Here is a little theory I’m working on… Have you read the ‘The Tipping Point’ by Malcolm Gladwell? Great book. There is a part in the book where he discusses how “trend setters” establish patterns for the rest of the world to emulate. I believe two of the inadvertent trend setters for user generated content are: Gen Y newly married couples and Gen Y parents.

Over the past year, I began noticing some trends in my circle of friends (mostly aged 24-34). We are at a stage of our lives where people start getting married and having babies. As is tradition for these types of events, pictures get taken and videos get shot. This practice has been going on for decades and in and of itself isn’t groundbreaking. However, the remarkable part lies in the convergence of technology and ease of distribution with which media is shared.

There’s a lot of talk about Gen Y, myself included, and how comfortable they are with technology, which is true, to a point. Until recently, I did not have friends who blogged, had domain names, shared photos online, etc. However,

Now the blogs are in effect!

Each link direct readers to a blog about a newly married couple or family. In the past my friends told me they wouldn’t blog because they “didn’t have anything to say” but now they feel comfortable sharing their experiences online. Why? Perhaps because others have expressed an interest in keeping up to date with their new life stage (i.e. marriage, children, etc).

Please understand that this newly created UGC by these people is only the tip of the iceberg. It’s the network effect that gets even more interesting. Check out this graph of photos uploaded to my Flickr account since 2004. See the 300% jump in 2007?

More uploads based off a baby being born isn’t the point. Everybody does that. The point is that during this time our family & friends, the potentially non-tech saavy, non-GenYs, flickr-illiterate types, outliers of the UGC demographic, they not only became aware of social media, but began participating in it. Social Media technologies that enabled them to become an integral part of an online conversation. Family and friends begin commenting on cute baby photos, creating their own accounts, and even try blogging and uploading videos for the first time. They begin using social media without realizing it which continues to push these technologies into ubiquity.



As this occurs, we’re seeing the acceptance of these technologies not only from GenYs but from the outliers and the byproducts from their usage. For example, people will create new ideas for their businesses, associations, groups, and families. It can and will trickle down into every part of their lives. Maybe even reverse the ‘cognitive surplus’ that we are in today.

What do you think? Does this theory hold up?