Forget Gen Y: Gen X is Making Real Change
Sometimes even the best researchers forget that the answer you get depends entirely on who you ask. A new Forrester survey of 2,000 information workers has revealed that despite the hype, it's not Gen Y that's getting business to adopt collaborative technology. Gen X, those who are 30-43, are the ones leading the charge for social computing.
Forrester's analysis is that despite their different view of technology, Gen Y, Millennials, or whatever you want to call those 29 and under, don't yet have the clout within organizations to make real change. The same Gen X employees who are the fastest growing demographic in Facebook are the ones getting management to accept new technology as more than a fad.
Just Ask Employees
A common method for researching about how people use technology is to ask industry experts and management about what they've provided to workers and how they think it's being used. That's how many market researchers go about their business.
But Forrester has decided to just ask the employees directly in their new "Workforce Technographics" survey. Despite the imposing name, it's basically just asking people who work with computers about how they use technology, instead of going over their heads to IT and management. The survey of 2,000 individuals was conducted online in April, and was limited to those who work in companies with more than 100 employees.
It's All About Influence
A favorite argument among those who talk about the gap between Boomers, Gen X, and Gen Y is that the youngest demographic is more adept with technology. According to the survey results, that's just not true.
Gen X employees contribute to discussion forums and social networks just as much as their Gen Y counterparts. The use of blogs and wikis was either equal or different by just a couple percentage points.
But the most significant difference was not in usage stats. It was how effective employees are at getting new software to be accepted. 22% of Gen X said they felt they have the "clout in their organization" necessary to introduce new technology, while only 13% of those under 29 said the same.
Even if Gen Y was significantly better at using social software, it wouldn't matter at this point. Obviously younger employees will increase their stature within organizations as the years pass. But the idea of Millennials at the vanguard of innovation in the enterprise is a myth.
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OMG OMG!!! I bet in another ten years, Gen Ys are all gonna have clout with new technology.
Did you ever think that maybe it's because Gen Xs are management that they have clout? Golly.
@mb shaddup you whiny Gen Y-er. This is precisely the kind of "I'm special too" whining that makes you Gen Ys so ineffective and annoying.
;-)
@Aaron,
And that's the exactly the type of response one should expect of a entitled, spoilt Gen Xer.
:-)
Of course it's coming from Gen-X, we built all this new cool technology that the Gen-Y kids are learning to use so well. They have us to thank.
Right on. Glad to hear I am not fading into obscurity already.
@Ramon Well, Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook, was born in 1984 so he's Gen Y. Lots of the innovators are Gen Y.
Of course Gen-X and above are the "fastest-growing demographic" in social media. That's because all of Gen Y is already on it. Boomer/Gen X usage is growing because their Gen Y kids are telling them about it.
If you're trying to tell me that my 84-year old Grandma (who is on Facebook) was the one allaying my fears about social media, or my Gen X boss explaining to me how to use Twitter for lead gen, you're wrong.
Here's the real scenario by someone who has lived it:
Me: "I discovered a great social media tool."
Gen X boss: "I'm skeptical. Show me the ROI."
Me: Writes a report detailing usage, application, and ROI.
Gen X boss: "Looks great. Let me take this to Baby Boomer CEO."
Baby Boomer CEO: "Great, Gen X boss. Let's get this rolling."
Voila!
It's a completely fair assessment to say that Gen-X has more clout in the workplace than Gen-y, therefore they're the ones driving real social media adoption. That said, real adoption of social computing within the enterprise is two-fold: part one is the buy in (props to gen-x for spearheading that) and part two is execution. The latter is where gen-y is key.
For every forward-thinking manager that gets an executive to allocate a budget for social media spending, there needs to be a team who can support the follow through. Sure Gen-X is the fastest growing demographic of users on Facebook, but that statistic only tells me one thing: Gen-x is still learning how to use the technology. Ask any twenty something who's working and they've been on facebook for 4 or 5 years now. The longterm execution and adoption of social technologies in the workplace is ultimately contingent upon gen-y and the fact that we innately embrace usage of the technologies to begin with.
I'm not here to downplay the efforts of gen-x or to assert how great I think gen-y is. I'm only saying that real change will require a team effort.
@ramon -- Totally thankful for lots of the technology that exists because of Gen-x, but let's not forget who started Facebook. :)
I actually want to thank the Boomers and those before them--you know, the folks that started The Well and email and forums and the Internet. Folks like Stewart Brand and Howard Rheingold and JD Linklider. As a GenXer working on forums in 1994, I had those folks to thanks. And Zuckerberg has those folks to thank as well. Facebook didn't come out of nowhere, it was built on 50+ years of work by great technologists and pioneers. Also, in my experience getting my company to build a website in 1995 was an unbelievable task, much harder than the challenges that exist in getting companies to support and adopt technology today. We used to actually go over to a client's business and set up their dial-up account ;)
My follow-up post: http://aaronendre.com/2009/09/11/gen-x-vs-gen-y-decision-makers-vs-innovators/
I think people underestimate Gen X's technological ability. Most of us grew up with much the same tech Gen Y grew up with, but with slow speeds and terrible graphics. We had computers in schools and video games and some of us used BBSes in place of the internet. About the only thing we lacked was mobile phones (which came kinda late to most of Gen Y as well).
There was a big generation gap between the Boomers and the Silents (apparently that's what the generation before the Boomers is called). There was a generation gap between the Boomers and Gen X, but it wasn't as big. I think the gap between X and Y is comparatively small, which is so disappointing to those looking for the sort of excitement caused by the Silent/Boomer gap that they make up a generation gap the just ins't there.
Alternatively, they got the boundary years wrong and the bottom half of Gen X should be merged with the top half of Gen Y
@Aaron and @Alexa
Facebook's all well good, but Twitter is Gen X
:-)
what a dumbass article. People with more seniority have more clout in their companies...groundbreaking research here.
Very true, totally agree:
There was a big generation gap between the Boomers and the Silents (apparently that's what the generation before the Boomers is called). There was a generation gap between the Boomers and Gen X, but it wasn't as big. I think the gap between X and Y is comparatively small, which is so disappointing to those looking for the sort of excitement caused by the Silent/Boomer gap that they make up a generation gap the just ins't there. so is there livedatelove.com or not, does it really matter?
Hmm since I'm gen Silents (Im 44) I better say nothing then *lol* But I do have a question tho: what does it matter? As long as we can benifit from all those wonderfull changes, who cares who "invented" them. I dont. Im on the internet since the commodore 64, with the dial in-modem and playing games from cassette tapes. Im still here, hooked and having fun and learning all innovations. Thanx to all who made that possible, whatever generation :)
Speaking as a gen X member, gen Y is now what, just getting out of college at best? While we're in our 30s to 40s. This comparison is silly.
Still, even if this is generation X who is making real change, is it all for (a partially by) generation Y. Is not Gen X the group of people who sell their products and services to Gen Y?
Boomers, silents, Gen X, Gen Y... Why do we have to categorize everything?
Posted by: brianbolton.myopenid.com
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September 12, 2009 6:09 AM
Gen Y and Gen X are both spreading adoption of social media and such.
Gen Y is any one in college up to 30. I'm 28 so I'm just below Gen X and we do a lot of the innovation. Gen Z are still in diapers or going to sock hops. They don't even use twitter (wink wink).
Ahhhhhhh, yes. I remember back in the early to mid 1990s, reading all the articles and books about how Gen X was just a vast slacker nation when in fact we'd only just been out of college for (at most) a few years. We hadn't had a chance to participate or contribute in any great way. But we were always demeaned as the dumb shits -- in the 80s they wrote articles about how "playing Atari was going to rot our brains". And then it turns out that, well, we didn't turn out so bad.
I don't see this as a Gen X vs Gen Y thing...I see it as Gen X & Gen Y pushing out the old guys. :) Let's build a coalition....
I was using a Commodore 64 with a 300 baud Automodem to connect to my high school account to get my homework assignments back in 1984, chatting online with friends and downloading/uploading files on BBSes using the same C-64 before Gen Y or Milleniums were even a thought in their parents' head. Gen Y DEFINITELY did not invent any of this. Get over yourself little kiddies. Now go back to watching Barney tell you how special you all are.
Gen Y conceived & built the tech that Gen X is fighting to be adopted. Gen Y is the only one "making" anything.
Great, except that the GenX age range is more like 33-48. Common mistake, conflating the baby *boom* age range with the baby boom generation. Remember, Douglas Coupland's Generation X is where the name comes from, and he was writing about his own generation.
I appreciate what they're saying but the whole thing gets negated for me in the fact that they only surveyed organizations/companies with more than 100 staff (which are generally more 'institutional' by nature, often embedded with notions of seniority).
I think that by focusing on the ability to move organizational decision making, it's focused again on one of the intrinsic failings of many of these organizations, the marginalization of younger voices. I'd go back to @jimcarroll and his note that 67% of Gen Y are thinking about the next job on the first day of a new job. In large organizations it often takes longevity to have the internal power to move decision making.
I wonder what would happen if they surveyed smaller organizations which were modeling themselves along 'agile' frameworks.
CW
Thank you for your sharing.!
children, children, chilren...
Let the REAL Authority speak here. A baby boomer. For you fresh out of Romper Room (gen Yer and younger) and fresh out of "high school" (Gen Xer) neither of you have any real clout in the work place. It's us baby boomers that rule the corp world. We, us guys (and gals) with the gray hairs, for those of us who still have hair, and bifocals, we are the ones who tell you how things are run in the company, we are the ones who call the shots.
Gen Xers tried to Change The World when they entered the work place. We baby boomers quickly put them in their place and showed them who's boss. They are now domesticated and do our bidding.
Now we have to teach the same lesson to these young whipper-snappers. For us boomers it's "here we go again" time.
From the moment the Gen Yers come into the interviews; purple hair, nose piercing, tatoos all over the place, iphone in hand, at the point the tone is set. Would I hire you? Sure. To work retail at my record store maybe. You want to work at HQs? Ok, you can get my coffee.
These kids leave the inteview and what do they do? They text us saying "it was soo kewl mtg w u. talk 2 u later dude!"
If they get in next thing they want to do is do facebook, twitter, myspace, youtube and send SMS msgs on their smartphones. Easy solution. We boomers instruct our IT dept to block these services. We can do that. We are mgmt.
The office is for work, not for posting your ugly mug on myspace or giving your facebook buddies a virtual hug. Hah!
So listen up you facebook posting, youtube watching, myspace publishing, MTV viewing, tatoo wearing, Urban Outfitter clad, gadget toting kiddos. Just because you're arrogant doesn't make you special. You're not in college anymore. You're in our clutches now, the baby boomers.
So crawl back into your little cubicles and get those spreadsheets ready for me. And get a ready for a fresh dose of humility. We boomers will domesticate you as we did the Gen Xers before you. As they say in Star Trek "Resistance is futile".
Comments anyone?
@joseschmoe
Get Off My Lawn?
I love how this article stirred so much defensiveness between Gen Y, X, and baby boomers. Sounds like that wasn't the intention of the artcle, but it is attracting attention.
I think there's a marketing message fluff by the author in here somewhere...
Also, bragging about $15 funding sounds very much like a "new money" attitude. People who have had the money for a long time don't share their fund information, because that would be classless. But, if that's the image you want to place your business with to attract attention, then power to you. I wonder how much funding the actual leading enterprise social computing providers raised... probably more than 15 million bursts... that's just my guess.