Gen Y and the Enterprise #1 – From Typing to Twitter in a Decade

Note: This is the first in a series of blog posts written about entering and the workforce as a member of Gen Y. These posts will focus on Socialcast intern Margo Consul’s first-hand experience in a social-media-rich landscape that shapes the way new employees interact with their colleagues and customers.

As the newest and youngest member of the Socialcast team, I’ll be regularly blogging about my relationship with social media and the workplace. I will begin my last year at Santa Clara University in the fall and I am currently a full time intern with Socialcast. This is my first leap into the corporate world, and I’ll be focusing on what it’s like to enter the workforce with Web 2.0 tools as the norm.

I feel that I started with seems like archaic ways of communication, then adapted to new technology as it arrived and have just now surpassed the generation before me in technological aptitude. The adaptation has been constant and was taught through trial and error because unlike learning how to write or play a sport, no one before me knew how to use social media tools.

The only time I can remember my parents and teachers being involved in my technological education was when it came to learning how to type on the keyboard in elementary school. I had typing classes because, according to the teachers, it was a skill that I was going to need and it was all about speed. Typing was not my specialty at the tender age of ten. However, my family wanted to make sure that I didn’t fall behind, so they bought games that rewarded me for being able to type quickly without looking at the keyboard in hopes of bringing up my words per minute.

Fortunately, instant messaging came along and chatting with my friends for a few hours every night increased my typing speed to instantaneous communication status.

When email, AIM, texting, blogging and internet use on cell phones came along, I remember hearing about it from friends and then having to explain its awesomeness (and legitimacy) to my parents, so that I could participate.

Figuring out each new technology felt like an accomplishment and a necessity to keep up with my peers, it was always about being faster and newer than the version before.

I’ll never forget my freshman orientation day at Santa Clara University and hearing the orientation leaders talking about this site called Facebook. I had just figured out MySpace, blogging, and the concept of an online profile. I thought “great, another thing I need to learn to be in the loop.” Just a few short years later, I am active on all of the major sites: Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn and Twitter and I cannot count how many hours have been spent using them as procrastination tools and sources of self- entertainment.

However, recently my ”fun” sites have been turned into something useful and productive for my professional life. Who would have thought that platforms like Facebook or Twitter could actually have productive qualities to them? I never would have thought of the ability to post a status as a) a skill or b) productive.

Now there are jobs specifically for the use of social media, such as Manager of Emerging Technology, Enterprise Innovation, Manager of Digital Media and simply Social Media Strategist. I have applied for internships that asked me list and include links to social media sites I have profiles on. What started for me as “friends only” tools quickly became much more. Not only have businesses used social networking sites as a form of marketing, they are now adopting the format as a way to do work as opposed to a way for their employees to put off work. This is the new reality of Gen Y entering the workplace. It’s like the Baby Boomers have hacked into the Generation Y online space and are changing its function and purpose. Once again, Generation Y has to adapt to keep up with the evolution…but only after Generation Y teaches the Baby Boomers how to use it…