ICT Supporting Organisations 18: Generation C

Many professionals in the trend spotting industry – which includes IT and technology in general – have given a new generation of people a new label – Generation C (or sometimes Gen C for short). What, though, is Gen C? Are you part of it? And how will if affect business?

Well, for a start, people are still not sure what the C should stand for! This may not be much of a problem because, after all, the letters in Generation X and Y did not stand for anything either! What is different about Gen C, however, is that it is the first group of people who could safely be called “digital natives”. They are the people who have grown up with technology and the internet and simply assume it as part of their lives rather than learning about it at a later point. Gen C are those computer and phone users who will find themselves more able to contact and communicate with a wider cross section of people not previously know to them, than ever before.

However, it can also include people born in the early 1980s as well as those born just before and after the new millennium. In other words, Gen C cannot automatically be described as “young” (though that is a matter of perspective!) and will be identified from their shared characteristics rather than their age grouping. In other words, Gen C is about how people behave rather than their age, gender or ethnic groupings. To put it in high falluting language it will be rather more about psychographics than demographics. There is some emerging evidence to alleviate the fears of older people (those who do not tag themselves as “silver surfers” at least). That is, Gen C, it seems, will be nicer people in general than those who have gone before! This is simply because the web based idealogies of cooperation and open access have influenced this generation profoundly – and this ideology is here to stay.

Frightening for many, too, are new terms for old “enemies”. The term “digital socialist” is becoming widespread – if only in the context of freeing up broadband connectivity. That said, many people see the disintermediation of traditional media as a threat (an example here would be reading a newspaper online instead of buying it in its hard copy format). Some go as far as seeing it as a direct threat to capitalism.

This is doubtful. A possible future where people are given life-long email and phone numbers on their birth certificates could hardly be seen as a threat to capitalism. However, it is certain that mobile internet interfaces will not be viewed (or purchased) as high end luxuries but will become utilities. Just like pen and paper, they will be norms which when used properly are extensions of our bodies.

The main fear is that there will be the development of an alternative economy which will supplant the cash economy. This is where goods, time and services will be traded by individuals and collectives (maybe even corporations!). This, though, is mostly viewed as a supplement rather than a straight forward supplanting. So, capitalist readers, sleep well in your beds!

There are fears, too, that Gen C will end up as unsocialised VDU potatoes or cyber stalkers. However, whereby a lot of (older) people fear a future of unsocial youngsters only being able to connect with others via the web, optimists see a much more positive future for Gen C. Optimists see a new breed of culturally sensitive and highly socialized generations emerging. Uber-optimists see the dawn of a new Renaissance.

However, this can mean a leap of faith for many as the proof is not yet in the pudding – the pudding is still in the oven. It will mean change, though. And soon and quickly.

It will mean that centres for education, for example, will need to become more interactive and use new tools such as blogs, wiki-based social networking sites and actively encourage mobile phone usage if they are going to keep younger students interested. Perhaps the most frightening shift for educational traditionalists is the evolution of teaching from knowledge-based to understanding based. This will mean that students will collaborate with – and interact with – learning materials rather than simply reading books and writing essays.

The whole concept of Gen C was first written about in detail on the internet, on a site called Trendwatching.com. This was way back in 2004. The C was said to represent the words content, creativity, control and celebrity. These words could enthrall and frighten older people in equal measure. However, since 2005 the C has, generally stood for “community” and has been used by companies such as Emap, Coca Cola and Nokia to describe (part of) their target consumers.

Gen C has been feted as a kind of renaissance in which the arts – and creativity – will flourish (mostly online) because of a lack of global warfare and an increase in trade. So, it could be seen as a direct result of globalization but possibly one where those who oppose globalization could honestly say that out of every evil, some great good has come!

Gen C people tend to use and create websites such as Facebook to share content and ideas or more recently to flog their talents to the highest bidder. However, some people say that internet connectivity still being unavailable to the greater mass of humanity, that the real hub of Gen C is, in fact, the mobile phone, which has reached about forty percent of the world’s population. Gen C people embrace such things as SMS (a recent study in Korea showed that over 30% of Korean teenagers sent over 100 text messages a day!). A very basic example of Gen C behaviour would be the standard SMS joke. How many times have you received the same joke twice in a day from different people? The speed at which humour is disseminated is enormous. Now imagine the same speed and volume of dissemination converted in to culture and ideas and you get an idea of what is happening. Some argue, however, that individual creativity is being replaced by a kind of hive mentality.

With Web 2.0 and Gen C here to stay, what can organizations do to embrace these changes – and indeed exploit them? Although Gen C has been seen here to enable digital content produced by and for peers, there is also a new possibility open to business. That is, businesses can now actively engage with their customers in a way never before possible. They can, if they so chose, allow their customers to co-design and create the services and products they want to purchase. In this way, Gen C could be seen as ushering in a new era of bespoke commodities which many (older!) people thought had disappeared with Ealing films and early closing on a Wednesday.

On the downside, when corporations take Gen C and Web 2 on board it will inevitably become mainstream. Perhaps then people will tire of seeing the same sort of things (image, sounds, videos and more trad information) and the whole opportunity of harnessing the Web C generation for business will be diminished. Furthermore, the Digital Divide is still out there (or, perhaps NOT out there) and there may be many who simply can’t, won’t or don’t understand this new movement.

One way or another, we haven’t heard the last of Gen C.