Wittering about Gen Y and Twitter

The media and those in my professional life – they all witter on and on about the mysteries of communicating, working with and dealing with Generation Y.

And there’s certain assumptions – oh yes all Gen Y are addicted to social networking and this is the way of the future and we all need to get up to speed or we will be left behind forever.

So here’s the funny thing, I have three Gen Y-ers in my house. They are all quite different as brothers of ages 16, 18 and 20 are likely to be.

Ask them – what do you think about social networking and they have no idea what you are talking about.

• Twitter? – never heard of it.
• LinkedIn – is that something for old people?

OK – let’s be more specific. The 20-year-old (just finished a BA let’s stereotype as liberal folksinging caring …), he uses MySpace for music stuff – to promote gigs and upload music; and Facebook – strictly back-up – to promote his music not for personal use.

The 18-year-old – about to enter second year commerce at uni – total opposite to above – obsessed by money (plan to have house by end of uni and $1m by 30), recent convert to Facebook (from Bebo) because that’s what “serious” people do.

And 16-year-old – no known social networking activities apart from gaming (arena of world unknown to mum to remotely comment upon); eratically (annoyingly) checks cell.

In short, my view remains – it’s very unwise to make generalisations about “generations”. Age, sex, culture and personality can determine behaviours. Strictly speaking, I’m a young-ish “babyboomer” but that doesn’t mean I fall into all the stereotypes that that suggests …  I believe!

And I have to wonder how much “the media” drives the concept of “social media” because they can.

You should have hothoused us!

It’s holidays – the 20-year-old has come home to live for a bit and we’ve had a few conversations about careers, success and what to do with one’s life.

Imagine my astonishment when both the 20-year-old (the free spirited liberal folksinger who has recently completed a BA) and the 18-year-old (read: polar extreme to the previous, ie right wing, materialistic, conservative in clothes, values, music etc) both said “we should have  been hothoused”.

What – you mean forced to play the piano or learn French or whatever as 3-year-olds? Absolutely right apparently. But I gave you lots of opportunities to learn things – you did all the sporting things, swimming lessons, cubs/scouts etc and other things when you showed interest – gym, guitar lessons, karate, circus lessons one holidays, to name a few.

Nope not enough. Haha! Believe me it felt like enough dealing with three small boys and part-time work/later full-time – remember the time when the 2-year-old fell in the deep end of the pool when you two were having lessons at the BGI?

Anyway apparently, to be successful (according to latest book by Malcolm Gladwell which I haven’t actually read) you need to start early. You need to be practising and learning all those extra skills for years and years as a child so you get really really good. Success breeds success and hard work pays off.

So I recounted this conversation to my friend and she said that exactly the same thing has happened to her. For years and years they tried to interest and cajole their daughter into learning music, which was of huge importance in their family. The girl totally refused. Now, as she leaves secondary school she says: “oh you should have forced me into learning an instrument – it’s all too late now”.

It’s a sad blow for us middle-class sap parents who wanted our kids to enjoy their childhoods. We should have toughened up apparently. Oh well – my children are going to hothouse their kids eventually, so good luck to them!

“Mommy” blog – not really …

My blogging advances slowly but decided to switch to WordPress because it seems to have cooler features that are easier to understand. The other day I read (on a blog)  about someone talking about men writing “business blogs” and women the “mommy blogs”. Responses were indignant – but it does reflect on the division between the sexes.Yes I’m a working mother who reads plenty of blogs related to my profession … but during the working day, I’ve also got in the back of my mind the “chores” ie txtg teenagers to remind them of stuff, lists of things to do at lunch time or phone calls to make and of course what to cook for dinner.Why? Well that’s because working mums have to multi-task. Meanwhile – the husband concentrates on his important work – joke!Girls can do anything – and they can end up feeling they are doing everything!