“Emily Tedford, 13, is having dinner with her parents at a Brazilian restaurant, and 20 of her closest friends know she has ordered the grilled pineapple and banana.”  Emily sends close to 20,000 texts a month.  Her parents aren’t too concerned; she is a good student, plays drums and runs track, and has plenty of friends.  They monitor her texts occasionally to make sure they are appropriate.  The only problem they have had with her is her tendonitis from texting too much.  The question we must ask is this: what kinds of adults will these teens who would rather text than talk become?  The average teen sends about 3,500 texts a month.  This figure has skyrocketed in the past few years.  Parents of teens know texting is often the easiest way to check in with teens and avoid attitude.  It’s hard to say how much texting is too much.  There are plenty of teens who can send thousands of texts a month and still talk to people, build relationships, and do other activities as well.  Many teens feel most comfortable sharing intimate feelings and stories over text messages—there is more time to think and not much opportunity for something to come out wrong.  This avoidance of conflict and lack of human interaction worries psychologists, though.  There is no silence, no stillness; most teens cannot imagine a time of undistracted focus.
Reflection Questions for Author:

1. Where do we draw the line between using texting as a tool to keep in touch and abusing it?
2. How does texting affect our relationships in real life?
3. Are we losing the skills necessary to communicate face-to-face–or even over the phone?
4. How can we live in a texting culture without completely giving in to the impersonal communication?

Quotes or Stats:

1. AT&T’s data from the third quarter of 2007 show that nearly 66 million subscribers sent 24 billion text messages. Two years later, in the most recent third quarter, about 82 million users sent 120 billion texts.
2. “It’s debatable to talk about what is a pathologized amount of texting,
3. It may seem like a parody of a Sprint commercial, but many teens are most comfortable sharing their most intimate feelings through this shorthand language,
4. Teens need to learn how to respond and pick up on verbal cues, how to spontaneously respond to questions without having to compose or construct a response and how to effectively handle confrontation.
5. She does not recommend taking away a cell phone. The trick is to look critically at how we behave with our phones. “This is the communication device of their generation. Everyone has to live in (his or her) generation,” she said.

Application: The obsession with texting goes beyond teens. We all use texting more often and for more types of conversation. There was a day when we did not find it appropriate to share personal information over the phone, in an email or in a text message. But today, many people feel more comfortable texting big news or personal information than sharing in person. Are our interpersonal skills suffering as a result of convenient new technology? Consider how texting and other technology is affecting your relationships–positively or negatively. Try turning off your phone for an evening or getting together with your friends and sharing some real conversation over a cup of coffee, completely unplugged. We lose so much when we try to hold seventeen different conversations at once while still trying to talk with the person right in front of us. How much deeper could your relationships become if you truly invested in one conversation, one relationship at a time?

Standard age-based marketing tactics may be becoming less effective and less accurate.  Many adolescents today are acting in ways we might expect from those who are middle-aged, and many middle-aged Americans have brought their adolescent behaviors with them into adulthood.  The teenage years are often looked at as a time of rebellion and refusal to “settle down,” but this is changing.  Anxiety levels are rising among adolescents due to political events, “paranoid parenting” and other factors.  This anxiety and stress is a big factor in the trend toward more conservative behaviors.  The trend is falling away from typical teenage activity—drug use is down by 25% in the last six years.  “Conserva-teens” are more concerned about their financial future.  Their goals are to be financially stable and to live by high moral standards.  Impulsive purchasing of technology is down, too; most teens say they would prefer to see other people get the new technology and see what they make of it before they go out and buy it.  Middle-aged Americans, though, are at the other end of the spectrum.  They are continuing in their sex, drugs and rock & roll lifestyle.  Singles aged 55 and older are the fastest growing group of online daters.  Marijuana use is more prevalent among 50-somethings than any other age group.  They listen to rock more than any other genre.  The “new old” are pursuing other adolescent activities like video games and motorcycling, as well.  This new old and conserva-teen are making advertisers take a second look at age-related segmentation.

Questions to Consider:

1. What is the trend of the people currently between adolescence and middle-age? The 20- and 30-somethings?
2. How does this affect your business?
3. How does this affect the standard ideas of marketing strategies–targeting teens for frivolous products and the middle-aged for more practical products? Should these tactics be reversed?
4. What can be said about the commonly held belief that teens are more impulsive with their spending?
5. What other important issues come out of this trend?

Quotes/Stats:

1. A typical teenager today exhibits more anxiety than child psychiatric patients did in the 1950s, according to the American Psychological Association.
2. In a recent BBDO survey, U.S. teens chose financial security as their No. 1 life goal
3. Three-quarters of those in the Microsoft survey identified family as the most important thing in their lives
4. In the BBDO poll more than half list “living by high moral standards” as their top life expectation, almost half believe it best to remain a virgin as long as possible, and 83 percent expect to get married.
5. The National Council on Aging claims 61 percent of all 60-somethings today are still sexually active. And singles 55 and older are the fastest growing group of online daters. Meanwhile, the rate of 50-somethings’ illicit drug use rose more than 70 percent during 2002-08; marijuana is now more prevalent with them than with any other age group.
6. A quarter of Americans over 50 play video games — up almost threefold since 1999

Application: Be aware of this trend in your business and marketing strategies. There’s good news and bad news here: the good news is that your social marketing is probably reaching a lot more adults than you thought; the bad news is that you might not be using the best strategies in that marketing. If the “conserva-teen” and the “new old” really are the emerging trends, it’s probably time to revisit your marketing techniques in light of these new roles.

Original Article: Old is the New Young

“…five times more teens suffer from depression and anxiety than teens who grew up during the Great Depression.” Teens today are suffering from a self-centered, materialistic mindset which is being thrust upon them from all directions.  Many teens feel left out if they do not have the latest technology, the most popular brand of clothing, or the money to purchase the latest gadgets.  This need for all the hottest things is causing a lot of anxiety and depression in teens.  Teens often confuse who they are with what they have.  The things they have gives them a feeling of greater self-worth; if they are not able to have the latest technology or the hottest clothes, there tends to be a lower self-worth.  Parents can help to combat this trend, called Affluenza by experts, by setting limits and just saying, “no.”  Having the teen work to save up his or her own money to purchase the item teaches responsibility and the value of a dollar—if it means that much, they should be willing to spend their own money on it.  Eating dinner as a family regularly can help to solve many of these problems, even drug and alcohol use and sexual activity.
Questions to Consider:

1. How does this epidemic in teens carry over to the adult world?
2. How much of an influence do peers have on perceived needs?
3. Do adults provide a bad example for “Affluenza,” buying into materialism with fashionable clothes and new technology?
4. Family dinners can help prevent these teenage issues, but what if the behavior has already started? Can this family time help stop the behavior?
5. How does the idea of family dinners translate into adult life, trying to overcome “Affluenza”?

Memorable Quotes:

1. “And that need for the newest and latest, experts say, is one of the reasons behind much of today’s anxiety and depression.”
2. “Experts call the obsession “Affluenza” – and even during the recession, many teens still suffer from it.”
3. “Numerous studies show that kids who regularly eat dinner with their families are better students, happier, healthier people and less likely to smoke, drink or use drugs.”
4. “Researchers found that the more frequently kids ate with their parents, the less likely they were to smoke, drink, use marijuana or show signs of depression.”

Application:
Are we becoming too wrapped up in the need for the “next big thing?” We all like to have nice things and to feel like we can afford to treat ourselves, but there comes a point when these things stop being bonuses and start becoming necessities. Gone are the days when simply having a camera phone made you cool–now, buying the black iPhone right before the new white one came out is a tragedy. We give ourselves anxiety and depression by becoming too invested in having the next and the new. Can we get back to the days when these things just made us a bit happier if we could have them, rather than launching us into depression when we cannot have them? Maybe we can’t change the world, but we can change our own mindsets. And, who knows? Your new-found peace and acceptance just might rub off on someone next to you. Maybe we can change the world, after all. Invite your friends over for a “family dinner”–play board games and leave the iPads at home.

Original Article: Generation “Me”