Generation C- A look into their world

I wrote this deck late last year, my first presentation exploring the world of Generation C and how they’re different. In subsequent presentations I’ve spoken a lot about Gen C being the ‘connected collective’, whereas this presentation gives more of a quick overview of what this community of digital natives are into and some tips for marketers looking to engage them. These guys and girls are digital storytellers who use social media to express themselves and demonstrate their belonging to a community.

Addicted to Remixing and Mashing

Digital Natives treat content as collaborative as recombinant. Remixing is a digital behavior that is increasingly prevalent, as media production technologies facilitate easier and easier mashups . Gen C naturally understand that re-deploying pre-used content is an easier way to make their own things. ‘Control C’ is their most commonly used keyboard directive and they love anything open source that gives them the chance to play and participate. Check out youtube and search on ‘spoofs’ and you’ll see how many brands and movies have been spoofed and remixed by Gen C’ers.

Are you a ‘Snooper?

Facebook has turned Gen C into ‘Snoopers’. It’s not as intense as ’stalking’, but the competitive pressure of always needing to be in the know means digital natives literally spend hours snooping around on their friends Facebook pages finding out ‘who is with who’, ‘who dumped who’, ‘who invited who’, ‘who went to what’ etc. This competitive pressure to be in the know and have the latest cultural capital within their community is a further example of their need to belong and the risk of social exclusion Gen C face if they don’t keep up with the Facebook crowd.