For a couple of years now, the most prevalent workplace generation gap issue I hear about is the "Tech Gap". It goes like this -- if you're a Gen Y'er, you're always struggling to help Baby Boomers understand how to use technology. If you're a Baby Boomer, you can't get GY'ers to use technology for serious business.
A report this week from the Pew Research Center finds otherwise. Yes, GY'ers may live online, but other generations are adapting their own online lifestyles. How? The report says that Gen X does much of its shopping and banking online, while Baby Boomers focus on travel reservations.How does this translate to the workplace? It looks to me like there is a wholesale shift to technology that's taking place across the three generations that share office space. Remote users everywhere. Everybody has an iPhone, nobody wears a watch anymore. Lots of changes as everybody learns to deal with each other, with business problems and solutions. If this is happening using online resources, that's a game changer.
Imagine a company -- your company? -- sharing and collaborating online, and then moving on to solving marketing gaps with social media. They can be remote users, they can be using new media, they can be using shared spreadsheets. Doesn't matter, because each generation is bringing its own special tech knowledge to the table.
Who knows, if that keeps up, maybe we won't even be talking about generation gaps any more -- is that possible? What do you think?
Photo by Wili Hybrid
2 comments:
Interesting blog, but it’s missing the real "Online Generation"...the generation which consistently spends the most money online: Generation Jones (born 1954-1965, between the Boomers and Generation X).
Google Generation Jones, and you’ll see it’s gotten a ton of media attention, and many top commentators from many top publications and networks (Washington Post, Time magazine, NBC, Newsweek, ABC, etc.) now specifically use this term. In fact, the Associated Press' annual Trend Report chose the Rise of Generation Jones as the #1 trend of 2009.
It is important to distinguish between the post-WWII demographic boom in births vs. the cultural generations born during that era. Generations are a function of the common formative experiences of its members, not the fertility rates of its parents. Many experts now believe it breaks down this way:
DEMOGRAPHIC boom in babies: 1946-1964
Baby Boom GENERATION: 1942-1953
Generation Jones: 1954-1965
Generation X: 1966-1978
Here is an op-ed about GenJones as the new generation of leadership in USA TODAY:
http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20090127/column27_st.art.htm
Here's a page with a good overview of recent media interest in GenJones:
http://generationjones.com/2009latest.html
Fascinating, thanks for sharing.
Who would have thought a whole generation had gone missing all this time?
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