Quiver & Quill

Myspace is censoring, cleaning up its act, in an attempt to improve its desirability to advertisers. Making Myspace “Advertiser Friendly, Mother Approved” is dangerous.

I think of this in terms of a revolution, Animal Farm if you will, where the last phase involves reinstating the conditions which provoked the revolution in the first place.
Check out the article in MediaPost.

IMediaConnection posted stats on Myspace’s market share (above). Let’s check back in 6 months and see how their decision plays out.

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The setting is Starbucks on a sunny day, today in fact. The usual players are involved in our mid-day drama. In the corner of the room: a grandfather (60ish grayish), a father (Ben and Jerry’s lifestyle) and a grandson (happy as can be, 2ish) share small talk. I overheard the grandfather tell his son,

“I want to know more about Generation Y.”

I couldn’t help myself.

“Excuse me, I don’t mean to be rude, I heard what you said, and…”

A minute later I was immersed in the conversation, recommending Y Pulse and discussing, Millennials, the recent Newsweek and Time Magazine stories on new media.

The conversation expanded quickly. Four people in plush nearby chairs, three women: one post-doc; one new mom and older woman, and one new dad, added their opinions. Spotlight on the older woman:

“I can’t stand people talking on their cell phones. They’re just so rude, rude
people. The other day, I was walking and someone was looking right at me and
cussing. They were on their wireless phone!” she said in horror.

“Rude people are rude. Whether or not they have phones. If this were 2,000
years ago, that same guy would have pumped you with a bison bone,” I added.

“I think of it like Nazi Germany. I mean, people do crazy things when they have
the right environment to commit evil, ” she said.

I paused not knowing if I should respond or just let its absurdity linger like pop fizzing in my throat. Fizzle it is…

Now the post-doc interjects:

“I don’t see how people can text and instant message. It’s so in personal,
there’s no voice…!”

“There is a voice. When you grow up instant messenging and text messaging, you
can pick up people’s styles….their voice..And sometimes it’s just easier to text and or
instant messages—you can say a lot more, take risks and there’s always
continuous partial attention, gotta love that,” I said.

Here comes the chorus of our dailiy drama…Facebook.com. I flipped open my laptop and gave a demonstration.

“It’s like classmates.com,” said the new mom.
“It’s like friendster.com,” added the post-doc.

The grandfather seemed to understand the Facebook in this dismissive—“It’s what the young kids are doing now,” kinda way. Rather than launch into the whole “new media isn’t young media,” discussion, I packed up, and as we say in generation Y speak, I bounced.

P.S. As an added bonus for your attention, here’s an article worth reading. You heard about the newest trends? People Taking cell phones to the grave.

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While waiting for my friends at the movies, I chatted with a kid who worked there about the teenagers lingering on the walk way. He pointed out many things I didn’’t know: PG-13 horror movies bring the worst teens to the theater and what groups of teens are likely to behave in which ways. His method of categorizing teens on their motivations intrigued me. I learned more about Generation Y in our brief conversation than I often do reading industry research. I feel the same way about the people working in barber shops, malls, clerks, airports, hotels, etc…some of their insights into people’s motivations are useful in ways research isn’t–and they’re interesting too.

p.s. I spoke with an online community of which I’m a member about buying advertising on their web site. I wonder if they looked me up, read my profile and crafted their pitch to me accordingly.

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I was in Queens, NYC this weekend, and the idea of convergence really hit home. On the one hand, I felt like I was in the heart of America: Unwashed cars, crowded streets, city noises, buildings with fire escapes, a New York skyline; slices of pizza, Italian grandmothers, and sea of people on their cell phones moving without thinking.

On the other hand, every block I walked felt like another country. It wasn’t just a language or culture thing, it was the actually pulse of the street that felt different. In Main Street Flushing, Asian tradition and New York culture merged. We wove through markets, dodged bright flyers and walked through an overwhelming display of flashing, shining, lively store fronts.

Twenty minutes later we were in Jackson Heights. A black civic with the car windows down set the scene. Inside, a young Latino teen man blasted Reggaeto. It filled the street quiet naturally, like the way my grandfather’s hat fit on his head; I couldn’t image the scene without it. Bodega’s, cell phone shops, women selling ice cream in the cold, Latina abuelos and the grandchildren who accompanied them added magical quality to the street.

The duality between cultures distinctly American and distinctly foreign I noticed in Queens is a false. These communities are not both “American” and “Foreign,” the simply are America. I recalled a conversation in which I tried to define online and offline as different spaces. I had the same challenge in separating the on and offline parts of people social life. As I walked passed the open car window, I heard the DJ on the radio switch easily from Spanish to English and combine them to form a casual new language, something greater than the sum of its parts. This is how people live connected lives: they are neither fully on or offline—technology and society have simply grown together. `

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