The "Which Me" Generation

It is common to deplore the "Me Generation," but it is hard to discern which "Me Generation" you mean.

Elders have turned the byways of Millennials into cocktail jokes. Time magazine featured them as the "Me Me Me Generation." 

Yet, today's generation isn't all that different than the "Me Generation" responsible for the "Me Decade" in the 1970s. Yes, the gadgets are spiffier, but the self-absorption is old school. 

Some claim the emerging generation of Americans is hyper-narcissistic and unable to escape a life wedgie that traps them in their parents' house and a low-paying job, if they are employed at all.

Those who have persevered and obtained a college education, even a graduate degree, are floundering in a restructuring economy with specific needs and little patience for indulgent behavior.

But The Atlantic suggests many post-war generations have displayed eccentricities, bordering on neurosis. Woody Allen, after all, is a symbol of his generation's disquieting anxieties.

Instead of caricaturing or stereotyping a generation, it might make sense to talk with its members to see what worries young people. Those who have bothered have learned young people fear a future with less promise than their parents. Like many older adults, they are confused and disoriented about the rapid changes swirling around them, even as they enjoy the fruits of cool new technology.

Young people today have grown up in a world where digital media and mobile devices seem the norm, not the latest, coolest thing. The Great Depression, the advent of indoor plumbing and the dawning of the television age sound like fantasies, not history.

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Belief in Change Can Lead to Open Mind

When conflict resolution seems impossible because of deeply held negative views, the answer may lie in trying to convince both parties to a dispute that people can change.

Stanford psychologist Carol Dweck says direct attempts to alter attitudes toward an adversary can backfire, intensifying a dispute and making people defensive. But persuading people that individuals can grow and change is a successful psychological intervention to reduce conflict.

Speaking at "The Science of Getting People to Do Good" briefing, sponsored by Stanford's Center for Social Innovation, Dweck cited her earlier research that showed people who believe their adversaries can grow and change are "less likely to seek retaliation than those who believe people's human traits are fixed."

"Mindsets about whether people are malleable or fixed," Dweck said, "play a major role in the perpetuation of hatred and the unwillingness to compromise."

To prove her theory as it applies to the unstinting Israeli-Palestinian conflict, investigators working with Dweck undertook four studies. The first involved a nationwide survey of Israelis, which showed a correlation between a belief in people's ability to change and a willingness to compromise, even on issues such as West Bank settlements, to reach resolution with the Palestinians. 

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A Jittery Middle Class

A battle over middle-class voters raged last fall in the presidential election, but that hasn't settled down the nerves of middle class adults who feel like they are on an economic banana peel.

As reported by NPR, many workers making a decent living worry about sliding out of the middle class by losing their job, facing a medical emergency or trying to pay for a child's college education.

In fact, 40 percent of respondents to a quarterly Heartland Monitor Poll this month said paying for a college education for a child is now an unrealistic financial expectation for them.

The survey of 1,000 middle-class adults nationwide indicates Americans have adopted a more dour mood about the economic direction of the country. Only 29 percent say the country is headed in the right direction, down sharply from 41 percent recorded in the same quarterly poll last November.

President Obama's approval rating has dropped, but not as low as that of Congress. Obama's approval rating has slipped to 46 percent from 54 percent in November 2012. Congressional approval ratings didn't fall that much, largely because it is hard to fall out of a basement window. Its April 2013 rating of 3 percent is down from 4 percent last November.

By far, the biggest concern is losing a job. More than 50 percent of respondents said that is their greatest risk to dropping out of middle-class status. Unexpected illness or injury to a family member is viewed as the next greatest risk at 28 percent. A death, property damage or divorce are seen as economic threats, but to a far lesser degree. 

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Going Viral In a Hurry

A study by a video technology company shows the chances of a video going viral are determined within the first three days of its launch.If you want a video to go viral, promote it hard when the video is posted. The next three days are pretty much the video's fertile period.

Video technology company Unruly conducted a study that shows the "viral peak" of a brand video campaign occurs on the second day after it is posted. 

"We found that the first days following the launch are key to both the video's short- and long-term success," says Ian Forrester of Unruly. There are strong correlations between shares achieved in days one to three and all-time shares.

Unruly based its conclusion on examinations of 200 of the most shared branded videos in 2012. It has been tracking online videos for the last seven years on what it calls the Unruly Viral Video Chart, capturing 329 billion video streams.

Data indicates that 10 percent of video shares occur by day two after it is posted. Twenty-five percent of shares occur within the first three days. It takes three weeks to reach 50 percent of a video's shares. 

Brands that are serious about maximizing the viral spread of their video content, says Sarah Wood, COO and co-founder of Unruly, need to promote them as soon as they are posted to ensure what she calls a "viral cascade in the crucial first days of a campaign."

Unruly's business model is to help clients promote social media video advertising campaigns so they engage target audiences on mobile, tablet and smartphone devices. It also has a tool to rank the "shareability" of video content to advise clients on the value of promoting it.

The Survey Could Wait

On September 10, 2001, I was making the final edits to a statewide telephone survey. Interviewing was scheduled to be September 12. The following morning, terrorists hijacked four airplanes and all Americans were affected by the attacks on the Twin Towers, the Pentagon and the heroism on Flight 92.

Because of the September 11 attack, I delayed launching that phone survey for a week. In my opinion, people didn’t want to respond to survey questions. They wanted to be with family and friends.

At that time, I hoped I would never have to delay a research project due to terrorism again. But this week, I did.

By 11 a.m. Monday, April 15, I had approved three questionnaires for online and phone survey research.

By 4 p.m. that day, I had called my clients, telling them each survey would be postponed for several days because of the Boston terrorist bombing. No one hesitated. Everyone agreed.

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