A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of listening to a presentation on the Milennial generation.  This is essentially anyone born after 1982.  They have also been called Generation Y but Millenial seems to be the politically correct term these days.  The 24 year old woman giving the presentation opened with an anti stereotyping volley, but then proceeded to make sweeping generalizations about this “group” of people whose principal common trait is being born in the same 21 year time span.  I have a 5 grandchildren who were born between 2000 and 2003 and I can tell you for a fact, these 5 share very few common traits amonsgst themselves let alone the young woman giving the speech.

Be that as it may, the speaker painted a portrait of a technology savvy group of 70 million or so U.S. citizens who are extremely confident in their abilities and are “ready” to take on any challenge.  She sang the praises of social media and hand-held communicators as the wave of the future.  She even told a story about going to a romantic dinner with her husband and texting sweet nothings to each other while they maintained ongoing electronic conversations with their “friends”.  When she was finished, I asked one simple question that I have been asking myself for the last year,  “Why do you have a facebook account?”

Her reply was echoed by exactly half the 516 respondents to an adhoc survey I found myself conducting this past week. 
“It’s just a great way to connect with my friends.”

The other half of the respondents had a near opposite sentiment,
“I don’t know. It seemed like a good idea at the time”

You may find, like Marty Fahncke that
“when I do my live teleseminars and webinars, Facebook has allowed me to market and promote with substantially better results than email or blog.  I’ve made tens of thousands of dollars just from Facebook alone.  More if you include other social networks”

Or perhaps you go along with Sid Savara when he says,
“It’s definitely a growing trend. My Myspace “friend list” has gone from 250+ to around 120ish, all from friends just deleting their accounts. My facebook page however IS growing – but not because I use it to keep in touch with friends. I am now using Facebook to network with contacts, sort of like a middle ground between LinkedIn and Myspace”

Or maybe Richard Kellerher, a mediarelationsexpert@yahoo.com is speaking to you with,
“People have Blackberries and similar devices…(and use them) all the time. When I see this, I realize these people are not managing anything in their life. Their families are probably stressed and they aren’t achieving at work what they could be”

After nearly a year of chasing social media connections, I have decided to close my FaceBook and totally vacate MySpace.  It’s a personal decision based on ensuring I allocate MY resources to things that are going to add value to MY life and there are, oh so many, better things I can do with MY time.