The Digital Generation

I attended a seminar on Saturday that spoke on current trends in our various generations. The generations as we group them today are the Baby Boomers, Gen X, Gen Y (the optimistic counterpart to Gen X), and the Digital Generation. The later was defined as anyone aged 0-9 years old. This generation was deemed significantly dificult to appeal to because they are growing up in a time where everything is personalized. It got me to thinking about the internet and how many pages devote themselves to finding you a unique product.

Take, for example, Scion.com. It's not enough to have a bad ass car that everybody wants anymore. Now that car has to be uniquely customized for you. And these are being marketed to Generation Y (ages 10-28). Imagine what the Digital Generation will be demanding when they come of age.

Another web phenomenon that follows the personalization trend are tests, quizes, and surveys that promise to teach us more about ourselves. They are so prevelant that I think most people reading this have seen at least 50 pop-up ads advertising them in one form or another. Ofcouse there is always the hidden agenda. They tell you more about yourself AND how their product could benefit you based on your needs and desires. Several companies have made lucrative businesses out of dating services based on personal assessments (surveys). My friend Mike has used the popular Eharmony.com to find his soulmate. And to it's credit, the match service did find him someone who had very much in common with him. But do similarities make the perfect mate? Who knows. I'd like to see a long term study of Eharmony couples to see which ones actually last more than a year.

On a lighter note I will say that some of the assessment tools on the internet are there purely for fun. One example is OKcupid.com. OKcupid is a date matching service but it's tests are created by it's members. I think the original idea was to have "single and searching" folks create tests that address what they are looking for in a mate. What resulted, though, was a hilarious page full of hundreds of tests that serve no purpose other than to entertain the taker. I stumbled across this site when my cousin sent me a link to a quiz called The Zombie Scenario Survivor Quiz. You must try it.

http://www.okcupid.com/tests/take?testid=5349989821747660792

Finally we come to the most recent and most personalized of all internet content; Blogs. Being new to the blog scene myself, it would be hippocritical of me to critisize them. But here I go. Could a more arrogant idea be thrust upon us? I doubt it. Only in the U.S. could we have a population so full of themselves that they actually believe the masses want to read their daily journal. Now any old yahoo can post his/her rants and raves online for everyone to view. And here's the scary part. News organizations are starting to use them as factual sources. Blog is synonymous with opinion and should never be confused for anything more.

I am a Generation Xer and I expect these levels of personalization in my everyday life. As do most in my age group. Now if the Digital Generation is supposed to be the one with emphasis on personalization what does the future hold in store. Here is my glimpse into the Digital Generation's future of ultimate personalization:

1. Pizza joints now offer 500 topping choices. Be the first to pick a combination and they'll name it after you.

2. Not only will you be able to customize your car, you will be able to design it from scratch using GM's make it, buy it, drive it website.

3. With cloning technology a part of eveyday life you don't need to find a perfect mate anymore. You can make one now. Program it to be evrything you desire. Why compromise?