Young people grew up with social, but do they know how to be social?
First of all–let’s dispel the myth that young people have some great advantages with social media because they were raised with it as part of their lives. I often hear this when speaking to groups of business professionals. The belief is that social media is something young people get, while us older people are left trying to figure out what the heck to do with this stuff. It’s simply not true.
Yes. Most younger people and millennials know how to upload and post on social media channels. They also know how to over-share, being raised in what’s equivalent to the Wild West right now in social media. Kids and young adults have been raised in this time that these channels are evolving, but more than that, they have been raised as children in the middle of this communications revolution.
Being a part of the revolution
The social media revolution is something in which we are currently living. It’s a revolution that is hard to see because we are inside it as it occurs. The evolution of social media communications is bigger than when the telegraph, the phone and even email were introduced. These other modes of communication revolutionized our world, but in no way do they come close to the revolution of social media. Social media communications are broad sweeping. It affects us all in ways that we can’t even comprehend yet. It affects our ability to collaborate, to share, how we get information and from whom we get it. It’s affecting our economies and our world in vast ways.
You (yes, you!) have the advantage
With this revolution comes the fact that it is growing, adapting and becoming faster than we as a society can keep up. The millennials are at a major disadvantage because they have no guidance. They may know how to post and share, but they often know very little about how to leverage relationships to grow themselves or a business or a brand. You and I and all the “old” people who understand networking and relationships are at an advantage. Sure, we still need to figure out how to use these tools to build relationships and leverage them for out goals–but the biggest hurdle is first understanding networking and relationships. The next time you want to throw your computer, your iPad or your smartphone at the wall and call it quits with social media and all these “silly” social networks, stop and breathe and realize your only challenge is to learn how to leverage these tools. You already get the relationship part, now it’s time to “get” the technology that will help you grow your own goals. — Photo Credit
