I couldn't help but notice...

Depending on whose watch you look at , whose book you read, or whose marketing research you subscribe to, I tend to fall into one of at least a half dozen generations...

The Chart

I prefer to think of myself as not a follower, a groupie, or a social lemming of any kind, but if pressed, I would like a t-shirt that said, "Generation Jones".

The Official Website (again, I don't subscribe to it in toto, but, some of it might be somewhat accurate, much like the specificity of a palm reading)

Since I was born in 1965, I must be something of a conundrum to any pundit in any of the circles where assigning such broad, zodiac-like characteristics, tendencies, and preferences for living styles is de rigeur - perhaps this is why I'm often so confused when I read about this mass categorization and stereotyping.

Thus said, and I am an offender for sure, it seems there is a tendency to lump a bunch of the younger population - both in US and globally - into this "Gen Y" group - as they obviously have some advanced form of perception and cognitive processing skills unachievable by any of us old farts - and assign to them some unique attraction for change bordering on chaos, an ability to process multiple cognitive streams of thought, and an intolerance for anything even slightly akin to deep and persistent thought about anything.

I for one, feel like information roadkill waiting to happen if I don't jump aboard this new catering train, and will remorsefully accept the lapel pin that clearly denotes me as "old school", a resistor, someone on a futile mission to suggest that maybe, just maybe, we ought to stop speaking in revolutionary terms, minimize our rhetorical subsetting, and acknowledge that there's always an exciting new media or cultural phenomena that adds to the complexity and profundity and intrigue of our field of study and practice, but that does not require that we stomp on the brakes, and reactively and frantically start redrawing our maps and references on this journey towards improved lives, wisdom and peaceful coexistence.

This electronic media is arguably a jolly ripe fruit waiting to be plucked and made into jam by those with the skill to sell it as the best thing since toast and tea - and no doubt can generate a significant buzz among those inclined to games, puzzles, and interactive and immersive existence through a flat-panel and glass fiber hookah, and even those among this community who prefer doing things in our native first life but find the alternative supplement of an occasional foray into a Billy Joel masquerade world of avatars and frippery an elegant distraction, albeit with motion constrained to keyboard clicks and teleporting.

So, after ranting, you're asking - if you're still reading - what the hell is your point Tom? Well, it's more of a question than a direct point - why do you think we are so good at lumping people together to promote new technology or ideas, but so poor at following through with making the technology work for that same big lump of learners, that generation, that marketing niche?

Everywhere I have ultimately ended up in my studies there is a distinction drawn between the technician and the professional, the leader and the worker, the visionary and the consumer of ideas. There must be by now, some example of the arguably more desirable half of each of those comparisons out there who can stand up and say, "I owe it all to Doom." Where is that person? And where, pray tell, (and when) did they learn all the people skills and transferable skills that are so highly prized amongst them?

I'd like to read the research case study on her (or him).

I'm looking forward to our chat with Clark Aldrich - as I am intrigued by his ideas and frameworks and constructive criticisms about games and simulations - and how we might modify the traditional game to make it instructional, without making it patently rejectable by the Gen Y intelligentsia as something their parents made - and how we just don't get it.

whew... that was a brain dump... if you're still reading, my apologies and I look forward to your flames and questions on my diatribe.

tc