So I had to sit through yet another meeting today where some breathless 30-something expert urgently asserted that email and blogs are going away because, as we all know, “teens” signal what’s coming in the future. And since teens use Facebook and Twitter and SMS, and don’t use email or create blogs, that naturally means email and blogs will soon go away for all of us.
Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg earlier defended this idea, employing a recent PEW report that only 11% of teens email daily (a significant generational drop). Then she said:
“If you want to know what people like us will do tomorrow, you look at what teenagers are doing today.”
You’ve heard this elsewhere right? A bunch of times probably.
And it makes a terrific little sound bite, and feels all edgy and smart and progressive.
And it would be – except for the fact that it’s completely dumb and wrong. Maybe even Continue reading