For the last year or so there’s been a ton of articles about how MySpace, YouTube etc is creating a new generation of narcissistic exhibitionist teens who put it all out there and wait for the pedophiles to come knocking. On one hand, I agree that many teens may not know what they’re getting into and that parents need to pay attention and take reasonable steps to keep their kids safe. That said, I think the long-term impact of this phenomenon could be remarkable.
I’m hardly a teenager at 38, but in the last 10+ years I can trace practically all of the important developments in my life to exposing myself online. At a practical level, I really mean that I’ve met a lot of people (including my wife) simply by emailing them. Being exposed and relatively open online has also helped my business by helping me find customers, investors, partners etc.
My point? I’m probably in the top 10% of people in my age group in terms of leveraging online networking. The remaining 90% are too busy or set in their ways to take advantage of these new technologies (and understanding the etiquette that goes with them). When it comes to social networking, my generation is a bunch of old fogies with their VCR clocks doing this:
A much greater percentage of kids today intuitively understand this. Right now they’re doing sophomoric stuff on MySpace, but today’s teenagers will be looking for jobs in a few years, and in 10 years they’ll be the hiring managers. Of course they will take advantage of social networking tools like MySpace, Facebook etc and will look askance at anyone who doesn’t, just like I’m amazed when I occasionally meet someone who doesn’t have an email address.
(As an aside, while I was writing this post I got a phone call from someone in Belgium who has followed my company very closely online. It may or may not lead to a business opportunity down the road, but the fact that he knew who to call, even though I’m 7-8 time zones away in another country, is yet another example of this trend.)
Hat tip: The Social Networking Weblog