Can Generation X & Y Get Along?
It is no secret that in most work places Baby Boomers and Generation X do not get along very well with Gen Y colleagues. How about online- do they get along very well?
It appears that Gen X and Baby Boomers do not intrinsically trust Generation Y. Much of the bad blood can be attributed to tastes and preferences. It can also be attributed to upbringing. Gen Y are mostly brought up in the Internet era. Baby Boomers on the other hand, were brought up in the post WWII era. Gen X were largely brought up during the Electronic Transition age when the Cold War was the issue of the day.
As a result of the different socio-cultural dynamics at work, it appears that the tastes and preferences of the various generations continue to be a baggage to each all. It affects the way they see life and make decisions. According the Alpha Marketer, www.thealphamarketer.com a leading online marketing outfit, it appears that the early adopters (Gen Y especially those about 17-25) are increasingly moving to Face Book as a online marketplace for them. It thus appears that these early are shunning the MySpace to the late adopters ie Gen X ie those about 35 and above. These late adopters are barely catching up with MySpace and YouTube.
Myself, I am Gen X guy. I can not pretend that I know everything about Gen Y guys even though I spend a great deal of time reading and interacting with them.
There is lesson here for us. It is a lesson that may apply for you as well me, regardless of whether you are a Gen X or a Baby Boomer. The lesson is t that if we want to relate better to the Gen Y, we must make a greater effort to understand their taste and preferences. If we fail to do this, then we can not claim to have wisdom to deal with the issues of the day in dealing successfully with Gen Y.
If you like to invest in people as I do, if you like to speculate about the future as I do, I dare to say that we can’t afford to ignore the taste and preferences of Gen Y. They are by far the largest and most influential generation since Baby Boomers. They are a ‘stock’. They have both style a little substance that we can tap into to change the world. This stock will be around for quite a while and I urge you to get to know more about that stock. It is a stock with a silver-lining for parents, teachers, educators, politicians and the world. The better we know them, the better we can deal with them.
Gideon
Parent Program Coordinator
WTW
