mobileyout h.org http://www.mobileyouth.org/post/top-5-insights-from-the-book-voices-of-the-mobile-generation/
Top 5 Insights from the book: Voices of the Mobile
Since writing the book, The Mobile Youth, I often get asked to defined the Mobile
Generation in easy soundbites for news programmes or magazines:
Rather than constantly re-inventing the wheel, I thought I’d share those insights with you
to get you up to speed on understanding this influential and innovation generation of
So here’s 5 insights from the book:
1) Forget the DIGITAL NATIVE
Sure, we hear this a lot but are youth today really natives with technology? In the book I
explore this theme and find it to be quite true. If anything, digital is a proxy rather than
preferred alternative for the real world and technology merely a tool to get them there.
2) The moment of truth is OFFLINE
As much as youth seem to be buried into their mobile phones, all meaning is truly
created offline. If you take offline away from the interaction, it becomes meaningless.
This is a word of warning for those technologists and marketers who are keen on
building virtual castles in the sky. Youth use technology as a tool to get them offline – to
create meetings, interactions, events and so on in the real world, not as the destination
3) No matter how high the walls you build, Youth will find a way
There are many stories in the book of how youth have developed and hacked technology
to circumvent the barriers created by society (mostly overbearing parents). These hacks
have a wider application in society years later and we all benefit from them (think
txtspeak, Facebook, instant messaging and so on). So, seeing these youthful hacks as
the root of technological progress not vandalism is key to allowing innovation to flourish.
4) Technology is all about Storytelling
Youth don’t love stuff, they love what stuff does for them. Youth don’t love mobile
phones because they are technology but because these tools help them tell their story.
I’m talking about their daily stories – interactions, feelings, fears even – that are often
stymied by the walls of society. Mobile phones help them voice their story with their
discrete networks and with their wider groups of peers, often those who don’t exist in the
same geographical domain. It’s all about storytelling, and mobiles are merely platforms
to help them achieve this goal.
5) If you know how we’ll be using mobile tomorrow, look at how youth are using it
Most innovation starts in the youth market because the Mobile Generation have a
greater need to evolve the technology, greater resourcefulness and less fear. Today, we
see youth using selfies and private apps like Whisper as a pattern that will appear in the
adult market within 2-3 years in a commercial format. These ideas don’t spring from
innovation labs somewhere, but out there in the wild, at the frontline.
5 Ways Youth Are Critical to Tech Companies Today?
* How youth influences the adult consumer market
* The impact of youth Super Influencers in marketing
* Our Mobile Future and the role of youth in shaping it
* Selfie Culture Explained: how can we understand the future of technology through how
youth use it today?
* The 3 Reasons Youth Are Important to Your Business
5 Resources to Get Up to Speed on the Youth Market Today
* Digital Native or Disconnected Generation: how can we understand youth today?
* Youth Buyology: The Why of Youth Purchase Decisions (manual)
* Youth and Word of Mouth Motivations (research)
* Facebook, Twitter & Instagram: The Role of Youth in the Future of Social Media
* The Mobile Youth: Voices of the Mobile Generation (book)
GET THE BOOK & DISCOVER THE MOBILE GENERATION
"A compelling exploration of how the mobile youth culture revolution is driving our
increasingly social and mobile future"
- Derek Baird, Director Product Development, Disney
"This book offers instant texture to anyone confused by the core technology driver"
- Edward O'Meara, SVP Wunderman
"What makes this book such a great read is that’s it’s written as a narrative in the life of
different young people around the world"
- Marc Kornberger, CEO Student Village
* Kindle/iPad version from Amazon
* Paperback from Amazon
* PDF download online