By Flávia Vianna

It’s incredible how a tool used to send messages through 140 characters can be used to update us, convey emotion, encourage thinking, reflection, and laughter, or “all of the above.”

A few weeks ago, I got a post through Twitter talking about a mom who went into an electronics store and asked the salesperson if he carried Twitter. She said she needed to buy Twitter for her son.

After this I went on a trip. Streaming velocity, downloading images and insights in my mind. I was thinking about Generation X and Generation Y.

It’s funny. No mother on earth is required (or even stimulated) to know about online social networks. But this mother was trying to understand this new generation. As my trip ended, I thought to myself: “what many big businesses need to do, hasn’t actually begun yet.”

When businesses are disconnected from technology, it’s sad. If this attitude comes from a big business, it’s completely unacceptable and embarrassing.

This week I got some comments, in regards to my last post. The comments were mostly from individuals belonging to Gen Y who work in businesses that are very set in their traditional ways, and haven’t realized that there’s a digital conversion to be made. Reading some of the comments, I couldn’t believe that there are still businesses that block access to social networks, on the grounds of “productivity.”

Employees born from the 1980’s onwards are at the epicenter of businesses and will be for years and years to come. Businesses that aren’t in tune today are going to become junk like in Wall-E, if they don’t adapt fast.

If you want to hire and tap into the competencies of these Gen Y creatures, please update your corporate world. Old concepts must be re-examined. There’s no point in listening to Pity on your iPod, if the machine that plays music at the office is still a record player with an LP by Trio Irakitan. Proof that this generation is hungry for information, is that I’m sure that at this exact moment, the gen y readers have already opened Youtube and are searching for “Trio Irakitan.

I’m not saying that Gen X readers aren’t interested in knowing more or researching things. It’s the way in which they research and function that’s different, and that sometimes causes conflict.

My interpretation is that the multi-functionality of Gen Y is what creates corporate conflict. And yet this conflict is a pure waste. A waste of time, a waste of energy, and a waste of money. Managers, leaders, and bosses, should try and take advantage of these Gen Y characteristics to minimize conflict and guarantee sustainability in their businesses.

I’d also like to reference the blog post “What’s Age Got to do With it” by Silvana Avinami. It’s an excellent post and very well written. It shows that respect comes with admiration and not with your birth date. We need to respect our differences and compile our distinct visions of complimentary worlds.

What is necessary to build mature work relationships isn’t age. It’s behavior, ethics, professionalism, and most importantly open heads and open hearts. And if you don’t know what that is…Google it.

Flavia Vianna is from Rio, works in advertising as a co-owner of the agency Trafor Comunicação. About 2/3 of her day is spent trying to understand human behavior. During the rest of the time she sleeps. Or tries to sleep. Recently initiated in the 2.0 world, she’s discovered that she’s embarked on a path of no return. She’s Gen X, but she was born at the wrong time. She’s actually SO Gen Y. Her philosophy in life: it’s an eternal process of re-learning.

By Margie Maddux Newman*

I’ve got two weeks left to say “I’m 29,” and mean it. As the big 3-0 approaches, that’s really my only deep thought.

I don’t feel like I’m getting old – mentally nor physically.  I certainly don’t look old – the casual passerby is often fooled by my petite frame.

Honestly, I haven’t thought that much about turning 30,other than the subconscious understanding that 30 putsme closer to what I’ve always thought of as my Work Age.

I sometimes hear that I’m “impressive for my age.” This is said with the utmost earnestness but often leaves me wondering to what age the compliment refers:  if I were 35 today, would I fail to impress? Am I a shiny object because I’m in my twenties? Will my polish fade when I’m firmly planted in the next decade?

I’ve always been told I am mature for my age – being an only child can either make you a tiny grown-up or a big pain-in-the-rear. I am usually the former – but in recent years, being mature has become less of an observation by my mom’s friends (“Listen to her! She’s 13 going on 30!”) and more of a wow-factor in my industry (“Listen to her! She’s young, but she knows what she’s talking about!”).

Like most impressive things, my professional accomplishments are product of timing. As someone comfortably in the middle of Generations X and Y, I’m both tech-savvy and old school. I’m an Internet addict, but still pen handwritten thank you notes. I’m an advocate for the promotion of hard-working recent grads, but believe one only advances by doing more than is required and doing it better than anyone else – job-description-be-damned.

Professionally, I’m more advanced than the average bear, but that’s only because I’ve had amazing mentors, been in the right place at the right time, and am completely in love with my profession (albeit one that many folks don’t understand and, sadly, tend to butcher).

Now, personally, I’m a little behind the curve: I got married well after my college friends, I don’t have kids and I just learned to ride a bicycle two weeks ago.

At 29, I’m “impressive for my age” and working to prove I’m a force to be strategized with.

At 30, I’m honing a craft and acting on instincts that give me street cred, and have crossedthe threshold of 8 – 10 years of work experience.

Rather than wincing at the thought of bidding my “youth” farewell, I’m greeting my Work Age with open arms, an active Twitter account and a new-found appreciation for feeling thewind in my hair.

If you live in this type of world, then I am an alien.  Believe it or not, I recently joined my first social network, (Orkut) because I was practically forced to by my boss!

She sent me invites almost everyday, and I would say “I don’t have time for this, I have so much to do, I can’t waste time navigating Orkut.”   But she didn’t care.  Actually, she didn’t leave me alone until I joined.

Today, we use almost social network at work.  And you know what?  We are more productive because of it!

My boss is still dedicated to staying ahead of the game.  It seems that whenever something new pops up on the web, she asks “Hey, are you on  “Pullfingforus?”   Are you on the list on “Werrysuevesube?”

And just to prove that I am telling the truth, I am writing on her blog, which also has twitter….

If anybody’s interested, you can borrow her.  She can talk to your boss, you know the one who is into online censorship…and let’s just say she can be quite persuasive…

Velocity. Our world spins with great velocity. It keeps getting faster, and faster, and faster. Actually the word velocity doesn’t even begin to explain the rhythm of our lives. I can’t find the right world. I can’t find the word that depicts the frenetic accumulation of information, and the constant change, which surrounds us. I feel that we are living in a rhythm similar to the speed of light.

I received an article today, written by Lilly Fonseca, which truly pinpoints the situation in which we are living.

Through a research study, Nielsen found that the average time of a website visitor is 56 seconds. http://updateordie.com/updates/geral/2009/05/voce-tem-apenas-56-segundos.

The fragmentation of attention spans keeps increasing.

This video also gives us an idea of the exponential times in which we live, and its consequences. This isn’t a new film, but several old versions have been “revamped” over the past three years. This keeps the information, freshly up to date and full of impact. Several countries have given out their information, and this allows them to compare their own country’s reality, to the original video.

In this “Brave New World,” unimagined by Aldous Huxley, there are infinite possibilities.

This question constantly pops into my mind:

“How will we generate all this knowledge if we are constantly faced with the need to stay up to date?” If we spend 56 seconds on each website, how will we generate any knowledge?

We went through a phase knows as the “Era of Knowledge.” Perhaps we are entering the “Era of Information?” Although this film shows us that Generation Y uploads enormous quantities of information, I question if we can really consider this “information.”

Knowledge comes from information. But knowledge only happens if there is a capacity to compile the right information and if there is extensive reflection, thus creating new concepts and innovation.

Does Generation Y have the capacity to filter relevant information, separating it from everything else which floats in this vast sea of content, lingering between new mediums and formats? Do they have the capacity to turn this information into knowledge?

People tell me that this generation doesn’t have the same level of concentration as Baby Boomers. It’s true that young people’s attention spans are disperse. We know that young people watch television on their computer with the Internet in the background. We also know that gadgets play their music, and simultaneously beep with text messages and phone calls. Considering this, will Generation Y be able to dig through information in a deep and profound manner? Will they be able to find the right information and content while constantly being bombarded by the ideas, concepts, and advertisements, which follow them through their accelerated life, the life in which they already have various “avatars” (personas) to keep up with?

If we can’t generate knowledge, my vision tells me that the world will lose a lot. I could be wrong, perhaps this is the natural way of things. Perhaps it’s natural for only a few people to be able to fulfill the role of scientists, educators, legislators, creators, etc.

We’ve raised our kids, preparing them for these exponential times. They’ve acquired languages, and been through prestigious courses and schools, which pride themselves on their modern education.

Like true “helicopter parents” http://edition.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/personal/08/13/helicopter.parents/index.html, we wanted to make sure that our kids would have solid values, be well traveled citizens of the world, and be open to the new. I ask myself, in a society of information, will other skills be necessary to deal with the “new world?”

The article “What companies should know about Digital Natives“, by Dr. Urs Gasser, a scholar on Generations, from the Berkman Center at Harvard, claims that in about 20 years, Generation Y’s kids, will have spent 20,000 hours online. 20,000 hours is about the time a professional pianist spends to complete his musical studies. Dr. Gasser also confirms the idea that young people, read the “headlines,” but don’t end up dedicating themselves to the entirety of an article or text.

I’ve seen parents get called into schools, because their kids, in their schoolwork, “copy and paste,” information which should be reflected on, thought out, and linked to theoretical frameworks. The same theories that we, as kids, used to have to prove! Who remembers that? Today, it’s nonexistent.

Don’t even get me started on the Portuguese Language! This is the generation who abbreviates words, uses acronyms, and doesn’t care (as we, Bay Boomers cared), if they are simplifying a rich and beautiful language, with a poor vocabulary. Even the sound of words becomes banal and generic. Also, we haven’t yet begun to worry about how spelling will change and evolve, to fit within the “140 characters.”

Will the new generation, the 140 characters generation, start expressing themselves in “140 characters” just like on Twitter? Their sentences short and their thoughts fragmented? Isn’t generation Y a bit concerned?

How can we predict this future? How can we reverse it? How, and in what way? I don’t think that the Baby Boomers have completed their mission. I think that there needs to be reflection and discussion, between generations.

Together, different generations, can walk together, tackling these questions as a team, perhaps even changing the “music” that’s currently playing in our background.

Clip from the band “The Zimmers,” singing “Generation,” originally recorded by the British Rock Band “The Who” in 1965.

“If you tweet my post on Flickr, I’ll give you props on your blipper, and confirm your PR on my Facebook App.”

When I hear a sentence like this, I get chills up my spine.  I feel that I’ll never “get there.”  I’ll never truly understand this new language that kids use when they talk about the Internet.  I’m still from that generation, you know, the one that needs a manual (or help from Generation Y) to understand all of this.

This video depicts, in a funny way, how Veteran generations try to understand the technological language of the present and the future.  We try desperately to get into the “new,” to stay one step ahead, so that we don’t lose our jobs.  Baby Boomers do not want to get left behind.  This even shows up in stats, as we are the group whose participation has increased most in social networks.

Yet, I still see young people, belonging to the Millennial Generation who do not follow technology, and they don’t feel that they are missing out on anything.  They say they don’t have time for it.  And what’s more, they don’t feel inferior to those who know the new technological language.

It seems to me that everybody can learn to communicate better.  My generation needs to understand the concepts, theory, and processes.  Generation Y needs to learn that they learn technology differently from us.

Even the way we absorb content is fundamentally different.  Generation Y learns through deduction, and Baby Boomers learn through clear explanations and objectives.

If we all understand the differences, the process of communication will become easier.  No generation will feel left out.  There will be less inter-generational prejudice.

“If you tweet my post on Flickr, I’ll give you props on your blipper, and confirm your PR on my Facebook App.”

It’s not as bad as it looks.  Take a deep breath.  Let’s break it down:

Tweet –To publish a message on Twitter, which serves as a Micro Blog.

Post – A public message on a blog

Flickr – A website which allows publication of photos

Props –a type of positive recognition, sort of like “gold stars” in Elementary school.  Blipper is a type of Twitter, except it’s for music.

PR on Facebook– The act of confirming your attendance for an event posted on Facebook, and then suggesting it to your friends.

App – Application

Facebook –Social Network