Comments on: Is Generation X/Y/Z irrelevant?

By: seeboonsiang

seeboonsiang — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 10:21:55 +0000

I am not sure as there is too many text to read and it make me confused.

By: rmazar

rmazar — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 02:48:33 +0000

You said: "I remember my grandmother who never learn’t to drive."

First, what's the apostrophe for? Both learnt and learned are correct.

I find the driving example a bit off-putting. My grandmother, born 1912, drove. My mother, born 1942, never has. Neither I (1974) or my sister (1973) drive. I'm not sure driving is a generational issue.

I absolutely loathe the way people equate youth with technological sophistication. Not only is it incorrect, it hurts students who are ashamed to be uncomfortable with technology. I believe quite firmly that that particular meme is in place to provide an easy excuse for anyone over 40. As long as it's a game for the young, the pressure is off.

By: Managing personalisation is more important than managing change – PEG

Managing personalisation is more important than managing change – PEG — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 12:47:21 +0000

[...] taxes, and now, change, are the eternal verities. As I said in another post: The pace of change has accelerated to the point that everyone’s challenge, from Pre-Boomers [...]

By: Finding the new white spaces – PEG

Finding the new white spaces – PEG — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 23:43:32 +0000

[...] a bit of noise in the blogsphere about the coming entrepreneurship boom, generating yet another pointless debate about the distinction between generations. What is really going to drive this new boom is the ability to find new white spaces, not access [...]

By: Peter Evans-Greenwood

Peter Evans-Greenwood — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 04:37:17 +0000

Excellent find Elliot! I've added some text on Forrester's work to the end of the post.

By: ElliotRoss

ElliotRoss — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 01:19:22 +0000

That exact issue was why Forrester Research coined the term 'Technographics'

2 members of the same generational demographic -may not even be close in the 'technographic' elements!

By: Peter Evans-Greenwood

Peter Evans-Greenwood — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 04:24:20 +0000

Apologies, it's the Gen X in me; too self absorbed to notice that I missed an entire demographic in my missive. I'll update the text

By: donpotter

donpotter — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 20:15:42 +0000

How could you overlook an entire generation in your article. Belive it or not sandwiched between the greatest and the most slefish generations are the more than 30 million pre-boomers — those depression kids and war babies broen between 1930 and 1945. We learned first-hand from those who withstood the hardships of the '30s and the pain of the early '40s. We were instilled with the values and traditions that made this country great and embraced the work ethic needed to continue building on the foundation laid before us. Now, we are the “New Seniors” since as of 2010 we are all 65 or older. Look to us for direction before going off on your own; we have the experience and willingness to help.

By: Nigel Walsh

Nigel Walsh — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 18:32:53 +0000

training (on a application or device) is obsolete once the experience and interface is intuitive enough to its respective audience. That and the fact if I had a problem with my iPod, I could ask anyone for help, almost everyone has them.. and there are way smarter people out there than me that have figured it out first.

I don't believe we will ever move away from training entirely, be it application, culture, H&S or otherwise – organisations have a duty to say we have delivered X,Y,Z, without that they are at risk if and when something does go wrong.

By: Peter Evans-Greenwood

Peter Evans-Greenwood — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 17:18:48 +0000

Today's digital native is tomorrow's digital dinosaur. In a world of the long tail, where products and services are being customised to each individual's needs, and where we see significant change in less than one year, I think the argument that we should deploy a certain tool (facebook, twitter, green screen, …) due to Gen ?'s familiarity is starting to look a bit misguided. (Using a target demographic's favourite medium to market to them is a different question though.) I'l have to dig up that report which found that age is no longer a determinant to technology adoption. As you point out, one of Facebook's target demographics is 45-55 (which explains why I don't really use it , not the early 20s folk that it was launched for.

As Andy Mulholland told me in an email: ultimately competition in the workplace will determine what tools are used and how we use them, rather than some assumed technology preference. Employees (on the whole) will flock to what help's them get the job done, and employers will deploy tools that help improve margin.

Picking up on your training point, we seem to be reaching a point where training is largely optional. Take the iPod/iPhone for example; I don't know anyone who's ever opened the manual (or bought some iPod/iPhone secrets book), which stands in to stark contrast to the music players and phones that went before them.