I don’t know about you, but I’m from Generation-X which according to Wikipedia is anyone born between 1961 and 1981. Okay, nothing unusual there, but why is it so god-damn hard for us Generation-X’ers to contribute content to the Internet? As usual, I’ve got some ideas.

I have a brother and sister who are both Generation-Y and it’s amazing how different their perspectives are when it comes to communications technologies; it’s as if their lives are connected via phone, e-mail, SMS and instant messaging all intertwined with each other.

As for me, instead I find myself communicating by more traditional means of telephone and e-mail with SMS fairly infrequently and instant messaging now and then. I even enjoy the now old fashioned art of letter writing, not so much for personal stuff, but certainly for business.

When it comes to contributing content to the Internet, it is Generation-Y that appears to be leaps and bounds in front of anyone else (except for maybe the Internet Generation, but these are still considered a subset of Generation-Y).

To prove that Generation-Y are the content creators, you only need to see MySpace or review the most popular videos on YouTube to really understand that this is the group that are most active in the content creation revolution at the moment.

So, why isn’t Generation-X motivated to blog? Well, this I can tell you from my personal experience, and I think it really comes down to a few points.

  • Firstly, I believe that the “sweet spot” for developing life long lasting skills when it comes to communication with friends and colleagues is developed when we are in our teenage years; therefore Generation-X tends to rely primarily on Telephone with some use of SMS and other technologies; whereas Generation-Y has grown up developing relationships online as well as offline due to their high-exposure with multiple forms of communication. This one is pretty obvious.
  • Secondly, Generation-X has witnessed the adoption of wide-scale, mass Telemarketing and Direct Marketing and as a result have a deep understanding of the loss of privacy that has occurred in the world; and I propose that this has impacted on Gen-X’s ability to contribute freely to the Internet for fear of one of your friends “Googling” you.
  • Lastly, it has been largely the Generation-X skillsets that have built the latter part of the Internet, and as a result have been so busy “doing” that there is less time and/or willingness to create content; especially when you’re busy building technologies being consumed at lightning speed by Generation-Y!!

I really wonder if Generation-X will be the forgotten generation, as the amount of content left behind pales in quantity and significance to what Generation-Y are currently pumping out…

In summary, Generation-X have built what Generation-Y is using.