Sunday, December 7, 2008

Are You a Member of Generation C?

In my journeys across the Web, I have observed a fascinating phenomena: Millennials and Gen X'ers aren't the only ones embracing the power of social media and its potential to create "Government 2.0."

If I had to estimate the average age of guests at virtual venues like GovLoop, Twitter, the blogosphere and beyond, most participants are people in their late 30s through mid-40s.

In case you're wondering, here's a quick breakdown of the generations in the workforce:

Veterans: Born before 1940
Boomers: 1940-1960
Generation X: 1960-1980
Millennials: 1980-2000

Earlier this week, I was posting a PowerPoint on the generations to SlideShare and saw this deck:



But it's the following slide that really caught my attention:



I think this definition is too limiting and would contend that Generation C represents someone of ANY age who is actively using social media and engages others on the Internet with a "2.0" mindset - creative, collaborative and community-oriented. (For a list of "68 Words Beginning with C" that describe social media, see this tag cloud posted by Ari Herzog.)

In delivering workshops and blogging about the intersection of the generations in the workforce, social media and government, I describe the difference between "Web 1.0" and "Web 2.0" in the following way:
Web 1.0 is like a store front where browsers can behold the wares, but the door to the store is locked. With Web 2.0, there is no store front. It's an open market where people exchange and barter to gain better products and ideas.

Members of Generation C operate under this 2.0 mindset, creating marketplaces all over the Web to share and shape information and ideas.

For Boomers (who don't want to admit that you're getting old!), here's your chance to consider yourself part of a "younger" generation. For the Millennials and Gen X'ers, it's our turn to exercise leadership and create the agencies and organizations that we envision by building upon our aptitude with new media. For people of all ages, becoming a member of Generation C presents an opportunity to construct a bridge across the intergenerational divide and create a cohesive community that coalesces around a collection of common goals.

So if you are a member of Generation C (or wannabe), let's get to work! How can we bring other people in our agencies and organizations into the fold, encouraging them to embrace the 2.0 mindset?

2 comments:

Simon said...

Nice post.

While there are plenty of possible C's to describe Gen C, I've been working with semiotician and anthropologist Jake Pearce - he wrote the Idealog article in Dan's presentation - and we believe it's ultimately about control.

So why is it a generation, and not just an environment? Because a generation is about shared experiences. Boomers have the moon landing, and woodstock to keep them together.

Gen C has the Nooma Nooma guy, or Obama's use of social media, as a shared experience ...

So perhaps the way to get more people into Generation C is to share a compelling experience with them?

divrsify said...

Great post for sure. I love the point about intergenerational learning (which I have found to be woefully inadequate in the federal sector).

I just taught a class for my agency on new media, and I was particularly struck by this guy Sam from one of our Alaska refuges. Sam is somewhere between Greatest Gen and BBoomers, and he made the point, "I'm hearing a lot of words I don't know, but we got to get on top of this stuff, and now."

We are of course getting a fair amount of cultural resistance to adopting new communications technologies at work, but there is an "itch" in folks to become members of I guess this "Generation C."

I get the impression that folks are looking to the younger employees for a scratch.