Phoebe Connelly of TAPPED talks about big generational shifts

It started with a conversation I had with two organizers about the potential for organizing via text messages. One woman asked, “So, do either of you have a landline?” I haven’t had a landline since 2002, and it occurred to me that I’m probably at the tail-end of the generation that, at some point in the past, had their own landline. Sure, many families still have them, but most people in their twenties, I’d wager, only have a cell phone. When did the cut-off happen? I’d guess it was around 2001 that kids graduating from high school never actually got their own landline; they’d leave their parents’ house, and (if they didn’t have one already) they’d get a cell phone. I doubt I’ll get a landline again,

But as social networks explode, aren’t we going to hit a point where a large number of high school students have lived a very public online life: Twitter, Facebook, blogs, etc? Will there come a time when employers Googling a prospective hire turn a blind eye to your online record because, hey, everyone was young once? Perhaps this generation hasn’t hit yet, but I’d guess this will be the case for the the high school class of 2006 and beyond.

Read the quote in context here.

It’s a fascinating question, one that’s related to my post about the evolution of “contemporary community standards” since 1973 and one that Susan Mernit gave a presentation on in 2006. If graduated by 2006 seems pushing it then surely those born then are probably going to be as baffled by the buzz behind “Half-nekkid Thursdays“ as our parents or grandparents were by “23 Skiddoo.”