So, why all the concern about New Generations?

Thank you for the honor of asking me to deliver the Keynote Address. I see a mix of the young and the not so young here today and am therefore at a loss on what to speak to this heterogeneous group. 

In this hall today we have two distinct generations. What appeals to one group will not be appreciated by the other. Both groups are guided by their perception of the context and that in fact is our conundrum today. Generation gap is nothing new. I remember a Cartoon Quip where a Boss told an young Employee : You have been like a son to me since you have come here, Bert - rude, lazy, ungrateful . If this is the viewpoint of the elders; the young also have clear views on their seniors. A character in Bernard Shawâs Man and Superman , said it well :Every man over 40 is a scoundrel Successive generations have struggled to cope up with the generation gap. We live in a world where the generation gap is more pronounced and understanding how to handle it will perhaps determine the very fabric of our society. Who is young? Those below 50? below 40? below 30? In a country like India, where half our population is now below the age of 25, being young can be defined as being less than 25 years. This generation has many names: the Y generation, the brat generation. I like to call them the Facebook generation.The Facebook Generation is growing up in
world where the use of online social networking is part of their life. Although 30% of Facebook users
are above 35 years it is the 70% below 35 that is more at home with Facebook. 48% of 18-34 log in to Facebook right when they wake up. About 28% of them check FB on their smart-phones before even getting up from their bed. Even in this group below 35 you can divide the Facebook users into two " those below 24 and those above. Last year for instance the below 24 year olds grew 74% on the Facebook. It is this generation that I venture to call the Facebook generation .

It was George Orwell who said: Each generation imagines itself to be more intelligent that the one that went before it, and wiser than the one that comes after it." What is special about the Facebook generation? The answer seems to be Everything . Right from the way they think, communicate, work and live is different and Facebook just symbolizes that. Behavioral experts will tell you that this generation has been brought up very much differently from the past generations. They have
been mollycoddled and showered with the attention not paid to any other generation before them. This generation has grown up in a relatively more privileged world, their understanding of the world
is also very different. They have grown up in a world where computers are married to telephones
and the world can viewed from their palm tops or smart phones. Each generation has a different perspective of the world. Our parents witnessed Partition and Chinese aggression. We saw anti-Sikh riots and the demolition of Babri masjid. For the Facebook Generation their horror stories are the 26/11 attacks and single parent families. The Facebook generation of today was just 5 years old when the liberalization process in India started; so ho do you expect them to have the perspective of the post-liberalization period? So the context that shapes the Facebook generation is itself so different. Their expectations from careers and life are shaped by this perspective or context 
that they have grown up in a world linked by internet and Facebook. We grew up writing letters, faxes and later emails. The Facebook generation is living in a world of instant communications thru Messanger and Facebook. Does that explain why they are Mavericks, Free thinkers, Rebels. They are impatient and cannot wait. Everything is different to the two generations- even jokes. Few years ago, when Bill Clinton came to Bangalore, he said that he does not much understand the information technology. Bill said that: To our generation ,a Chip was something to eat, Windows was something to look through and Semiconductor was a failed musician. The large number of youngsters who were present did not get the joke. In a meeting, mainly of seniors, an young speaker said:"There was once a young man who, in his youth, professed a desire to become a "great" writer. When asked to define "great" he said "I want to write stuff that the whole world will read, stuff that people will react to on a truly emotional level, stuff that will make them scream, cry, wail, howl in pain, desperation, and anger!" . He now works for Microsoft writing error messages". Nobody laughed, as the elders who attended did not understand the joke! So much for even jokes when it comes to the two generations.

Sometime ago, Business Today featured a cover story called Brats at Work. Permit me to quote from this cover story: Meet the archetypal conundrum facing India Inc. : twentysomethings in its workforce. Organizations are bending backwards to accommodate the brat generation that sticks to no rules but its own. In a country where one in two citizens is younger than 25 years old, hirers better get used to this. Simply because they represent the human capital of tomorrow . This generation of 20-somethings, the typical Facebook generation, does not respond to the command-and-control types of management that Companies have been used to in the past. They are bolder, less mature perhaps, speak their minds and have no problem standing up to their bosses all of which is typical of the Facebook. The BT story went to ask: How many managers find themselves struggling for attention from that high performer sitting coolly at his workstation, gelled spiked hair in place, earphones firmly in place and completely oblivious to the rest of the workplace? Of course, even the boss competes with iPods and social networking sites for his attention. Or what will the manager do with a brat who speaks her mind too often for comfort? The Facebook generation asks too many questions. That because they want constant communication to happen. They need flex-timing, work-from-home days and fun at the workplace all of which is typical of the Facebook itself. It was Samuel Taylor Coleridge who said: And in today already walks tomorrow . The Facebook generation is the future. And future is where we will spend the rest of our life. Companies are realizing that they need to listen and heed to the generation next. Otherwise they will be thrown mercilessly in the dustbins of history by newer, younger companies. 

Future belongs to organizations and individuals who can understand and work with the Facebook
generation. This is Rotary's conundrum as well. We need to understand the young, if we need them to join hands with us (and later join us). Rotary's philosophy is that every Rotarian must be an example to the youth. The emphasis on youth service that we have so unique that we have 
classified our service activities in two categories: those that pertain to the youth (which we call as 
New Generations Service Avenue) and those that don't  pertain to the youth (which we call as Community Service). Rotary itself has just 3% of its members below the age of 30 - and that adds to the issue of understanding and addressing youth issues of today.

Finding common interest areas will help us to work more effectively with the young adults of today. For one, the Gen Y is more global, as they live the FB era. The Gen Y is more service oriented than the earlier generations.

Which is why Rotary can forge a powerful partnership with the young. Because, Rotary is indeed the 
world's largest army of good people. I will conclude with two messages.

The first is for the youngsters who are here today. Your moment is NOW. As the theme of this Seminar so rightly says, INFINITE is your opportunity. Futurolisgst Alwyn Toffler has explained three 
waves of human civilization. The first wave was the agricultural wave. When it gave way to the second wave, the industrial wave - everything changed. And now in the third wave, which is the 
knowledge or information wave, everything is again changing - from the way that we work and the way 
in which we live. In this third wave, it is no secret that India is a dominant player in the world stage. So, all you youngsters here, you are the trustees of the world of tomorrow.

And to the Rotarians here, I want to borrow the words of the 4 time US President, Franklin D Roosevelt : "We cannot always build the future of our youth; but we can build our youth for the
future "