Comments on: Networks by Generation

By: David

David — Sat, 11 Dec 2010 23:43:52 +0000

You really cannot use dates to define a generation. ANYONE can be a millenial if he/she is tech – savvy, open – minded to ALL kinds of diversity, and is into the latest music and entertainment. I was born in '79 and all these characteristics describe me, so that makes me gen y.

By: AaX

AaX — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 11:17:49 +0000

My personal research is focused on the character building of a person that shape how they view and face their approaching life which its crucial phase starting as early from 7 years of age to 21 years of age and could stretch to the late of his twenties. And these character building phases heavily influence the development of crucial unique abilities from how they have and learn to cope individually through the formal and informal education (examples, medias) received during the childhood and teenage years. The 'home' factor and 'external medias' along with its 'medium' (technology) during the growing years (7-21) plays a critically vital role in influencing the mold shape (confidence, values and perception) of the person as to how they would later act in their early adult life and more importantly their parenting role. These (home and growing phases) is what I perceivably believe as to the be the main source for the generational character differences in the likes of the veterans, boomers, jones, xers, yers and also the zers. And it seems that such generational pattern could be irreversably cyclic of nature along with its uniquely positive and less positive attributes. It worth to be researched into and could be successfully delivered by a any purposeful neutrally discerning minds.

By: dsohigian

dsohigian — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 13:16:06 +0000

@Aax - would love to see more on your research. Also check out Neil Howe's blog at http://blog.lifecourse.com

By: AaX

AaX — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 10:33:08 +0000

This is my current research on the generational matter : Generation(s) Concerns 1. Boomer 1939-1958 Personal Ideal 2. Jones 1959-1970 Global (Universal) Practicality 3. X 1971-1984 Global (Universal) Equality 4. Y 1985-1995 Global (Universal) Identity 5. Z 1996-2008 Universal truth

By: Patrick V

Patrick V — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 06:02:52 +0000

Am I just out of touch with my generation? I’m 22 and I find MySpace annoying and useless, constant texting inane and baffling, and can’t say I feel any particular connection to the ‘group’ I selected when I joined Facebook. Then again, I’ve found myself joining in in all these things through peer pressure…. hmm.

By: Dave Sohigian

Dave Sohigian — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 18:56:09 +0000

@susan – I like that “mental hairball”. Hehe. I remember reading an article by a Gen X’er about how chaotic Myspace was and that he tried to design a nice webpage for his Millennial child, but she thought it sucked. Guess they can handle the hairball better than us

By: susan

susan — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 14:30:40 +0000

I wondered why LinkedIn just made so much more sense to me! I find Myspace kind of repulsive – a kind of “mental hairball” is a good image. What I find troubling is that many of these initiatives start off well, and then spiral downwards as the “lowest common denominator” of trolls and/or the terminally vacuous take over.

By: Dave Sohigian

Dave Sohigian — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 00:37:33 +0000

@Vi, I think there is a certain "in between" sense to everyone born on the cusp of various generations. I wrote about this in my post about "Generation Jones". Although I don't buy into creating a new generation for these cuspers (because it just complicates an already difficult theory), it's somewhat like being a swing voter: you can see both sides which can lead to either confusion or, hopefully, diplomacy. I expect you will get the chance to see X'er and Millennials working together in the future. Thanks for your comment.

By: Vi

Vi — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 00:20:58 +0000

Hi there,

While I have to disagree with you about the usefulness of breaking down sub-generations–I am from the xy generation, and it fits me far more than X or Y alone does–I think your points are pretty brilliant. There are two ways of seeing networking, and your graphs illustrate them beautifully. That said, one of the things about the sub-generation I feel I belong to, is that we are “bilingual” in the two kinds of networking. Both seem “right” and “real”, and can be used interchangeably, and sometimes affect our outlook simultaneously. I would be interested to explore the long-term uses of such an overlapping view of networking. Generation X and Y, I think, have a lot to get together on, and sometimes I can’t wait until we are the only two groups on the field–I think we will be able to team up a lot more than we expect right now, for some real innovation. I hope that as someone balancing on the cusp of the two generations, I can experience that teamwork firsthand.

Cheers on the interesting blog!

By: Dave Sohigian

Dave Sohigian — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 02:54:18 +0000

The weird thing about generations is that you don’t even need to be fully immersed in a society to end up deeply influenced by it. My brother-in-laws kids are homeschooled as well, but they are definitely Millennials as well. Somehow the times they were born in influence everything about them. Our kids go to Waldorf and have limited exposure to media and computers. But over Thanksgiving we were at my sisters place and they had a Wii. It was amazing to see how my 12 year old just picked the thing up like he had been playing all his life. Just part of what they are born with in this generation.