Being behind the curve

I'm, ahem, a Baby Boomer. Not just any Baby Boomer, mind you, but one of the last ones. I was born in 1957, the last year the birth rate went UP. From there it's a downhill slide into the Baby Bust that followed.

This sucks, by the way, because all those born in the 10 years before me are hanging on for dear life to their jobs, their real estate, and their investments. When I did a career paper for my MBA I identified "demographics" as my #1 "threat".

If any jobs open up, a tsunami of over-qualified, under-employed Boomers rush to the front of the line. I'm behind the curve.

And now, as if it wasn't already challenging enough, now I'm being harangued by Gens X and Y because I'm not "with it" on Social Media. I'm behind THAT curve too?

But despair not--or more appropriately, Despair.com not--because my favorite de-motivational products company has given me something to fight back with. I give you, courtesy of despair.com, the Social Media Venn Diagram:



That'll show 'em--those smug, self-righteous whippersnappers who believe that anyone not Tweeting or allowing themselves to be sucked into the Vortex that is Facebook or Myspace is a dinosaur. Does anybody, even me, want to know what I'm doing at any given moment, and in 140 characters or less? Get real.

And the talk about how Facebook or Twitter will create new business opportunities for the moment is just that--talk. Instant Messaging was gonna do that, as were blogs and email before that. The danger of all New Technology is that the proponents always position it as the Ultimate, the Future, and without which you will be on the dustheap.

Old farts like me are more wary of the New than younger folks, in part because younger people have the great advantage of being able to move on from a failed technology or idea without any "baggage". So, I'm making a resolution to be "younger" in my willingness to throw away that which doesn't help, and not be guilty about it.

I've gotta get in front of ONE of these curves before I crash into the rocks...


Pete