somit :-$$$ n weird
11:31 AM Jun 22, 2007
Full fathom five thy father lies:
Of his bones are coral made:
Those are pearls that were his eyes:
Nothing of him that doth fade
But doth suffer a sea-change
Into something rich and strange.
-William Shakespeare, The Tempest
And just when we were getting comfortable.
Via the couldn't-be-more-aptly-named Sea Change comes this fabulous chart of different online activities by age group.
Take a look at that thing.
While "Collectors" are strikingly distributed throughout the population curve, there's an amazing phenomenon in every other category of engagement:
Under-27s are qualitatively more participatory than everyone else, even their immediate elders.
You'd probably expect folks born in the Truman Administration to rock the geek a little less than the Wii-implant generation. No surprise, that.
But across the board, half of the dropoff from "Generation Y" to "Older Boomers" occurs between ages 26 and 27.
Here's what I mean.
Activity |
Generation Y
|
(Dropoff) |
Generation X
|
(Dropoff)
|
Older Boomers |
Creation |
30% |
-11 |
19% |
-12 |
7% |
Criticism |
34% |
-9 |
25% |
-10 |
15% |
Joining |
57% |
-28 |
29% |
-21 |
8% |
Spectating |
54% |
-13 |
41% |
-15 |
26% |
Granted, age bracketing is inherently arbitrary and debatable, and presumably 27-year-olds' behavior is closer to 26-year-olds than it is to 40-year-olds. Nevertheless, the chart maps a qualitative change on the horizon in the role of communications media.
Missing here is a data point supplied by
the New Politics Institute's
just-released study of the "Millenial Generation":
As
Marty Kearns notes apropos of
Zack Exley's "Don't Hire an Internet Person" call for getting staff out of the "Internet person" ghetto:
The campaign or nonprofit is organizing in our culture. The culture shift is changing everything. Our culture is increasingly networked and online. The organization or campaign needs a senior management team that works to capture and channel modern networks of supporters to create the change we seek.
That's a generational shift not to be underestimated, demanding some
vision and perspective among sector leaders in the face of
the older-skewing demographics of charitable donors.
And, for that matter, of formerly comfortable charitable staff like me.
Add a comment
We should trade
Jason Z. —
Age is a state of mind, they say.My creaky knee and halfhearted Facebook presence don't agree.
I'm the outlier ..
Beth Kanter —
I'm 50 .. but my online behavior is more like 25