The election of Barack Obama as President of the USA is in part an indicator of the maturation of social networking and also the profound demographic shifts occurring in western societies. Obama successfully used tools like Facebook and SMS text to energize his Generation Y supporters. He carried the 18-29 youth vote by 34% over McCain. Obama’s web MyBO is the most Internet savvy site ever mounted by a politician.
Born August 4 , 1961, Barack belongs to Generation X (see Comments about Generation Jones). Social networking aside, his election is also a passing of the torch from the Boomer generation to its progeny. Most boomers don’t instinctively understand Web 2.0 and its social networking. If they have any understanding, it is likely as late adopters or lurkers. Incidentally, Barack delivered his first weekly radio address via YouTube, and is appointing a technology tsar to his team as he prepares to be President 2.0.
Having some understanding of the different values driving these three generations is key to adopting social networking in any organization.
The most flagrant indicator of the maturation of social networking is Microsoft’s extremely late entry into the field as a mimic with a planned Windows Live update in the coming weeks to compete with MySpace and Facebook. The update will integrate notification of Twitter messages, Flickr photo uploads, Yelp reviews and WordPress blog entries.
Most organizations expect social networking to creep in through the back door because they don’t understand how to plan it. With some justification: planned societies always fail. It’s like trying to set objectives for knowledge capture without understanding that knowledge is contextual and has a shelf life. The sell-by date comes quickly.
Every application and process in an organization has a social aspect. At its simplest, it’s how we get things done. Sociologist Robert Putnam argues that voluntary association with other people is integral to a fulfilled and productive existence—it makes us "smarter, healthier, safer, richer, and better able to govern a just and stable democracy."
At a different level there may be some visible benefit. The value graph for a book-keeping program is very different from that of a community of practice. The social activities around book-keeping are more about how do we get things done. For example, “Does anyone know how I can get reimbursed for these expenses?”. Having a prior chatty relationship with someone can pay dividends.
In a community of practice the social activity is more structured but still semi-structured. There are conditions of admittance and higher expectations of contribution to the social group. The benefits are more widely visible.
One of the difficulties is that social groups tend to be age groups. Boomer males are not welcome in the group of twenty-something females. Mixed sex and mixed generation groups do not have an easy dynamic. If you’re a boomer you can check this out by joining Facebook and looking for a group to join.
The differences are profound. In earlier times, people tended to follow in the footsteps of their parents. But two brutal world wars sowed the seeds for massive demographic and attitudinal change.
In 1996 David K. Foot published Boom, Bust & Echo describing the demographic shifts occurring in society and the consequences. The Echo generation is also the Net generation. Generally, boomers are defined as born in 1943-1960. GenX is 1960-1980. GenY, the echo, is 1981-1996. Don Tapscott in Wikinomics defines the Net generation slightly differently as 1977-1996 (6.5 million in Canada).
Worldwide there are more than one billion people in the Net generation. These are people who have grown up with the Internet not as something new but as something that is part of the fabric of their lives. Today (2008), they are 12-31 years old, so the leading edge of this cohort is already entrenched in government and business. These are the people who are aggressively socialising using Web 2.0. Their experiences with collaboration on a wide scale do not fit well with rigid hierarchical top-down modes of organization. A mixture of hierarchical and peer-to-peer is advisable.
Slightly earlier in 1964 Marshall McLuhan in Understanding Media foresaw that “….the creative process of knowing will be collectively and corporately extended to the whole of human society.” Web 2.0 is about participating on a shared canvas rather than passively receiving information. It is the New Gutenberg that Telidon and Web 1.0 failed to deliver.
Another difficulty is that much of what passes for socializing on this canvas is drivel. “I’m at home with a sick kid.” “I’m sooo mad!” “Should I buy the blue one or the red one?” You start to think that GenY is very lonely. Then you catch yourself sending a friend a text about your walk by the river, maybe with a phonecam picture attached.
Yeah, we all want to feel a connection with someone.
© 2008 David Shaw
david.shaw.x23@gmail.com
