So What, Who Cares (vol 2, issue 48) How your telephone bill(s) betray your age
Hello! It was lovely to hear from so many of you who recently changed jobs and careers. I want to thank all of you for sharing your experiences, and I am still laughing about the time one reader was asked to explain Idris Elba to her coworkers. Here's to the vocational success of the So What, Who Cares? readership -- long may we thrive.
(At left: a handy visual explanation of Idris Elba.)
Today's first reader question: How do you get to work? I've just switched from public transit (I was on a boat!) to driving myself and it's so weird to be a car commuter again, even if my commute time's just been sliced by 50%. Tell me what you do and/or don't love about how you get to work -- I'm here via Twitter or email.
Today's second reader question, as prompted by a discussion @Philipmichaels & I had during the most recent episode of The Flash: At what age does calling your adult romantic-style person your "boyfriend" or "girlfriend" stop being cute and start crossing into Frau Blucher territory?
And what is your preferred term for your adult romantic-style person? (Are you taking your cues from Roger and Virginia Klarvin?) Dish via Twitter or email.
*
In keeping with my comprehensive pro-Cyndi Lauper agenda (vol 2, issue 34), my preschooler and I have been having dance-alongs to the video for "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun." One of the things that baffled my child most about the video was the scene where Cyndi gets a late-night phone call. My daughter's reaction: Why would any telephone have a cord? Why can't you just keep your phone with you?
It's a vivid illustration of how rapidly the definition of telecommunications shifts from generation to generation. And now we have an analysis from GfK Mediamark Research to provide evidence of these shifts. According to their survey of 25,000 adults, here's what percentage of people do not own a landline, as sorted by generation:
Millennials (born 1977-1994): 64%
Generation X (born 1965-1976): 45%
Baby Boomers (born 1945-1965): 32%
Pre-Boomers: 13%
I checked these against the mobile phone/phone ownership numbers released by the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Here's a comparable breakdown: Adults aged 18-24 (Millennials): 53%
Adults aged 25-29 (Millennials): 65.7%
Adults aged 30-34 (Millennials): 59.7%
Adults aged 35-44 (Generation X): 47.8%
Adults aged 45-64 (Older Gen-X to Younger Boomers): 31.4%
Adults aged 65+ (Older Boomers & Pre-Boomers): 13.3%
So what? The real story here is not so much "The young-youngs like the technology!" as it is "Mobile phones make it easy to be a young adult with a tether to the outside world, especially if you're a student, a renter or someone in a shared-housing situation."
The ancient roommate ritual of circling mystery charges on long-distance bills and leaving the marked-up bill on the table like a reproach is dying out.
Who cares? Phone companies, obviously, since making sweet, sweet money off unscrupulous line rental is no longer a source of revenue.
But you know who else should care? Computer hardware makers. Look at these GfK numbers for smartphone ownership: Millennials (born 1977-1994): 88%
Generation X (born 1965-1976): 79%
Baby Boomers (born 1945-1965): 56%
Pre-Boomers: 20%
You're looking at an entire cohort of people for whom "tiny, portable computers that happen to double as telephones" are a baseline household appliance. Making the business case that a household needs a desktop computer is going to be a challenge -- especially as those Millennials have kids and those small fry grow up with the expectation that computing is mobile, ubiquitous and wireless and that the standard household means "a device for every user." (vol 1, issue 39)
There's a reason why wireless network vendors and hardware makers have been sponsoring studies on how great tablets and mobile devices are in the classroom.
Which brings up another "Who cares?" stakeholder: For all the mobile penetration in the childbearing cohorts, let's not forget that broadband access in the U.S. is still stratified by both income and ethnicity (vol 1, issue 58) -- so if mobile computing becomes a default model in public schools and other public institutions, someone had better be thinking about how to make mobile computing accessible to households without mobile devices or broadband.
And on the "don't count out PCs yet!" side, there are people who argue that tablets and smartphones don't have the software or computing environment to foster creativity. So the questions to tuck away in the back of one's mind when making bets on software development over the next five years: Will we see a rise in the idea that the PC is the new artists' studio? Or will we see an explosion of apps meant to move your creative noodling to the tablet?
Related reading: In reviewing the different age groupings from GfK and the NHIS, I was struck by where each entity chose to break out different age groupings. Generational designations are interesting from a "who decides when a generation begins and ends?" perspective.
Enter Joshua Glenn, who writes long, detailed definitions of different generations. You may be interested in finding out more about the Blank Generation (Baby Boomers born 1944-1953); the OGXers (Baby Boomers born 1954-1963); the Reconstructionists (Generation Xers born 1964-1973); the Revivalists (Generation X & Y, born 1974-1982); and the Social Darwikians (Millennials born 1983-1992).
I will doubtlessly tip my hand as to my particular cohort when I say that its label immediately reminded me of an REM album.
*
Today's pop culture note: ... pretty much already happened in the opening to this newsletter. But in honor of Jimmy Fallon's complete inability to keep a straight face around Will Ferrell and Rachel Dratch, here's the SNL Digital Short in honor of "breaking" during scenes.
*
Are there typos? I apologize in advance. The only editing class I did not get an A in was copyediting.
Did you miss an issue of So What, Who Cares? The archive is here.
Would you like a run-down of all the books and other pop culture picks ever mentioned in this newsletter? Then check out the Pinterest board. (Note: None of the links are affiliate links; I do not make money off anything I link to.)
If you really like So What, Who Cares?, tell a friend to subscribe.