The tech generation is now

In the past two days, two of the many leading stories that have appeared as the "main story" (the story with the biggest picture near the top) on CNN.com have been Web 2.0-related. I check CNN.com frequently throughout the day and the stories usually are more "timely" news stories rather than the feature-like content of the two Web 2.0 stories I noticed. (These two articles are here [on social networking] and here [on cloud computing].)

If you peruse the articles (especially the one on cloud computing), you can't help but feel the informality of the tone of the article (I mean, the picture for the social networking article has a gratuitous KITTEN in it....). They are also both definitely in favor of online technologies. Obviously, CNN has realized the importance of the Internet to people and devoted front-page property to it, even if the articles on it aren't necessarily super-serious and "newsy" in tone.

On the social networking article: The numbers in this article are surprisingly low to me, although the percentages of kids with online profiles is still pretty high (for example, 38 percent of kids age 12 to 14 have online profiles). I think that with most "new" phenomenons, there co-exists an immediate backlash against them focusing on the negatives; social networking websites are no exception. However, as time drudges onward, larger proportions of people realize how silly such negativity really is. (This parallels wonderfully with gay marriage, although homosexuality is not really "new"....) I also have to commend the Bigbie parents in how they deal with their children having online profiles: they don't shun such technology and allow their children to have profiles, but the parents know the passwords. I can imagine the case in which as the children grow to high-school age that the parents allow them more online privacy. I feel that this is great parenting concerning an issue that didn't exist when the parents where younger themselves. The article's inclusion of social networking sites targeted toward younger children as a potential springboard for "older" sites like Facebook was a nice touch.

On the cloud computing article: This was totally not an article; at best, it's a narrative-like column, although I'm not going to discredit the great information it provided. Where the hell are all our online information stored? Are they stored in one place or several places? Is it possible to go to a physical location and see the saved data? How is it even possible to store the massive amounts of information? Lots and lots of question that the author tries incredibly nobly to answer. His attempts are futile though since most of the companies probably want to keep their competitive advantages secret, which is really a shame. People's personal information is being hidden ... and quite well too! It's good to be aware of the few "answers" he did manage to uncover though.

Of course, what does this have to do with the "tech generation," as I've phrased it? Well, cloud computing basically "fuels" social networking sites--since they require lots of storage space with online profiles, photos, videos, etc. These two issues (among others) are closely interrelated, and this is the atmosphere today's youth are growing up in. Little five-year-olds can be more adept at using a computer than a middle-aged or elderly person ever could hope to be! It's downright astonishing!

So we have the Baby Boom generation born from WWII to the 50s. We have Generation X from the 60s to the 70s. We have Generation Y from the 70s to the 80s (wOOt for Gen Yers!). Generation Z then spans the 90s and 00s. So what about beyond? Whomever's idea it was to begin naming generations at the end of the alphabet was not thinking very far ahead. Generation Yers have sometimes also been dubbed millenials or Generation Nexters. Generation Z is still young so it's hard to characterize them, but they and the following generation will no doubt be incredibly connected with the Internet, texting, cell phones, IMs, social networking sites, Web 2.0 tools, and so on and so forth. "Generation Tech," anyone? The Technies?



Unrelated to the "tech generation" stuff: I just discovered the hilarious musical episode "Once More with Feeling" of the cult-favorite series Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Season 6, Episode 7). Lots of hysterical (and catchy) songs. The following video is the clip of Spike singing his one solo song. Who knew James Marsters could sing and sing sexily? I did some light research and found out he had or has a band or something. Needless to say, I'm a fan now. The singing in this video starts at 1:01.

Buffy - Spike - Rest in Peace - MyVideo