Pop Culture: The Real Generational Divide

People across all generations are separated by nothing but pop culture, and I can prove it:

Let’s say you’re 14 years old and you say, “Justin Bieber rules!”

Here are three potential responses and what each says about me, from your point of view:

• I volley back with, “Baaay-bee, baaaay-bee, baaay-bee oooh… grow a brain!”
  We can disagree about Bieber and still be friends.
• I say, “Isn’t he that 12 year old Canadian guy?”
  Our relationship, if we have one, will be marked by you periodically making fun of me for being “out of it.” Ditto if I respond, “Is that guy still around,” setting up a “Justin Bieber, not Timberlake!” retort.
• I look at you and say, “I don’t know who that is and I don’t care.”
  You see me as hopeless. We’re off to a very bad start.

The scenario is equally hopeless if I say, “Tribe Called Quest rules!” and you come back with, “Tribe called what? Is that a Seth Godin thing?”

Maybe more so.

And that, my friends, is about as real as the generational divide gets.


 

Jason Seiden is Co-founder and CEO of Ajax Social Media, a training company that shows professionals how use social media to work more effectively.

Tagged as: generations