Recently I noticed a trend in restaurants – younger couples having dinner, not absorbed in conversation but rather by their smart phones. You can argue that they might be texting to each other, and maybe some of them are. Is Social Media replacing the Social Life? Is Facebook replacing the old fashioned backyard barbeque parties? Is Twitter replacing casual gatherings at cocktail hour? Are LinkedIn and Webinars replacing the old fashioned meetings and interviews? You might say that this a ridiculous thought. But is it? Think of the communication methods and devices available 20 years ago versus today. In past we used to write letters and send these in mail. Last week I found a handwritten cover letter from the 1990 sales file. When was the last time you sent a hand written correspondence to your customer?

Today, company websites are taking over the functionality of a salesman. A perfect website will attract the prospects with updated blog contents, webinars and technical papers. Prospects then will be converted into the sales leads through well designed landing pages. What about 20 years from now? Advanced technology with artificial intelligence will recognize the need, prepare the sales proposal, and convert it into the order. The mainstream of business people (today’s teenagers) won’t appreciate the personal phone calls or traveling to personal meetings, these take too much of their valuable time. Can we as marketers keep up with these changes? Or will we be replaced by an intelligent machine? What do you think?
- Kristel

http://blog.growingleaders.com/generation-iy/leading-the-next-generation-well-over-connected-2/ 

Laptops, pens, and paper are all utilized by the MSMK4 cohort.

More than a year ago, the Washington Post reported that colleges and universities were banning laptops from their classrooms in an article titled “Wide Web of diversions gets laptops evicted from lecture halls”.  This is an interesting notion as the popularity of new online degree options like Roberts Wesleyan College’s Master of Science in Strategic Leadership program grow exponentially.  How can some institutions (not RWC, of course) be so polarized yet still appeal to the students who are now products of the technology?

The answer is to accept the fact that laptops, the student’s attention span, and willingness to participate, are entirely up to the student.  If participation is a requirement of the class and it is soundly based in classroom discussion, the individual’s grades will reflect their distractions from their laptop and render them unable to participate with meaningful contributions.  Banning of any technology sends the wrong message about the willingness of the instructor, and subsequently, the institution, to advance and offer the most up-to-date and pertinent information to their students.  Certainly, students have a different style of learning, communication, and willingness to maintain undivided attention than they did ten years ago, but this is not an indication of diminished quality, rather a sign for educators to evolve their styles to interact with their audience.

-Kelly