The Breakfast Club generation

Chapter 6- Death of Social Schizophrenia, in our text book, socialnomics, by Eric Qualman hit a funny bone for me. The part of how Gen Xers took on a different role or character depending on where you were and whom you were with. Being a Gen Xer myself I relate to the first paragraph so well! Up until social media came such a big part of everyone’s life it was easy to have a work personality (hard worker, no outside life), a family personality (All dedicated to the fam) and a social personality (let your hair down and party), now all your personalities are melded on Facebook. NOW, it is not so hard for Gen Xers, but back when we were in our 20s and finding ourselves, we were different people to everyone. Currently, on Facebook I am friends with my boss, former bosses, my Mother, my preacher, my former preachers, my husband, my x-husband, my best friend who knows things from high school, and friends from church. At this point in my life they all know me for who I am and I am good with that, but being 20 something in a social media world has got to have its challenges. As Qualman states, there is not social schizophrenia anymore.

In Chapter 6 Qualman talks about how transparent everything is now with social media. How sports stars and professional cheerleaders cannot act stupid and not expect people to find out. They will then have to suffer the consequences. This holds true for businesses as well. Rather it be a huge corporation or a small mom and pop business, your marketing ideas need to be consistent and truthful. It also helps if you have a good product instead of a great marketing team. In the past, you could have a great marketing team and the public would believe what you told them to believe. With social media, if your product is not good then the word will get out and everyone will know. Word of mouth is still the best way to advertise and with social media it is on steroids. So be truthful and admit your mistakes!

The generation defining movie, The Breakfast Club, might have ended differently if social media was around in 1985.