I noticed a quote on Susan Mernit’s blog from a short essay that appeared over at Epeus’ Epigone about what the web means to various generations of users
My generation draws the Internet as a cloud that connects everyone; the younger generation experiences it as oxygen that supports their digital lives. The old generation sees this as a poisonous gas that has leaked out of their pipes, and they want to seal it up again.
I’m not sure I agree with the point about the older generation wanting to stuff the internet back in the pipe though, as many older people are enthusiastic adopters of the net and can often teach their Grandchildren a thing or two.
But it did get me thinking about how different generations view the mobile phone.
To anyone over 40, they see the mobile as landline that you can conveniently wander around with. They can still probably remember making their first mobile phone call along the lines of
“Hi Mum, guess where I am?”
“I don’t know dear. Are you at home or in the office?”
“No - I’m standing in the middle of a field!”
“Gosh, are you dear? How’s that possible then?”
People were still having these types of conversations about 10 years ago.
To this generation, the mobile is a phone first and foremost, though they may have embraced sms.
To the first true mobile generation (let’s loosely say that they’re under 40, although in practice they’re a little younger), the mobile is something else entirely. It’s the very engine of their social lives and centre of their attention most of the time. Without their mobile, they’d be no more capable of dating and maintaining a relationship or arranging to spend time with friends and actually managing to meet up with them on the day, than a Boeing 777 is of crossing the Atlantic without any engines.
However, the mobile still primarily a communication device, which can be decorated physically and digitally. And maybe they’ve learned how to find out train times over WAP.
While we’ve seen an unbelievable transition in a relatively short period, it’s the next generation of mobile users (certainly less than 20 today) who will take the mobile towards its true potential, with the rest of us doing the equivalent of “What, in a field?”
These people will adopt all the social functionality of their seniors, but the mobile will take over from the PC as the single most important digital device for accessing the web, as well their personal entertainment hub for music and gameplay, not to mention the recorder and archivist of their lives and proof of identity.
Remove the mobile from that generation and they probably won’t actually be able to foperate meaningfully on any level of their lives - work, play or functional.
Stand by for Mobile 2.0.
When my 4 year old son first say a cordless phone at his grandparent’s house, he picked it up and asked where the games were on it. My guess is your Gen M is 25-40, but what about the generation who has known nothing but cell phones? They tend to be much more comfortable with mobile data, bluetooth, etc.
Read/WriteWeb Filter…
- How would you spend VC money if you could? (Matt McAlister lists his virtual shopping list — publisher services is his top pick: “Understanding content and communities is the name of the game.”) - MobHappy: mobile will define Gen……
My 6 year old girl has a better handle on using a PC than my 60 year old dad.
What worries me about the prolific nature of mobile cell phones is the electromagnetic pollution associated with them, especially with Children
Paul
I agree with what you have said except keep in mind that the screens are still small, and the input still kind of sucks. Still, I agree with you but am finding it hard to grok.
I’m 24 and spend $50 every 6 months on my mobile. These days it’s even less because I’m in the office more, so I just email or use the company phone (that thing at the end of your desk). I know from talking to others that I am an exception though and most are spending $30-$40 a month on their mobiles.
I have no compulsion to download ring tones, and no need to contact others via mobile.
Who are the people that require mobile data?
Are they mobile business employees/execs? or are they kids who are booted off the PC by their big brother?
Even Australia’s beloved Telstra has joined the game by adding moblog/MMS type features to their service. And those guys are as innovative as my belly button. What gives…
Times are changing. Now there’s even 3G technology so it’s still changing how we perceive mobile technology.
Convergent phones and all that jazz - we’ll see how the entire culture with change along with these technological advances. Maybe someday we’d be more mobile than we think now…
Generation M…
Generation M: “My generation draws the Internet as a cloud that connects everyone; the younger generation experiences it as oxygen that supports their digital lives.”……
Derrick Oien raises the same points in his blog:
“Mobile 2.0: The Revolution will not be televised”
http://doien.blogspot.com/2006/02/mobile-20-revolution-will-not-be.html
[...] MobHappy (Blog) http://mobhappy.com/blog1/2006/03/01/generation-m/ [...]
Online Flowers Florist…
Online Flowers Florist…