Remembering The Internet
We now take for granted our ability to share ideas, opinions and facts instantaneously and across borders, but prior the the early 1980′s this was not possible. See an old CBC news report on the birth of the internet.
In 1984 the number of internet devices was 1000, in 1992, 1,000,000 and in 2008, 1000,000,000!
To reach an audience of 50 million it took Radio 38 years, Tv 13 years, iPod 3 years and Facebook 2 years!
In 2007 there were 2.7 Billion Google queries/month in 2008 31 Billion! Who did we ask those questions BG (before Google)?
And the internet is changing our lives in other ways; in 2007 one in eight couples who married in the USA met on the internet!
It is so easy to take the internet for granted and Gen Y have never lived without it – and people ask the question , “what’s next?”
The other question is, “what remains the same?”
People still need to exercise self leadership, they still need to communicate effectively and influence others; they still need to learn, grow and find meaning and happiness in what they do. Thankfully the internet helps us to find the resources to do these things.
Are you Gen Y or do you manage Gen Y?
Aristotle taught us that to influence and persuade effectively we need to have ‘ethos’ which translates as ‘character’. In Aristotle’s Ancient Greece you would be known by your actions and words; today nothing has changed except that our actions and words are now open to the world wide web.