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Tuesday, August 17, 2010

The Myth of the Internet Generation (part 2)

Yesterday I mentioned the article at Spiegel Online about the Internet Generation. There are certain aspects of the internet that just don't connect with younger people. Young people just don't go there and have no desire to do so.

Indeed, Jetlir does not actually expect very much from the Internet. Older generations may consider it a revolutionary medium, enthuse about the splendors of blogging and tweet obsessively on the short-messaging service Twitter. But Jetlir is content if his friends are within reach, and if people keep uploading videos to YouTube. He'd never dream of keeping a blog. Nor does he know anybody else his age who would want to. And he's certainly never tweeted before. "What's the point?" he asks.

The social media of Twitter and Blogging does almost nothing to reach people under the age of about 25. They just don't see it. We older folks (I'm 32) may love blogging and tweeting, but our messages there don't do much to reach the people who've grown up with the internet. They would rather text their friends than tweet to the world. They have almost no interest in producing content for general audiences.

How can we be sure to connect with this crowd? What preaching techniques will show them the good news?

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