GenDigital

Maxim Goes Mobile

Maxim magazine, the number one magazine among college men, is going mobile. The May issue will be "mobile-enabled" with links in the printed pages to content and advertisements accessible by reader's mobile phones.

Just To Keep You Thinking

Some Friday food for thought. Gen Y is the largest generation, in terms of overall population, since the Baby Boomers. Within five years, Gen Y will make up exactly half of all 18-49 year olds. Today, they are focused on iPods and text messages, and in couple of years they will be buying new cars and houses and getting married.

Buying on eBay? Pay Using Your Mobile Phone

eBay, the third most popular web site among college students, will soon allow users the opportunity to pay for goods using their mobile phone. eBay's payment service, PayPal is testing out a new service called PayPal mobile which lets users transmit product codes as text messages. eBay expects to unveil the service within the next couple of weeks. Now students can get that autographed copy of the new Black Eye Peas CD on their way to Physics class just by texting.

Spike TV Going All Out To Reach Young Men

Indicating that the male 21-35 year old demographic is underserved during prime time and late night time slots, cable network Spike TV unveiled an aggressive new line up featuring a pair of "real life" Beavis and Buttheads who search for the Internet for viral (and I can imagine somewhat questionable in nature) content to reenact. The net's new tag line is "Get More Action." It looks to me as though they will have a lot of it coming in the fourth quarter of this year.

Who's The Most Un-wired Demographic?

Adage.com has highlights of a report on wireless penetration up on its site. The report says that 57% of teens 13 to 17 have a cell phone compared to 80% of adults 18+. Interestingly enough, the highest cell phone penetration number, 94%, is among four-year, full-time college students, where the cell phone is as ubiquitous as their jeans or flip flops.

A Glimpse at the Future

Toyota is preparing to introduce its latest line of vehicles targeting the youth and environmentally conscious market. The Yaris, starting at $10,950 will be in showrooms later this year. Besides boasting a MP3 slot for an iPod, the Yaris will run on ethanol yielding 35 mpg in the city and 40 on the highway.

Job Outlook for Seniors Looks Great

The class of 2006 (and their parent's) have big smiles. The National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) sees the best employment market for graduating seniors since 2000. I hope all of these newly minted career professionals realize they probably can't wear flip flops and t-shirts to work everyday.

Is Lifetime TV Trying To Target Young Women?

Although Lifetime's main objective is to program to their core audience of 18-49 women, the network's president of entertainment said this morning she wouldn't mind attracting "younger women" as well. With a new programming slate unveiled at this morning's upfront presentation the network discussed running a movie about American Idol winner Fantasia, a reality show set up a in a Washington D.C. area high school and a new show about a California matchmaking agency. It sure looks to me like they are trying pretty hard to reach a much younger audience.

Commentary: Is the Multitasking Generation Doomed?

I finally just got through reading Time Magazine's cover story last week about today's teens. If you haven't read it yet, and do not subscribe to Time, you can sign up for a day pass. The in-depth piece offers all sorts of scenarios about today's multitasking young generation. There are social scientists who believe all of the media consumption from digital outlets at one time will ultimately have a negative effect on the generation as a whole. Here's the strongest quote from the piece: "Although such habits may prepare kids for today's frenzied workplace, many cognitive scientists are positively alarmed by the trend. Kids that are instant messaging while doing homework, playing games online and watching TV, I predict, aren't going to do well in the long run, says Jordan Grafman, chief of the cognitive neuroscience section at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS). Decades of research (not to mention common sense) indicate that the quality of one's output and depth of thought deteriorate as one attends to ever more tasks. Some are concerned about the disappearance of mental downtime to relax and reflect. Roberts notes Stanford students can't go the few minutes between their 10 o'clock and 11 o'clock classes without talking on their cell phones. It seems to me that there's almost a discomfort with not being stimulated--a kind of I can't stand the silence."

What does this all mean? In the long run many social scientists fear today's digital generation will grow up to be, for lack of a better word, numb within the world that surrounds them. The constant stimulation of IM, text messages and iPods may shower a layer of insensitivity and indifference on this generation when they hit 25 or 30. At the end of the day, Time needs to sell copies at the newsstand, so this all may be a little too extreme and dramatic, but nevertheless, it makes you think.

Adult Swim Gets More Air Time

Cartoon Network's highly popular Adult Swim (the number six cable network among college males) will start running at 10:30pm beginning on March 27th instead of its usual 11:00pm time slot. The hope is to offer some of the more popular Adult Swim shows like Futurama and Aqua Teen Hunger Force more popular on-air times.