Net Gen Skeptic: More Research Questions the Net Gen Hype

The results of another study are casting more doubt on the prevailing view of the "net generation". This study, out of Ashridge Business School in the UK, produced similar results to those from our BCIT study and are consistent with research done in Australia and elsewhere in the UK.

The Ashridge study found, among other things:

• Media hype has produced a largely untrue image of Generation Y, which may be restricting their potential in the workplace and society.
• Just like any other group of human beings, Generation Y is made up of individuals. There are wide variations in their attitudes and behaviour.
• The generational landscape is complex, with many different influences and variables. Teasing out real cause and effect is a challenge.
• Generational boundaries of about 20 years do not accurately represent the backgrounds and behaviours of cohesive groups. Instead, Generation X and the Baby Boomers are better represented by being split into two ten-year cohorts, and the same may be true of Generation Y as it matures.
• Viewpoint is important. How each person sees him/herself and how others may see that person is often different and leads to stereotyped images of Generation Y and of older generations by Generation Y.

via netgenskeptic.com

Posted via web from Mobile Youth Marketing Trends and Clips

Kid Swaps iPod For Sony Walkman, Gets A Culture Shock

The pictures of the Sony Walkman in this BBC Magazine article made me feel strangely nostalgic - the actual text of the article made me laugh out loud. The Magazine invited 13-year-old Scott Campbell to trade his iPod for a Walkman for a week, and he recounts his experiences with the device, which was launched 30 years ago this week.

Campbell, apart from being amazed at the blandly colored portable music player, correctly points out that the Walkman is much bigger, heavier and generally more clunky than the digital media players he’s accustomed to seeing within his social circle.

On the upside, he writes, the ‘monstrous box’ comes with a ‘handy belt clip screwed on to the back’.

Update: ha, Campbell is one of our interns at CrunchGear!

The funniest part of the story:

It took me three days to figure out that there was another side to the tape. That was not the only naive mistake that I made; I mistook the metal/normal switch on the Walkman for a genre-specific equaliser, but later I discovered that it was in fact used to switch between two different types of cassette.

Another notable feature that the iPod has and the Walkman doesn’t is “shuffle”, where the player selects random tracks to play. Its a function that, on the face of it, the Walkman lacks. But I managed to create an impromptu shuffle feature simply by holding down “rewind” and releasing it randomly - effective, if a little laboured.

Campbell goes on to speak wise words (”portable music is better than no music”) and lists the pros and cons of the portable cassette player compared to its latter-day successor. Go read it here.

Anyone else felt a bit nostalgic about the good old cassette tape after reading?

(Picture from BBC)

via techcrunch.com

Posted via web from Mobile Youth Marketing Trends and Clips

26 June 2009 - End of the Pepsi Generation

via mobileyouth.org

Posted via web from Mobile Youth Marketing Trends and Clips

Whose Word-of-Mouth Matters? (not bloggers it seems)

via emarketer.com

However, bloggers influence the influencers who then influence this lot...

Posted via web from Mobile Youth Marketing Trends and Clips

The real life of teens - The Irish Times - Wed, Jun 24, 2009

But in recent years, moral panics are becoming even more hysterical. If you believe certain media sources, everyone born after 1990 spends their days happy-slapping, "sexting", having sex parties and drinking their own weight in alcopops. A few isolated incidents are repeatedly portrayed as typical of an entire generation. "Young people are held up as a measure of how society is doing, but they're not asking to be that measure," says Michael Barron, director of BelongTo, an organisation that works with lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender young people. "Technically, this should be an influential position, because people are looking at them and taking their cue from them, but it's much more negative - they're only a measure of how bad things supposedly are.

via irishtimes.com

Posted via web from Mobile Youth Marketing Trends and Clips

Marketers Frustrated by Digital Cross-Channel Chasm

More than two-thirds (67%) of global marketing executives say they already are running digital cross-channel ad campaigns, but only 12% are integrating their cross-channel performance data - across TV, outdoor, mobile, print and online - when they plan, execute and measure these campaigns, according to a survey of worldwide marketing executives by Eyeblaster and TNS.

via mediabuyerplanner.com

Posted via web from Mobile Youth Marketing Trends and Clips

Iranian Gen Y on Revolution 2.0

In this stunningly beautiful and poignant essay, titled "1984" appearing in the Tehran Bureau, a young Iranian man shares how the 1984 Revolution fought by his parents' generation has effected his generation and provides a glimpse into the motivation and impetus behind the current election crisis in Iran.

"My generation is tired of being disillusioned. We refuse to accept the status quo and we have risen up in defiance. I am not sure how long it will take for the totalitarians to crush our resistance. For now though, we’re holding up just fine.

via debaird.net

Poignant share from Derek Baird

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