The Generational Divide in Social
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> I do accept that there is a generational divide in social.
I don't. I think a lot of the issues can be chalked up simply to age. Today's 20-year-olds are not going to change generations. But in 20 years, they will be 40, and I expect that they will act a lot like today's 40-year-olds when it happens.
When you're 20, you don't have a lot invested in the world. You have few assets, no children, etc.; you don't have a lot to lose. If some random person barges into your life, then there is a good chance that person has something to offer you. And if they don't, then there isn't much they can take away from you. But when you're 40, you probably have kids, some assets, some property. And you've learned that the random person who barges into your life, is probably trying to rip you off. And they can seriously damage you if they do. That makes you much more protective of the entrance to your social circle, and much more wary about marketing of any kind.
Furthermore, for older people, life revolves around family much more. Keeping a family going, raising kids, etc., take a lot of time and work. That means you probably don't have so much time -- or desire -- to interact with huge numbers of people in a cloud-ish setting.
But when social stuff meets the needs of older generations, then they're happy to use it. I thought we all knew that Facebook is quite popular among 40-year-old moms.
(By the way, FWIW, I'm 45. Also, I'm not a mom, but I am a dad.)
I don't. I think a lot of the issues can be chalked up simply to age. Today's 20-year-olds are not going to change generations. But in 20 years, they will be 40, and I expect that they will act a lot like today's 40-year-olds when it happens.
When you're 20, you don't have a lot invested in the world. You have few assets, no children, etc.; you don't have a lot to lose. If some random person barges into your life, then there is a good chance that person has something to offer you. And if they don't, then there isn't much they can take away from you. But when you're 40, you probably have kids, some assets, some property. And you've learned that the random person who barges into your life, is probably trying to rip you off. And they can seriously damage you if they do. That makes you much more protective of the entrance to your social circle, and much more wary about marketing of any kind.
Furthermore, for older people, life revolves around family much more. Keeping a family going, raising kids, etc., take a lot of time and work. That means you probably don't have so much time -- or desire -- to interact with huge numbers of people in a cloud-ish setting.
But when social stuff meets the needs of older generations, then they're happy to use it. I thought we all knew that Facebook is quite popular among 40-year-old moms.
(By the way, FWIW, I'm 45. Also, I'm not a mom, but I am a dad.)
The default assumption that a lot of people at the conference, and the population in general have was that older adults weren't as tech savvy as the younger generation. Being older myself,this seemed to be an unflattering stereotype. Then, in one of the roundtables, the head of social efforts of Cisco said that their CEO,so far as I know its John Chamber, initially wasn't very enthusiastic about the social efforts and tolerated them more then anything else.
Well it was hard for me to confront the stereotype and announce that actually I am tech savvy, I always thought I was, but I was confident that John Chambers is tech savvy.
Although I don't accept the stereotype I do accept that there is a generational divide in social. Why?
My new hypothesis, after thinking about this question for some time, is that the way my life is organized and that of other people my age is simply different then the lives of those that participate in the social cloud. For me I would have to change my whole routine, basically live like a fish out of water to engage in the social cloud. Contrary to the stereotype, people in my generation are actually tech savvy, they just have a different life style and work differently; actually better.