I wouldn’t be so sure that young people particularly use smartphones. They’re not exactly cheap, and in the UK at least, are only free on the more expensive contracts (which you need to be over 18 and with a steady income to get). There’s not much point in getting a smartphone with all the bells and whistles if owning one means eating in to your socializing money – which is important when you’re young. If you’re (un)lucky enough to be given a Crackberry by your work then the term “young” probably no longer applies. To be fair, mobile phones are probably the dominant communication device of young people, but then they’re the dominate communication device of anyone of working age.

Anecdotally, when I look around me on the tube, most young (and middle and older) people have low to mid range Nokias and Sony Ericssons, not smartphones. I have rarely seen an iPhone in the hands of someone under the age of approximately 28 or a Crackberry in the hands of someone not wearing a suit.

As for “What a contrast” and below – there are still plenty of “passive consumers” out there, even among the so called “digital natives”. Speaking of which, and again anecdotally from those people I know who work with younger people – they’re not all as “switched on” as some pundits would have you believe.

I think looking at these issues from a generational perspective is misguided. If you must look at digital engagement vs age then generations are not the sort of groupings you should be looking at as it is just too large a time span. Take Gen X – the latter half are just as engaged as anyone from Gen Y because they had, for the most part, access to similar technologies – just slower with poorer graphics and markedly more expensive. If anything, Gen X.5 probably learned more about modern technology because it was still new when they were young – I think you’ll find that if you exclude Facebook, most social network/web 2.0 sites were created by Gen X.5ers.

If you must compare digital engagement against age, I’d say look at a metric like % probability of being engaged against birth year. Though I’m not sure what use it would be, other than making a pretty graph.

“Educated in prescribed syllabus schools, living in disconnected suburban communities, employed in specialised and meaningless work, consuming one-size fits all news and information and standardised government services, with families split by globalisation… baby boomer and Gen X lives have been controlled by others to a large degree”

If prescribed school sylabi, disconected suburbia, etc controlled the Boomers and Gen X then Gen Y and Gen Z are going to be the most controlled, institutionally minded generations ever to have stepped foot on this planet.

As for the power elites – some will adapt and live, some will fail to adapt and die. New ones better suited to current conditions will pop up and thrive. Just another case of Nature’s favourite design pattern being used yet again.

Thanks for the review of my journal article on net-radio and regulation. This is based on my PhD and I have a book coming out in July 2010 with Hamption Press.

Let’s stay connected on LinkedIn.

cheers,
Andrea Baker
E: andrea.baker@arts.monash.edu.au

thanks
http://telecomandinternet.com/?p=42

On a similar theme, I had a laugh at work recently when a colleague described mobile dongles as “a gadget that every teenager has”. So I pulled mine out to show him and said “I’m a teenager too!”

Does anyone? I can’t remember the last time I used a phone book (or phoned a directories inquiry service) and I haven’t been a teenager for a very long time.

It’s early days yet, there is much to learn.

How did they work that one out? Shoutcast says it has 29,164 radio stations – I’m pretty certain most (if not all) are net-only. Live365 claims 6000+ stations (again, net only). What about last.fm, which arguably has millions of net-only stations (for certain definitions of the term station)?

I quite like their online support more, works for me, friendlier and easier to deal with.