I use the computer for everything now, but I remember waiting in lines to sign up for courses and using library cards to find books and turning my homework in on paper! I’m not as plugged-in as 12 year olds, but I’m not adapting as much as someone 40+. Of course this is a generalization with quite a few outliers (one of my favorite people to work with is a 56-year old grandmother who is also a systems analyst for a 250-member physician group), yet I’ve found that people born between the 1975 and 1985 tend to share similar traits due to similar transitional experiences as they were growing up. They’re liaisons bridging the “old” and the “new” way of doing things.
The biggest disadvantage for this liaison generation is not belonging to either group. Just think of all the buzzwords that have emerged for the identity roadblocks faced earlier than ever before; quarter-life crisis, career angst, job hopping, corporate distrust, etc. The decade’s worth of experience with one mode – the “old” way – is lacking and the innate response to use technology as the first mode for anything – the “new” way – is also lacking.
Out of this though comes the advantage of being translators. Connecting the “old” and the “new”, using what works best depending on the situation, and most of all helping others along the way. For the “new”bies, the liaison generation can provide a sense of origin, where things began and grew from and why. For the “old”ies it’s much more obvious; providing a simple way to adjust to ever-evolving technology and convert from desk to desktop.
Bottomline: What does all this mean and why is it important? It’s about defining a role. Offering one possible reason (out of many) for the confusion faced by an entire generation. There are business opportunities here, jobs to be created, organizations that face to benefit. A unification of perspective can only help this cohort of liaisons pave its path more certainly.