Start with Generational AnalysisBased on generational analysis (which I knew very little about except
that I was a GenX-er that acts like a Millennial), there are essentially four generational types that break down into ten year groupings. They are:
- The Hero/Civic Generation – the last one was the one in 1932 (the “Greatest
Generation”) who brought about the change that we saw in the election of FDR and WWII – a very dynamic group that tends to be quite large - The Nomad/Reactive Generation – this generation spends time trying to respond to the impact of the Civic Generation’s efforts
- The Prophet/Idealistic Generation – this is essentially the Baby Boomers, where trusting government and involvement in civic responsibilities are throw aside for their self-needs, and then the focus on maintaining that independence – another lare and dynamic grouping of people
- The Artist/Adaptive Generation – currently, GenX is representative of this generation – latch-key kids who had to fend for themselves and provide support for themselves and their families
What is interesting is that the generational breakdowns map interestingly to technological advances in communications, communities and collaboration. For instance:
- 1820 – the growth within America of improved transportation (canals and steamboats) and then railroads which gave rise to the first political convention in 1828
- 1860 – the invention of the telegraph which allowed for the spread of news from one geographic location to another in the form of regional newspapers
- 1896 – the expansion of the telephone allowed for greater collaboration and coordination of the Republican party
- 1932 – the invention and expansion of the radio – and in particular the treatment and growth of its use (which is quite similar to the growth of iPods in this generation)
- 1968 – the invention and expansion of television and its ability to “shrink” the world
- 2008 – social networks and the peer-to-peer communications that exist with mobile telecommunications
What surprised me is how the generations breakdown into these groups quite consistently (based on the past 200 years of research and history – which Wikipedia and the Strauss and Howe book (Generations: The History of America’s Future) support. Based on this – and the incredible similarities that history and our time show – I am quite certain they are right, but not sure I completely agree with all of the mechanisms they discuss.
Social Networks Impacting the 2008 Election?
I have written two posts on this topic – and specifically the fact that the campaign that makes use of the social networks will find their success assured, but my skepticism that the campaigns have yet to utilize them. Winograd and Hais speak of the “Facebook platform” that the myBO is built upon, but it is my understanding that this is a tool from Blue State Digital and not an extension of the Facebook platform. Additionally, I am (normally) not a supporter of the YASN (yet another social network) mentality, since I think that the hyper-segmentation of networks will continue to be met,
with increasingly lower costs and new communities will be built up.
But, in the course of writing this post, I realize that I have discussed the needs for in-person connections and “tabling” is quite important. I also school my clients (both political and commercial) that the keys of success are found in using the networks to spread the message via word-of-mouth, or “word-of-network”. And, the myBO is actually what I have been asking for IF the campaign is seriously using it to rally the supporters and the “influentials”
as discussed in the 2004 campaigns.
Process Behavior and Social Capital
Since people have self-selected and become members of myBO, and a large enough community has formed on the space – and IF the campaign has been communicating AND allowing others to communicate across the network, then the natural word-of-network flows happen into these other social networks since the nodal people (“influencers”) have allowed for the crossing of physical (and URL) boundaries. Interestingly enough, the viral nature of the message (as in Dean AND Obama was “vision and empowerment”), coupled with the stateless nature and ease of “travel” from one social network to
another (via your browser), which allows for the rapid distribution and aggregation of people into events and communities.
Since these nodal people are about building social capital in informing and educating others on the issues and situations, it is a natural effect. And with a large community (such as the Millennials)
who have been raised on Napster (sharing copyrighted music) and MySpace (personal expression/exposure at young age), YouTube (peer-to-peer visual connection) and Facebook (who are already conditioned to tracking the state of their personal social network), I think that social networks as a transport medium have impacted the 2008 election – which goes into my BarCamp discussion on the speed of memes in various communities.
Hmmmmm….18 months since my first post on this topic, could it be I could be mistaken?
More than happy to entertain the concept.
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Tags: Social Networks in Politics, Millennial Makeover, Millennial Generation Impact, Impact of Social Networks, Speed of Memes