Every generation has its defining moment. Perhaps it’s a tragedy, like President Kennedy’s assassination, or the murder of Martin Luther King. A scientific achievement like Armstrong walking on the moon. A senseless act, like the murder of John Lennon. A political event like the tearing down of the Berlin Wall. A sensational one, like the accident that killed Princess Di and the lasting image of her crumpled Mercedes. All such moments are, in turn, defined by technology, or rather television. And perhaps it’s technology more than any event that influences a generation.
Can you remember when there was no color TV? Or no TV at all? I can’t. I can recall when there were no home videos or video games, though for someone just a few years younger, those things have always existed. Imagine explaining the vinyl record to your grandchildren.
The first time I saw color TV I was seven, and the fanciest video game I ever had was Pong. I was more interested in Lego. With the media and every other industry slavering over our parents, the baby boomers, it’s no wonder we turned out to be lackadaisical Generation X. How will the current wave of kids turn out? Reared on video games, sometimes their main social interaction up to the age of four is watching TV.
I’ve heard that you never get used to anything new after 25. So if you haven’t tasted sushi by then, you will never learn to love it. And you’ll never figure out body piercing and tattoos if you’re currently over 30. Lucky for me, I first had sushi at 19, at which point I had already been using personal computers for a few years. Although I used an electric typewriter into my early 20s, today I can’t really can’t imagine using one, or researching without the web.
So what is today’s twenty-something investor like? All those keen young fund managers, brokers, investment bankers – they passed 25 without ever experiencing a bear market. Will they be capable of adjusting to one? They can’t remember a world without PCs, while the next crop won’t remember a world without the web. Many consider a pierced nose attractive, and find sushi to be the perfect power lunch. Now ask yourself, as an investor relations officer, can you relate?
Correction:
The web address for Victoria’s Secret was incorrectly pictured in our August 1999 cover story about Intimate Brands. The correct URL is VictoriasSecret.com, and the related corporate home page is www.intimatebrands.com (check out the neat pop-up window for the company’s direct investment plan). We apologize for any inconvenience caused to Intimate Brands or our readers.
