A recent article in the New York Times by Robin Marantz Hening explores the evolution of adolescence and how psychologists are struggling to describe the “unfinished” nature of twentysomething adults. According to some, like “Emerging Adulthood” author, Jeffrey Arnett, the twenties are an under-recognized stage in adult development, created by a rapid change in our economic and cultural space. In an information-based economy, Arnett sees“…the need for more education to survive in an information-based economy; fewer entry-level jobs even after all that schooling; young people feeling less rush to marry because of the general acceptance of premarital sex, cohabitation and birth control; and young women feeling less rush to have babies given their wide range of career options and their access to assisted reproductive technology if they delay pregnancy beyond their most fertile years.”
These realizations have lead to the creation of the Society for the Study of Emerging Adulthood. Others aren’t quite so sure, nothing that the period of adult rootlessness that this life-stage is not universal – many, in fact, skip it, and progress towards marriage and child-rearing right after adolescence. Development scientist Richard Lerner believes that to be a “real” life-stage (in clinical terms), it has to be universal, meaning that there need to be real measureable consequences for those who skip it.
This debate has real significance. If a new life stage exists, societies need to design support services around the needs of an emerging population, who may not be defined around a specific age range. This has a real impact on how we spend our money on things like health care and education, or how companies market their products. If it’s not universal, however, it’s going to be difficult for institutions to get these activities right.
Whether strictly applicable to the field of developmental psychology or not, we at DECODE have been noticing the impact of the life stage on everything from civic participation to employee expectations and consumer behaviour. Young independents, as we call them (those out of school, and not with children of their own) are less likely to say they’ll vote or volunteer. It’s a period that appears to me marked by a distinct lack of connection to broader community.
Hening’s article raises as many questions as it answers, particularly for those in the demographic being discussed. But kudos to her, and to the Times, for at attempting to describe the demographic in an empathetic and considered manner.
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Category: Career decision making, Cultural Participation, Culture, Engagement (Political, Social), Lifestage & Generational Segmentation, Segment, Social Networks, Youth Voting
Written on August 25, 2010 at 3:22 pm, by samir
Google CEO Eric Schmidt thinks that in the future it will be commonplace for young people to change their names to escape their digital past (see BBC article here). But is this the solution for avoiding having incriminating or sordid photos or words published online?
We asked some of our DECODER network members, aged 15-30, what they thought of Schmidt’s vision.
The first thing we heard is that Schmidt is a bit behind on this trend. Many people in our network said they post a lot of fake information online, thus keeping their real names ‘clean’. This results in the use of fake names on facebook, names that only ‘real’ friends know. Gen Y are also aware that employers may use digital information to find out more about them – most of them fully expecting future employers to look them up on at least google and facebook. Since stories of those unfortunate few who mess up in the online world end up being broadcast through many forms of media, including TV and online as well as newspapers, many more people are aware of what could go wrong, and learn from the story.
We also heard that people feel strongly that there are logical rules about reputation management online. One rule is that you should always be able to remove information about yourself. For example, of our network members told us she had a phone number listed from a speech she had given a few years ago. Se has tried contacting the organisers to take it off, but has so far been unsuccessful. To this young woman the issue wasn’t about trying to get away from the past, but making sure that people respect each others’ privacy.
In that case, perhaps what we need isn’t an easy way to change your name, but better laws to enable us to remove personal or confidential information from the online record books.
A recent Microsoft study* showed that 78% of job recruiters conduct Internet searches on their clients in order to check out their backgrounds. This pattern has enabled a new breed of ‘reputation managers’, such as Gary Powers, to make millions promoting and defending 
their clients by attempting to control what appears about them online. Of course this has long happened in traditional PR; the difference with the Internet is that bad press is not tomorrow’s fish and chip wrapping. The potential longevity of negative content has increased the likelihood of it haunting an individual and blighting their future.
Gen Z (and the latter end of Gen Y) are without doubt best placed to confront these issues head on. They have already understood the ways in which different parts of their lives can clash online – ‘context collision’ – and found ways of avoiding this through the creation and management of multiple online profiles. They even make sure these ‘fakester’ profiles have different images, so combating the growing prevalence of facial recognition software – albeit often unwittingly. Perhaps those senior professionals, politicians and celebrities currently lining the likes of Mr Powers’ pocket could do worse than to learn from the ways in which Gen Z are beginning to play the reputation game.
*The complete study, carried out by Crosstab for Microsoft in 2009, is available as a pdf here:
download.microsoft.com/…/DPD_Online%20Reputation%20Research_ overview.pdf
DECODE’s new Twitter feed has already been selected as a “best of Twitter” according to Nacro Cymru, a long-established service provider for disadvantaged youth in Wales!
The link to Nacro’s site is here. You can follow our Twitter feed here.
There is nothing worse than being stood up. But in the next 10 years, that waiting, wondering feeling will be gone.
Generation X, like the generations before it, came of age in a world where meetings for business or pleasure had to be committed to in advance, and could not be cancelled at the last minute via mobile or digital technology – at least not without the risk of standing up the person in question. A change in time of a business meeting required being able to get through to a contact’s office well enough in advance to catch them at their desk or leave a message that was guaranteed to get to them before they left for the meeting. A change of heart over a date required calling a home landline and leaving a, “Sorry but …” message days in advance. Failure in any of the above situations resulted in one half of the proposed meeting left waiting under the designated tree, in the designated café, or by the designated street corner, until they resigned themselves to the fact that the other half either was in mortal danger or had no intention of showing. Standing someone up was the ultimate slam (and sometimes revenge). Being “stood up” was the ultimate in hurt and humiliation, not to mention wasted time (and money).
For generation Z – the children of gen X, born in the Mobile Internet Age – the concept of being stood up, either in business or in romantic life, simply will not apply. One may say someone “bailed at the last minute,” even though the suspicion is the excuse given was actually code for “I want to cancel,” but one is never, literally, left standing. (The same is of course now true for most of generations Y and X too – apart from those older gen-Xers who stoically refuse to wholly embrace the digital age.) But what impact has this ability to organize things “on the fly” and to be “ultra-spontaneous” had, not only on the way we organize and behave within our social and business connections, but also on our psychology as individuals and society?
First, while commitment may well be just as strong, the desire to change one’s mind interferes with how this is lived out. The business deal may be a definite go, as may the conviction of a possible romance, but the desire to be “free” to change our minds has been promoted to the number one spot. Second, the inclination to banish fear has been given legs. We now no longer feel it is part of the process to experience an element of uncertainty in regards to the other person’s intention (although of course it still is, we just hide it under layers of reassuring last minute texts – “gonna b L8 c u in 10”). Freedom and fear are key here, yet perhaps horribly misunderstood. After all, one person’s “freedom” to change things at the last minute forces the other person to do the same thing. So begins a spiral of spontaneity where no one in the ”chain” of meetings can absolutely commit to anything. And a person’s fear in “taking the risk” of being at the designated spot regardless ought to perhaps be part of the self-recognition that we really care about this date or this business opportunity. Fear of failure (and dealing with it when it happens) is perhaps a useful part of human interaction.
On the other hand, perhaps a separation of business and pleasure is necessary here. While it may still be the case that a potential romance is better served by the kind of promise and conviction that last-minute changes via text message simply cannot substantiate, perhaps today’s business world is more productive given the tools for added spontaneity and contingency. Global transactions, mobile offices, flexible practices, and entrepreneurial partnering would certainly struggle to thrive as they have in the late 20th/early 21st century without the ability to arrange and rearrange with ease. If the obsolescence of being stood up has taken some of the stomach-churning fear/excitement from dating, it has simultaneously removed some collateral damage from the world of business.
So maybe no more of that looking-at-your-watch-every-minute-sinking-feeling for Generation Z. But for their own good, let’s hope they can stand up for spontaneity in spite of the risk … even in business.
http://www.themarknews.com/articles/1873-being-stood-up
In June, David Cameron appointed Internet Entrepreneur Martha Lane-Fox as the UK’s ‘Digital Champion’, giving her the task of getting the UK’s ‘unconnected’ online. The number of offline people in the UK is the equivalent of the populations of London, Birmingham, Leeds, Glasgow and Sheffield combined. Four million of those who are offline are society’s most disadvantaged, many of them young people from deprived backgrounds. However, 6.4 million of them are over-65′s who have never used the Internet, 63% of whom say they have no inclination to do so. In the light of these two very different demographics, is an across-the-board campaign the most effective and fair strategy?
The implications of not being online are increasingly clear. 90% of new jobs require computer skills, but 270,000 of the 1.5m unemployed people in the UK are not computer literate. Millions of jobs are only advertised online. The average household saves £560 a year by shopping and paying bills online. Government services are increasingly better-accessed online than offline. However, those who are disinclined to get online clearly need to be treated differently to those who are keen to be online but do not have the financial wherewithal. It is money, rather than motivation, which is the dis-enabling factor as far as youth are concerned.
See the full article here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2010/jul/12/digital-divide-martha-lane-fox
This exchange between Chris Grayling, the UK’s Minister of State (Employment) and Labour’s Jim Sheridan illustrates the Catch-22 modern governments face in making the public (especially youth) aware of programming and strategies that could help cushion the blow of the Great Recession. Grayling touts the £600 million for programmes the UK government has allocated to help young people get back to work. Sheridan notes that 95% of businesses are unaware of the wage contributions that are on offer to train apprentices.
Awareness of this programming is essential to its success. And yet, the UK government is drastically slashing advertising and marketing budgets trying to focus on “essential programming.” It’s easy to pillorize a lot of government advertising work, but advertising is an important instrument for government’s work. Young people, who as most studies show are mostly likely to be unemployed during the current recession, need to know that there are steps they can take during these dark economic times to prepare for their futures.
The BBC writes about Crowdsourcing on their News front page.
According to the article, getting suggestions in from multitudes of users can be very useful. On the other hand, doing something with those ideas is more challenging.
Tom de Castella concludes with the notion that effective crowdsourcing is actually just collaboration in disguise.
Read the article: Click here.
DECODE’s Alison Hulme discusses the role of the superfan in social media marketing.
Published in Marketing Week May 7th 2010
The full article is available here.
According to Robert Half Technology, more than half (54 percent) of Chief Information Officers interviewed said visiting social networking sites while at work is “completely prohibited” by company policy. The main reason for the ban is concern over reduced employee productivity. What does this mean for Generation Y, the 15-30 year olds entering our workforce in the age of social media?
Gen Y have grown up in a world where maths homework is done online from a laptop, not hand written in a square papered book. Their world of information is online. They like having lots of information on hand and picking through what they think is important. From DECODEs research we know that most young people connect online with people they already know face to face.
By taking away the tools our employees use to communicate, are we actually reducing productivity?
At a recent DECODE dialogue on the subject, a participant mentioned that social networking sites are the equivalent of the coffee machine where people gather to interact. It would have been interesting to ask those CIOs referenced above whether personal calls are still allowed. What about cigarette breaks? Most of Gen Y don’t smoke, does this mean they get less of a break time to rest their minds and be social?
Recruitment managers tell us that they increasingly use social media to find good hires. It’s efficient, productive, and helps them get to know people. Building their human networks allows for more authentic communication and incentivises employees to help find new recruits. Russell Herder at Ethos Business Law found that 8 out of 10 managers believe social media can enhance relationships with customers and build brand reputation. Managers feel such networking can be valuable in recruitment, as a customer service tool and can be used to enhance employee morale.
The Wasting Time at Work survey from Survey.com says that employees with unrestricted social networking access lose about 2 hours of work time per day. But social media use by employees also yields a 9% productivity boost. Surfing networks at work for pleasure actually increases our concentration levels. If social media in the workplace is a villain, it’s a false villain, and hiding underneath it are age-old work culture issues such as boredom and lack of engagement.
Although Gen Y are digital natives and know how to use the technology at hand, they are also a typical young generation in that they are rebellious, reckless and naive. Some, and I really mean a small minority, do stupid irresponsible things that would freak out most CIOs and most of their peers too. So, assuming we can treat social networking like the modern workplace’s coffee break, how can we best use these tools?
- Train the baby and keep the bathwater: train employees on the good and evil of social networks in the workplace. This reduces risk somewhat and informs employees so that the small minority thinks twice before doing something silly.
- Have strict policies about company information use on social network.
- Open up the good in social networks to all employees. Facebook is not the only social media site. Blocking one will lead to the use of another. Just ask the music industry.
- Re-evaluate every year.
For help building your generation Y employee engagement strategy, please email contact@decode.net
A version of this article was published in Guardian Public. Find the full version here.
A recent article in the New York Times by Robin Marantz Hening explores the evolution of adolescence and how psychologists are struggling to describe the “unfinished” nature of twentysomething adults. According to some, like “Emerging Adulthood” author, Jeffrey Arnett, the twenties are an under-recognized stage in adult development, created by a rapid change in our economic and cultural space. In an information-based economy, Arnett sees“…the need for more education to survive in an information-based economy; fewer entry-level jobs even after all that schooling; young people feeling less rush to marry because of the general acceptance of premarital sex, cohabitation and birth control; and young women feeling less rush to have babies given their wide range of career options and their access to assisted reproductive technology if they delay pregnancy beyond their most fertile years.”
