Since 2004, Technorati has published the “State of the Blogosphere,” an ever evolving attempt to quantify and qualify the world that is Blog. Last October, the Technorati decided to interview several elite blogocrats and let them, as they’re known to do, declare reality for the rest of us—the millions and millions of bloggers that aren’t rich and famous for it.
Surprisingly, I was most taken by Penelope Trunk’s interview.
"I'll gladly rip you a new one."
First, a confession: Trunk typcially drives me bonkers. She takes the Heather Armstrong (of dooce.com fame) approach to mommy blogging, instead using it to give corporate advice:
- Be offensive occasionally,
- Be solipsistic often, and
- Declare yourself right most of the time, especially when you’re not.
I know, I’m kind of bashing her while hypocritically claiming to hate when she does the same thing. Hey, I’m complicated like that. In any case, I sincerely believe she’s a strong woman and respect that she’s proven herself a very savvy businessperson.
That’s why, when interviewer Eric Berlin asked Trunk about her decision to choose Generation Y as her target market, I was truly fascinated by her answer. Trunk offered her assessment of the last three American generations. According to Trunk, Baby Boomers hate to share, help or follow—and therefore social networking fails to reach its full potential for them. Generation X hates to collaborate (Trunk, herself a Gen Xer, vehemently blames bad parenting from Baby Boomers) and therefore prefer the professional autonomy of LinkedIn’s networking model.
But Generation Y, says Trunk, gets the point of social networking. They want genuine connections, professionally and socially, and they have the skills to get them.
Normally, I would just brush off any fact-flinging by Trunk that didn’t include a cited source, but in this case, I had heard these generalizations before, so I knew she wasn’t totally flying by the seat of her well-pressed pants.
It’s the framework established by Neil Howe and William Strauss, two historians whose postulations on generations have grown deep roots into our American self-belief system. At its core, however, the stereotypes they’ve created are little more than a historically-based Myers-Briggs profile. In fact, much like Myers-Briggs, Strauss and Howe have founded LifeCourse Associates as a way to profit from the desperate and blind corporate faith placed in their quasi-astrological opinions.
Much like Penelope Trunk profits from Brazen Careerist users who put their blind faith in her half-cocked opinions. But I digress.
Or actually, I’m back to the point. Trunk’s interview intrigued me so much because she’s building her new marketing strategy upon generational stereotypes—and more importantly, upon the profoundly lofty expectations that Baby Boomers and Gen Xers have for Generation Y, the Millennials.
In a way, I see it. As a freelance writer, I watch publications crash and burn because they reflect the generations of their leaders, either sharing too little or sharing too much. I watch many of my fellow writers hold on so tightly to their words that they never have a hand free to reach for new opportunities. But I’m also friends with many, many Millenials—and watch them get wasted nightly and splay it all on Facebook. Genuine, perhaps, but good at using social networking media for professional progress? I don’t see much of that.
Most importantly, for someone who doesn’t fit the mold of her generation, and for someone who has succeeded so often by breaking down barriers, I was curious why Trunk has decided to build barriers for her business.
Is she onto something? Are Baby Boomers and Generation Xers a waste of social networking space? Or are the Millennials about to serve Trunk a hearty dose of disappointment? Tell me what you think.
