Global Neighborhoods Overview 4. Part 1

1.    The legacy of Boomers
For 35 years the Boomers were the watershed generation.  They dominated what happened in business and in the world. They came of age just as man walked on the moon. Disco came in and gratefully died during their tenure. The Soviets and Americans came to détente, only to see a new threats to a peaceful world arise. Television evolved from snowy, colorless things into sleek, elegant digital devices. Anvil-heavy phones were compacted into handy multi-tasking pocket-sized devices.
The workplace was changed dramatically during the Boomer’s tenure. The tools of their fathers--typewriters, adding machines, Mimeographs and Addressographs were all pushed off the desktop and into the Goodwill box.  Even the great information exchanging oasis of yore, the water cooler was replaced in most places by plastic botels of the fluid.
In the marketplace, the change was equally pervasive. Big companies got bigger as small ones disappeared. Brands became ubiquitous all over the world. Marketing campaigns, backed by enormous budgets boomed.  They had to, in order to be heard above all the other marketing campaigns.
But time passes. Paunch happens.  Hair thins. The Boomers aren’t kids anymore. These days, a great many of them are focused more on retirement condominiums than on the revolution many of them talked about in their youth.
    There were disappointments. World Peace was not attained during their tenure.   The Chicago Cubs never won the World Series. In the end, like so many generations before them, much of what they will be remembered for is in the tools they brought into everyday use. Much, but not all.
    As they start to pack up their boxes and yield their desks to a next generation, there are three valuable legacies the Boomers leave that will shape the next watershed generation as it comes of age.
1.The personal computer.  At first, they were outlaw objects. Boomers smuggled them into work to bypass the keepers of the mainframe in the basement.  Over time, the PC would devour up all the other office machines. But it wouldn’t stop there. These machines started talking to the other machines in the office and then to other machines all over the world.
2.The Internet.  Between all these PCs, a new, vast shapeless space formed.  This was a place where nothing was tangible, but people came to meet there, came to share, shop, inform, learn shout and be amused.  The Internet would emerge because of the personal computer, but it would become even more significant to the way people of the world connect to each other.
2.    Daughters and sons. More than the PCs and the Internet, the children of Boomers are now coming of age.  They are as different from their Boomer parents as their parents were from the generation they replaced. For one thing they grew up in the company of computers and immersed in the Internet. They will improve these tools further and they will change the world more than even the Boomers who gave you Star Trek can imagine.
What happens when one watershed generation replaces another in the work and marketplace?  This next generation is about to become your employee, your customer or maybe even your new competitor.  How do you adapt to the change which is coming in the next 5, 10 and 30 years. Where do you look for answers?
You might start by looking in your own kid’s room. The recreational habits of young people age 12-24 today are the social habits that businesses will need to adjust to in the very close future.

Comments

[Kris Patel]

Kudos Shel! Kudos! This exact notion is being adopted into mainstream culture as, what I call, the "New Now". Websites, in the past simple methods of selling an idea, are now evolving into communities of contributors and criticizers exercising their ability to shape this world. This "New Now" generation is ushering in a time of vast change. Expect a post in my blog to follow shortly concerning this very topic.

[Chris Brogan...]

Hi Shel-- For a book called GLOBAL Neighbourhoods, your overview above starts with the Boomers, without much reference to them being the BABY Boomers, which, if I'm not wrong, was a population statistic unique to the US and perhaps England, no? (I'm not 100% sure). The rest of the overview continues to read very American-centric. I've been a little remiss in my blog reading, so maybe the plan is this is a global view starting from America?

[Sterling "Chip" Camden]

What I find interesting is the way people have forgotten so quickly that they didn't used to have PC's or the Internet. With each new technology, the people who haven't got it yet view it as a big black box they can't understand, but as soon as they do get it it becomes natural and matter-of-fact and like we've always had it. Can you still remember how you used to communicate before email? Remember typing office memos, or (the real mark of corporate status) having them typed for you?

Perhaps that's the greatest achievement of newer technology: accessibility. It has always taken a good deal of training to learn how to read or drive a car, but you can let a child loose on a PC and they'll become an expert all on their own. Even old people can "get it" with very little training. OK, we can laugh at their rude concepts of how it all works, but they are able to use it.

[shel israel]

Chris,

You make a very good point. Believe it or not, I did not realize that Boomers was an American phenomenon. But I do not want this book to be overly USA-centric. These are the kind of comments that will help me to write a better book.

[roland]

I don't see much amiss by from taken an American point of view. You are afterall shaped by the culture that you live in. Moreover, global research is very costly and will probably take longer than you want or your publisher requested/demands.

If you want to proof that you are now officially an old man because you start talking about your kids being wiser than you are, you are very welcome, but keep it personal. :-)

These are your kids and experience you are talking/generalizing about? Be aware that extrapolation is a ricky business.

However, any kid, regardless of his or her age is a perfect mirror and teacher. In a loving environment, children will shape their environment in a way non-parents have no idea of.

[Lawrence]

Enjoyed reading this section. I was reviewing an educators PowerPoint presentation the other day. This PPT was shown at the Florida Educ. Computer Conf., which I did not attend. One point was discussing how todays kids are born into the digital world (digital natives) and the rest of us are digital immigrants. Being of the Boomer age I see the need for education to make changes in how we teach the digital natives. It is going to be be a fun ride.