The Universal Language?

In a recent paper my son wrote for school, he mentioned Twitter. Nobody knew what it was. In a class of 18 - 20 year old upcoming Digital Media experts (his major), nobody knew what Twitter was. The reason? The same reason teens rarely update their “status” on their Facebook page, unless they are going away or studying for exams and need to let friends know about a potential absence. “It’s pointless, why do we have to let people know what we’re doing all the time?” If they want to communicate specifically, they use text messaging.

What about Seesmic, FriendFeed, or Twitter? The 2008 Crunchie nominees? No, the other sites they visit focus on entertainment. Sites like Hulu and YouTube. What about Animoto? No, they can post pictures on Facebook or videos on YouTube. Content, vs. utility, is still king to them. The other sites they visit are very specific and oriented toward their special interests. And on those sites, there are micro-communities where they use a screen name to post comments. Or they might spend time on an MMO (online game) where they communicate using screen names and short one line phrases focused on the game. I will let them talk about it in subsequent posts.

The generation we brought up to BE CAREFUL on the Internet actually listened. If I think of all the time we all spent warning them not to give out personal information on line, it is easy to see why this is learned behavior. There were books and special evenings at the schools about internet safety for uninformed parents. This seems unanimous among many kids their age, who think using a real name (with the exception of Facebook, which they feel is an insulated community of their school or other invited friends) is just plain unnecessary.

We. as adults, create frameworks and integration tools to connect them. We visit Twitter, sometimes via FriendFeed, identi.ca, or ping.fm. More and more ways to shout out our names, but also to create think tanks in the process. Products we need evolve from entrepreneurial minds using the infrastructure created, applications based on how effectively the information is delivered (Howard's StockTwits) or, conversely, to overcome its handicaps (Summize). Collaboration sites, for thinking or for working, are where we go. There was a great post by @fredwilson about Mark Zuckerberg (founder of Facebook) when he was at Harvard. Mark sent around a study sheet to his classmates looking for answers to an upcoming quiz he hadn't prepared for. He figured out collaboration at an early age.

Fred's post was really about going "Public", which is interesting because I still do not see college kids doing it yet. Adults our age did not have the "be careful" stigma associated with "Public", our parents did not attend workshops on computer safety to teach us. The technology will be easily learned by most of the upcoming point and click generation. What may take more time to overcome are the years of learned trepidation. I think the conversion to what we consider social media, beyond Facebook where they feel safe, may take some time. Or perhaps future social media will adapt.