Peter Perhac, CEO at Colorado Mountain College Alpine Campus will teach us about how to achieve balance in work and personal life.

Contact Meagan Coates at Meagan@steamboatchamber.com for more information on The Forum Series.

Stevenf’s post on the iPad and New World vs. Old World computing is a must-read even for people who have no interest in getting Steve Jobs’ latest attempt to change the world.

In Steven’s description, “Old World” computers are, well, computers. You have to configure them and update them and cajole them into working, and then cajole them into working better. He puts Windows, Linux and Mac OS X devices in that group (I’m not sure about the latter — more on that below).

A “New World” computer might not even really seem like a computer — it might be a phone, or a music player, or (though he doesn’t mention it) a videogame. The thing just works. When you want something better, you buy a new one. When you want to do a different kind of task, you get out a different device.

The really interesting insight (to me) in the piece is that “Old World” types are now sandwiched between generations of “New World” users — our kids, and our parents, are taking up smart phones and the like, and not really understanding our crusty old complaints about lack of upgradability or multitasking or access to the file system.

But what about those of us who’ve been using computers for decades, but who are (or were) Mac-centric, rather than coming from the PC world? My wife is a PC person to the core (she preferred DOS to early Windows — for all I know, she still prefers it). I’m a Mac guy. I don’t use a Mac now, since I’m unemployed (and therefore don’t use one at work) and use a PC laptop at home to be compatible with my wife’s stuff, but in my heart of hearts I still miss seeing a little “smiley Mac” icon pop up on my computer when it boots.

Even though I’m taking a computer tech class now, and looking at building my own computer from scratch (well, from components) that’ll run Windows and Linux, I still really like the idea of a computer that “just works.” So which “World” do I belong in? Both? Neither? My own little one (as usual)?

(via Waxy)

We have arrived at the dawn of a new age of doing business. It is now commonplace to communicate via text messaging to cancel a meeting, tweet the exact location of where you are going to dinner, blog the latest happenings and Facebook your big wins and updates. It’s a new era of communication – is your business ready for it?

For the very first time, we have four different generations all attempting to communicate under one roof. Traditionalists, Baby Boomers, Gen Xers and Gen Yers, each with their own motivations, life experiences, expectations, values and attitudes, are learning to co-exist and work together as part of one happy workplace. So, you say, how do the Twitterer and the memo man get along?

First, we need to be aware that there are major differences among all of the generations. Managers and leaders need to take the time to understand employees’ key motivators and spend time learning how each team member communicates. Good business is grounded in good communication. If you can get your team members to understand one another and respect and embrace the diversity, you will be way ahead of the rest of the world and other businesses.

Do you see generation gaps in your workplace? How is your company managing the generation gap?

Check out the different characteristics of each generation.

Reference for this article include:
Hammill, Greg. (2005).  Mixing and Managing Four Generations of Employees. Retrieved January 21, 2010, from http://www.fdu.edu/newspubs/magazine/05ws/generations.htm

Natalie Nelson, Senior Copywriter

Watching the Republic Day parade on DD after a long time. The program started with an introduction by a typical DD-style lady clad in a silk saree saying a few words in shuddh Hindi. This was followed by an introduction to the key monuments – the India Gate, the Rashtrapati Bhawan, the Parliament House – all done in plain words, in a simple way, as if someone reciting an essay we used to write as kids in high school. There is something unique and unchanging about DD – the slightly faded colours of the images, the appearance and style of its presenters, the tone and pronunciation of the words,… …and it feels wonderful!

Truly wonderful indeed. No sensationalism. No remixed music in the background. No flashing of images before you can make out what they are. Less focus on the presenters and their wardrobe, more on the content. Language that is proper and punctuated, not full of slangs and slogans. Watching this I realize how much I miss it in the rest of TV I see today. It is the difference between having hand-whipped coffee at home compared to a cappuccino – with hazelnut flavour – cream-chocolate sauce topping at Costa!

Today, they have launched a new version of ‘Mile Sur Mera Tumhara’. I just saw it. It has been done  well – they have brought in new flavours to make it relevant for the younger generations. But most in our generation it will never match up to the earlier one. This is because that something like this gets its relevance and attachment from the way it becomes a part of your childhood as you grow with it. There is so much history and memories that go with the old ‘Mile Sur Mera Tumhara’ that make it so special for all of us. Still it is good to someone thinking of re-making it. Somewhere it might connect our generation with the next and create a common linkage across the chasm of facebook, I-pods and twitter.

What a misty day though – I wonder how they will perform the air show today? Hope all goes well

I’m beginning this venture of a scholastic-ish blog with, of course, the one story that everyone and their mother has written about.

Mike Mitchell's call to arms

There are so many opinions about the “late night wars” that it seems almost impossible to have an original one.  They’re already out there, often expressed by those in the imbroglio themselves.  Regarding fault, the opinions range: Leno’s just a company man who’s sticking with the myopic NBC (that’s Leno’s image of himself); Leno’s a schemer who is repeating the underhanded dealings of the early 90s (Letterman’s opinion); NBC is justified in canceling Conan because of his poor rating (the “it’s just business” NBC line); and every iteration/combination of the above.

I am undeniably on Team Conan, but I am savvy enough to understand that he’s not just a martyr in this situation.  Annie Peterson, a fellow grad student (and inspiration for my shift to this format of blogging) does a great job of covering why so many people have joined in supporting Conan.  I encourage everyone to take a read, but her point boils down to this: We like Conan, more specifically, the idea we have of Conan.

We like Conan because he was undoubtedly wronged.  We like Conan because he strives for excellence instead of willfully accepting mediocrity as a path to popularity.  We like Conan because he’s smart (and silly) and doesn’t try to hide it.  We like Conan because his ambition is tempered by reverence for the object of his ambition.  We may even like Conan because he represents the little man being mistreated by his corporate bosses.  I think all of these reason bear a little unpacking.

I say that Conan was “undoubtedly wronged” because that is how he has been portrayed and will be remembered regarding this fracas.  Jay Leno continually tries to portray himself as the victim of NBC’s machinations–implying that he was strong-armed to retire, calling The Jay Leno Show’s fate a cancellation,  joking to his (overwhelmingly supportive) audience on that show that he’s now been fired twice from NBC.  While perhaps technically true, these aspects will not stick to the public persona of Jay Leno because he is getting exactly what he wants at the expense of Conan.  (And just today, to add a cherry to the sundae of Jay Leno’s career victories, it was announced that he will host this year’s White House Correspondents Dinner.)  It’s tough to play the victim when everything’s coming up Leno.

Conan graduated from Harvard, but one of his most famous creations is the Masturbating Bear, a bit both “low brow” and absurd.  The Masturbating Bear could never have come into being without the kind of artistic/comedic boundary-pushing that is often characterized as throwing everything at the wall to see what sticks.  There’s a huge probability of failure with this strategy, but there’s also a great potential for growth.  This is the kind of risk that I just can’t imagine Jay Leno considering.  Similarly, Conan’s best bits are both smart and ridiculous, tapping into his roots as editor of the National Lampoon.  My favorite recurring gag on The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien was the perpetually brooding and somehow perpetually suicidal vampire assistant, Cody.

First Cody had to compete with Wolfboy then the Blind Side. You can understand why he broods.

Cody’s segments always contained the same elements: Cody is obsessed with someone or something he can’t have, faces either competition or reality, an over-the-top ballad plays (“I’ll love you forever / Never saying goodbye”), and Cody runs crying outside to the sunlight (no sparkle for him; he dies).  Silly silly stuff.  But, it’s smart too because it’s satirizing both the Twilight phenomenon and the shoehorning of vampires or Twilight-like elements into various productions as a clear ploy for the Twilight audience.

Of course, Conan’s intelligence (and I realize I’m conflating Conan-the-person with Conan-the-show-written-and-produced-by-a-team, but that ties back into the fact that I’m discussing the idea of Conan; he is his show to a certain extent) often leads to the label of elitism, which is why I’m so curious about both the generational and class explanation of motivation behind Team Conan.  Mike Mitchell, who drew the header image, likens Conan to “a lot of people [who] have crappy bosses” and can thus “relate.”  This implies that Team Conan is tapping into the angst and anger of the workers–those of middle and lower classes.  But Conan as a working-class hero is too simplistic, especially as most assume the Leno has the support of “middle America” which is often classed as blue-collar.  The spanner in the works here is the generational argument: Jay Leno is a baby boomer, Conan is the voice of Generation X.  Leno is popular with–and thus represents in the popular imagination–blue-collar (when blue-collar was middle class) boomers.  Conan, however, appeals to and represents a different image of the middle-class: a young, white-collar, educated middle class.  They’re cubicle workers who have grown up with the internet for a majority of their lives.  They torrent, they stream, they DVR, time-shifting in ways that upend the standard measurements of viewership and ad-revenue.  The whole Leno vs. Conan debacle can be read as entitled boomers refusing to relinquish their position of power and importance the the next generation that do things so differently that the boomers can’t even see that they exist on the same spectrum.  All of this applies mainly to white America, but it’s still a divided idea of America, even within one racial and class bloc.

My opinion?  The system of ratings is fundamentally flawed as the basis for television revenue; technology is surpassing the business model.  The drop in Conan’s ratings from Leno’s at 11:35 ET  resulted from a perfect storm of problems: the generational gap regarding who watches TV how; the ratings failure to reflect alternate viewing practices; the general downturn of ratings at NBC and the specific downturn at 10pm due to Leno’s show that led to a 50% drop in local news ratings, the direct lead-in for Conan; Leno stealing the publicity momentum as well as some guests (Kanye couldn’t have gone on The Tonight Show to apologize to Taylor Swift?  Maybe it could have been Conan’s “What were you thinking?!” moment); and even Conan’s drive for excellence creating an uneven first few months.  NBC is to blame, Jeff Zucker specifically, and Leno is tarnished (though perhaps not in the eyes of his core audience).  Team Coco got an amazing two weeks where almost everything that was thrown against the wall stuck and was seen by more people than usual.  Conan keeps his outsider quirkiness–hopefully soon to be put to better use outside such a venerable institution– and Team Conan gets the high ground.

Conando is dead.*  Long live Conan.

Si, Conando!

*Or at least as good as, for it is widely believed that that character falls under the agreement that ALL of Conan’s characters and bits created while at NBC is the intellectual property of NBC.

________________

UPDATE 1/23/09: For further evidence of the generational motivation, The New York Times Media Decoder blog is reporting that Conan’s final show drew an astounding rating among the desired 18-49 year-old demographic.

More impressive was the number for 18-to-49-year-old viewers — the gold standard for NBC because advertisers seek to reach that audience. There, in overnight numbers from the country’s 25 largest cities, Mr. O’Brien hit an extraordinary rating, a 4.8.

Not only would that be by far the biggest rating in that age group for any kind of show at any time Friday night (if it holds up as a national rating and it will likely decrease only slightly), it is also a better number than almost every prime-time show that has appeared on NBC this television season.

This offering from “Team Conan” seems to support the working hypothesis that NBC’s late night comedy meltdown has as much to do with the Generation Gap as anything else.

17

When the Year Thousand that comes after Year Thousand begins

Men will want to break down all barriers

The mother will have the hair of an old woman

The path of nature will be abandoned

And families will be like scattered grains

That nothing can unite.

It will therefore be another world

Each person will roam without ties like a bolted horse

Going in all directions with no guide

Unhappy the knight who mounts this steed

He will be without stirrups and will fall into the ditch.

The first part of this prophecy speaks again of our meddling with Nature.  Man is breaking down all barriers, both physical and moral, in the name of “right”.

The “right to have a child” is used as an excuse for the manufacture of children, by whatever means, including artificial insemination, surrogate mothers, gifts of ovules, re-implantation of frozen embryos, gifts of sperm, cloning…  We have all heard of the Italian doctor whose speciality is helping menopausal women to become mothers.

There was a case in France a few years ago where a woman nearing sixty years old gave birth to a baby girl after American doctors had reimplanted an embryo conceived in a test tube from the sperm of her own brother and from donated ovules.  At the same time, this same brother was using the services of a surrogate mother who gave birth to the “twin” of his sister’s child.  All taboos and natural obstacles had been broken down (age, incest, etc.).

The disintegration of families and the acceleration of time have created a gap between generations which is growing bigger and bigger.  Parents and children still see each other but evolve in completely different universes of comportment, language, understanding of life and of society.

Even when families remain together, each individual leads a separate life.  Most mothers work outside the family and parents no longer have time to be with their children.  They often feel guilty about this and compensate by even more leniency.

This leads to bigger and bigger gulfs between those who receive a real education and those who are left to themselves, in the hope that school will be able to fix the problem.  With no behavioural framework or set boundaries in their home life, these children often go on to reject all forms of discipline and turn into real delinquents.

Eighteenth prophecy tomorrow.

I’ve been feeling sluggish and tired the last few days (thus no action since the dick veg), so I know I could say this better, but I want to put the idea out there. Hopefully I can drop some science on your ass as well. We’ll see where this goes.

A few weeks ago I was talking to my friend Prashant. He’d recently spent a month in Australia and was saying how cool it is that old men all over the world can talk about one major shared experience: serving in WWII. Everyone was involved somehow, and so on and so forth about the Greatest Generation and their shared experiences of hardships and struggles. And come on, I’ve seen Band of Brothers, so maybe I can imagine how the experience of being in war, no matter whether you were in the Pacific or in France, could provide books’ and lives’ worth of stories and points of conversation and relation. It’s pretty amazing, and it’s something ‘the youth of today’ will never have. Or not, was my response.

Something post-WWII generations have and something that we internet folks especially have: communications that have built culture. This feels like an obvious idea (obvious enough that there are a bunch of grad school programs I should attend that include those two terms in their names), but maybe it’s not. I’ve heard that, before radio got big, something like 20% of the voices a person would hear were in face-to-face interactions. Now the percentage that is face-to-face conversation is basically nothing compared to TV, phone, radio, recorded music, internet videos… So what does this mean?

Well, accents are fun. Could you imagine what it would have been like for a slow-talking Midwesterner to have first heard Roosevelt’s stentorian New England accent? But in listening to your peers, how many have very strong accents to the degree you hear in old recordings? Regional speech patterns won’t go anywhere (I hope), but I’d be willing to bet that generally, there’s a trend towards a mean, bringing us together in a different way.

I could point at Elvis and ‘where were you when you heard John Lennon died?’ and other examples of the rise of pop culture with the baby boom generation bringing about unifying experiences. I know exactly where I was when I learned Michael Jackson died and you probably do, too. But that’s more of a fun fact than anything that could be compared to a War. But then again, maybe it’s not. What about this? This was filmed in a village in Estonia. Estonia. And they get The Simpsons intro down perfect. I’m not able to go to the other side of the world and talk about a war, but I wouldn’t want to anyway – I’d much rather talk about the Springfield Tire Fire and it seems that I actually can.

We can talk about the internet vis-à-vis real world change. If we’ll be honest, it’s kinda failed to so far: much has been made of Twitter’s possibilities for activism, but its shining moment, Iran, was wiped out by Michael Jackson (oops. Sorry). Google’s attempt to break down the Great Firewall and their possibly forthcoming expulsion from China is making more news here than there. If the wars of the future are going to be more about information, well, we’ve certainly got lots to figure out. But what about the literally millions of dollars that have been donated to Haitian relief through text message donations in just 3 days? (the psychology of which interests me as folks already divorce themselves from cost when using credit cards v. cash. How much of our debt will cell phone carriers carry in a future of cell phone commerce?). I’ve been bad the last few days about keeping up on current event discussions about this (I hope they’re out there), but the point I’d like to make is that communications and culture is moving so fast and our problems are so big (hello global warming) it’s obvious to everyone (not just one generation) that we’re all in this (and by this I mean the world and all its good and bad, not just one struggle) together. I like to think it’s something I could talk about with a stranger in 40 years. Sure, it probably won’t make for a life-changing HBO miniseries, but it’s still frickin’ awesome.

In 10 years in the United States, the Crone has gotten quite good at the language.  But only this week she discovered yet another word designed to trip up unwary Europeans roaming the New World. She shares the story to save all her British and Irish readers potential embarrassment, although they probably tutted and tuned out as soon as the word “gotten” was deployed above.   In conversation with former colleagues from the Throbbing Temples the Crone had occasion to mention what she calls cond-ohms. Much tittering from her American-born friends. At first the Crone thought the snickering was generated by the generation-gap, for her friends are all 20 years younger than she. Had she suddenly become the Sunday school teacher who tries to join a conversation about sex, sharing stories that are hard to believe, conjuring images too horrible to contemplate, and generally grossing out everyone? ‘No, no’ said the friends, explaining it was a matter of emphasis and nothing to do with ageism. “It’s condums, not cond-ohms”.

Condums, condums, condums. The Crone is getting used to the word rolling around in her mouth Now, should the occasion arise, she’ll be completly safe to speak out in the CVS. Of course, as the mother of teenagers, the Crone has had plenty of opportunity to expound on the value and necessity of condums, condums, condums (practice makes perfect) in recent years. But of course her children have been too appalled by the conversation to pick her up on her pronounciation–instead they put all their energy into praying the Crone will lose the power of speech altogether.

Anyhow, the incident reminds the Crone of another cross-cultural embarrassment suffered by a Brit friend working for a few months in the US. Said friend was expecting a girlfriend to visit from the UK and questioned the Crone about the brand name and packaging of condums, condums, condums, so he could easily find them in the drugstore and complete his purchase with ease. “Trojans” said the Crone, “You’ll find them by the dispensary till.” But the friend is not much of a shopper and panics in retail space. Unable to identify the product to match his needs, he eventually found an assistant. “What are you looking for sir?”  “Centurions” stuttured the confused would-be customer and was surprised when the store staff said they didn’t carry them. The weekend went downhill after that…

by Cree McCree

WHAT’S HAPPENING

• How do today’s Millennials compare with the Woodstock generation? Using a 1969 CBS News special as a model, Channel One conducted in-depth interviews with 1,300 young people nationwide for Then and Now: 1969-2009.
• Among the key findings: The generation gap has closed. 64% of the current crop enjoy spending time with their parents, up from 57% in 1969 (CNNMoney.com 12.9.09).
• Doves are on the rise. Just 20% of Millennials support fighting a war against terrorism, while 60% of Vietnam-era youth thought it was worth going to war to contain communism.
• Money isn’t everything, then or now. 60% of both recession-era kids and their affluent ’60s peers said society places too much emphasis on money.

WHAT THIS MEANS TO BUSINESS

• What generation gap? As we’ve noted before, multi-gen family vacations are on the rise, spearheaded by Boomers who once disdained their own parents.
• Like their ’60s forebears, today’s Millennials are an idealistic bunch who want more out of life than a paycheck — even in a recession. But instead of dropping out they’re more likely to drop in by working in the public-service sector.

RESOURCES

• Channel One News: Then and Now: 1969-2009

Last Friday afternoon, the first teaching day of the year, I was sitting around chatting  with a few students about New Year Resolutions. I told them I’d decided to finally read War and Peace.

Student A: One Piece?

Me: No, War and Peace. By Tolstoy.

Student B: “Toy Story”?

Me: Tolstoy. Russian writer.

B: Oh.

Me: You know him? He used to be famous here (True; Russian writers used to be very popular in Japan, especially among university students)

A: I know the name. Maybe we read something short by him in school.

B: He wrote One Piece? That’s Japanese.

Me: No, War and Peace.

B: Not “Toy Story”.

Me: No. Definitely not.

A: “Toy Story” was good.

Me: Yes, I enjoyed it.

B: Gambatte with your book.

Me: Thanks.

I recently read an article on The New York Times website titled “The Children of Cyberspace: Old Fogies by Their 20s” by Brad Stone. The article discusses how technology is creating “mini-generation gaps” because children are surrounded by technology that is constantly changing and evolving. For example, despite being only five or ten years apart,  the younger, “mini-generation”, will grow up knowing about the iPhone or the Kindle, and the young, but still older, generation would remember when actual paper books were read and the internet on cell phones was the new thing.

This article really got me thinking about all the technology that I use or have used in the past. It seems like a lifetime ago when I would watch Disney movies on VHS, listen to the Beach Boys on cassette tapes, or hear that awful dial up noise for five minutes when trying to connect to the internet, but in reality it was probably only 10 or so years ago. It amazes me that today kids will grow up with the iPod, Twitter, WiFi, and many other things. Even though we are not multiple generations apart, such as our parents and us, we will still experience life and technology in very different ways. I guess in actuality we are rather close in age, but in technology years, our generations are very far apart.

I can already see these “mini-generation gaps” evolving and surround me in my life. My brother and I are only five years apart, yet our use of technology is quite different, specifically texting. My brother would much prefer to call up a friend and ask them a question or to hang out. I, on the other hand, reach from my phone and send a quick text. Maybe this is just a difference in opinion and style, but it could also date back to the technology of when we were growing up. For example, I went through high school with the ability to text friends. My brother didn’t have that option, so he had to physically call his friends to see what they were doing. So, perhaps why he continues to pick up with phone to call rather than text is because it is what he is used to and grew up with.

This article also struck me because it reminded me of how confused I am with Twitter. I never had one until this class, and I still find myself struggling. Perhaps it is just me, or maybe my “mini-generation” just isn’t quite there yet. Doubtful. I am beginning to understand how my parents feel about Facebook, Twitter, and many other forms of technology, and we are actually generations apart…

Interesting article in the China Daily this morning discussing how digital and wireless technologies are creating divides between social and economic classes in Hong Kong.

One irony of the Internet age is that while, on the one hand, digital and wireless technologies are clearly bridging gaps, they are also creating or exacerbating them -generational, access and cost gaps, to name key ones, Tiffany Wong reports in this second of a two-part write-up

By no means is this an issue specific to Asia, but the generational gap in countries like China is already vast. Is digital and mobile technology making this gap worse?

Thoughts?

If you’re over 30 you probably don’t yearn to recapture 20-something days of gritty uncertainty. It’s even less appealing if you’re from the tail end of the Baby Boom like me.

This week a visiting friend and I reminisced about our salad days in Manhattan’s Meatpacking District. Now Sex and the City types fill its fashion showrooms, art galleries and wine vaults but in the late ‘80s — when our loft went Hollywood in the film Fatal Attraction and Madonna launched her naughty picture book from the basement nightclub — it was a no man’s land of motorcycle gangs and transvestite prostitutes.

Meatpacking District party invite circa 1987

Our lifestyle and career struggles seemed par for the course. We didn’t realize birth year alone meant we’d always occupy an entry-level position in our cultural generation.

I post today at expat+HAREM, the global niche about being my very own generation gap, and how the 20-somethings of GenY bring the status quo rebellion I seek.

How about you? Ever felt in synch with a different generation?