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Tag Archive: mothers

Born Into Digital

Written on March 31, 2011 by Josip Petrusa

Much has been said about the Net Generation. Not only are they considered to be the Digital Natives, they, the Millennials, are without a question the most technologically and web savvy generation the world has seen. They have grown with and are perpetuating the digital revolution with a lifestyle contextualized by mobile, online, social media, advancing tech and app based characteristics.

As their behaviours change the environment in front of them, they leave a path not traveled by any others. Though the Millennials grew up digital, they were not born into the digital ecosystem they currently enforce. One that is significantly more digitally advanced than that of a few years ago. A digital environment itself that is proliferating and expanding at an unprecedented rate.

Although the Millennials are very much the digital natives, they have not been truly subjected to the digital upbringing many newborns experience today. The fundamental difference being that it is one thing to grow up and grow with an evolutionary process but it is something else to be born into that evolution and be a product of it.

For as long as anyone can remember, parents have been recording the upbringing up their children through home videos, family picture albums and the cute little doodles. And that very much continues today. But something very profound has started to occur. A completely fascinating and emerging trend is taking place and we’re all witnesses to it or even active parts of it. What I speak of is the manifestation of newborn human life directly heading into the digital space. Any socially inclined Millennial mother with a newborn and a Facebook account is true testament to this. Something that is further enticed and instigated by Millennial womens heightened Facebook activity.

If any of you have been paying attention, you have undoubtedly seen the development of newborns and photos of them increasingly dominating your news feed. From the very instances of birth, right down to that cute pose they did today. And how could you not be swayed by their adorable, innocent and funny nature. It’s easy to understand why baby videos quickly go viral. And why baby pictures uploaded to Facebook receive incredible amounts of activity each and every time. It almost seems something would be wrong if they didn’t. Right.

This goes beyond the sharing, the concern and any other natural feeling we currently have about the web, information, privacy and social media. The essence of the social profile is changing. No longer does it simply represent you and who you are. But it begins to represent and becomes represented by your child. Though the outcomes of this are unpredictable and hardly obvious, it would be very foolish to think there will not be any psychological, societal and behavioural implications to this.

Admittedly, the positive and negative consequences to these actions are unforeseen and won’t be apparent for some time. So, let’s assume that we take the Millennials and their digital upbringing and apply those elements to these newborns, who literally start life on Facebook. You begin to have a mysterious, intriguing and unknown foreshadowing of the world that waits for them and us. Is it wrong to make your children an aspect of your social world at such a young age? Who’s to say.

But it should be known we are entering into an environment that has never been traveled. The Millennials grew up digital and they single-handedly change the world. And for better or worse, through their current passive and imposed social state, those trailing them and born into this digital world are already having an everlasting impact. One that is currently not visible to the naked eye. And one that is more powerful than we truly understand.

(Photo credit)

Gen-Y Moms Are Digital Moms

Written on October 14, 2010 by Josip Petrusa

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I always and still wonder how digital we will be once we become parents. As parents, our lives will undoubtedly change as we alter and shift our priorities. But what does this mean for our digital nature? After all, Generation Y is a generation that has grown up and continues to grow digitally inclined. Will we carry on and evolve in our digital nature, creating families immersed in the digital world? Or will our smart phone and social media ways regress to be figments of our young adulthood?

Still in mainstream infancy, the social and mobile worlds have yet to be fully realized. With quick swings occurring and segment maturation being an unrecognizable reality at this moment, predicting what can happen next year, in 3 years, 5 years and in 10 is, frankly, impossible.

There has already been some debate over this last summer regarding the social media sharing characteristic of Gen-Y. But even then, I don’t see a future of sharing but rather one of growing connectivity. Trust me, there’s a significant difference between sharing and connecting.

Equally, I’ve brought up the idea that Gen-Y will unknowingly introduce to the world a series of Truman Show-esque children. Complete childhood’s will be recorded online for the world to see. And with friends, family and our long lost colleagues on Facebook, I’ve begun to see a strong influx of young mothers absolutely sharing everything about their young children. Whether this is positive, negative or meaningless remains to be seen. But it’s happening in a large series of circumstances where young Gen-Y mothers have had children. At least, in my experience of course.

All that being said, it’s common knowledge to know that mothers are affluent members of blog communities. Both as bloggers and readers. Commonly and most notably known as mommy bloggers. However, what is new and truly interesting is the findings behind how youth Gen-Y moms are communicating.

In pure Gen-Y fashion, these young mothers lead the way in phone, text and Facebook as methods of communicating with immediate family members. As a recent article via eMarketer reports, Gen-Y does them 21%, 14% and 10% of the time respectively. Further, their amount of in-person conversation with immediate family shows significant disparity from mothers older than them. In-person immediate family communication accounts for less than half of all Gen-Y mother communication at 48% in comparison to Gen-X at 58% and Baby Boomers at 62%.

So what does all this mean? Well, obviously, if the means are there we will use them, especially if they can instantaneously satisfy the situation at hand. Secondly, I can’t see dominating lifestyle factors, such as social media and mobile phones, which have been integrated into Gen-Y life, simply dissipating in a cold turkey like manner. And lastly, although there are clear privacy issues involved with the social and mobile worlds, we still trust these mediums enough to continually incorporate them into our lives.

I also understand that these characteristics aren’t necessarily exclusive to Gen-Y. Non Gen-Y mothers do the same things. I won’t deny that. The point here is not to indicate the similarities but rather, to show the notion that picking up a digital lifestyle is vastly different from growing up digital. And growing a digital family structure. And digitally grown parents parenting their digital children. We can hardly understand both the positive and negative implications here. Though, what is for certain here is Gen-Y moms are digital moms. Were we all really expecting everything to stay the same?

(Photo 1 credit, Photo 2 credit)

Facebook Babies: A Generation Growing Up Online

Written on July 21, 2010 by Josip Petrusa

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About two weeks ago, Mashable published an article based on a study by Oxygen Media and Lightspeed Research. The study points out the behavior of women on Facebook. And there’s more than a few interesting numbers to come out of this. 34% of women between the ages of 18-34 will check Facebook before doing anything else after they wake up; 21% will check it in the middle of the night; 79% are fine with putting up pictures of themselves kissing along with 42% putting up pictures of themselves intoxicated; and finally 39% consider themselves to be addicts.

Emerging Facebook Behavior

What’s interesting here is that 54% don’t trust Facebook with their private information and a clear majority of 89% say they would never put up anything they wouldn’t want their parents to see. It’s fascinating that the study points out behaviours on both sides of the spectrum. At one side, these women are clearly into the Facebook scene. However, in that same breath, they want to be private, to some degree, about what they share.

As we’ve all seen, Facebook privacy has become a serious issue. Governments have even rallied to oppose some of Facebook’s action. With all that being said, I’ve seen a growing trend on Facebook. And it’s one that has got me dumbfounded. One with more serious implications than any us can possibly comprehend – considering it’s never happened before. This trend is the emergence of Facebook Babies.

And I’m not talking about children being conceived because of Facebook or people starting their relationships on Facebook. That’s another story in itself. What I’m pointing out here is the drastic increase of individuals – and from my own observations, young Gen-X and older Gen-Y mothers – putting up pictures of their newborns on Facebook. If you’re experiencing deja-vu and flashbacks of Jim Carrey’s “The Truman Show” you’re not be alone.

Growing Up Online

Although “The Truman Show” is a movie based on chronicling the life of a man, which was made to be a reality-based TV show within the movie, these Facebook Babies will in essence experience the same thing. If these patterns hold true, these children will have their entire lives recorded on Facebook for the world to see. Can you even imagine your parents sharing everything about you growing up to people beyond those that were always around you? It’s mind-blowing to even think of the thought.

What’s even more interesting is that this goes back to my article of understanding the growing difference between sharing and connecting. I argue that the earlier half of the Millennials will be prone to sharing information online, more particularly those born in the early 1980s to early 1990s. When you take it one step further, these Facebook Babies are from parents, especially mothers, that are born in and around this time. As a result, I wouldn’t be surprised to see an entire generation literally grow-up online. Based on my numbers from my previous article, the study linked at the beginning and through observation, Facebook Babies will represent a generation starting in the years of 2008-2010 and one that might last to 2020-2024. Maybe even beyond.

Facebook Babies: A Generation of Firsts

We will watch an entire generation of firsts. First birthdays, first steps, first days of school and so on. Though privacy is a legitimate and serious issue, we’ve all lightly brushed that aside for what we presume to be a fair trade-off for use. The irony here is that the majority of us – Millennials and Gen-Y – would never want anything to do with our parents online, yet we are putting pictures up of our own young children. Not only is this ironic, the ramifications to this trend could be extremely severe. Something we’ll face only after it happens.

Unfortunately, we really won’t know the ramifications of any of this until time passes and these children grow up. In my opinion, this is a situation that is beyond serious and something that shouldn’t be taken lightly at all. No one really knows what this can lead to. It’s one thing to have photo albums in our house. However, it’s a completely different world and experience to be sharing those photo-albums with everyone else. Am I overstating the simple and harmless act of picture sharing? Possibly. Though, to some degree we already have serious issues with sharing pictures of children.

Like I stated above, imagine if your parents did this to you. After all, these Facebook Babies don’t know any better than to smile at the camera when you say “cheese.” They at least deserve the slightest protection and a safe environment. These Facebook Babies will always be smiling. Let’s not give them something to frown about when they grow up and realize what’s going on.