Keeping up with the Joneses

Because I am not just a business owner but also a Baby Boomer business owner; and as if that isn't enough, I am a Jonesing Baby Boomer business owner, of the "The Generation Jones", I find myself especially compelled to see what everyone is up to and how everyone else is doing things. Where are trends going?

It seems that culture has profound influence on what we become, where things go. Upon reading about the "Gen Jones", (the group of the Baby Boomer Generation born from 1954–1965, of which I fall into and who are said to have jonesing tendencies), I realize that the meanderings of my life have been influenced by an underlying current that I was largely unaware of. At least until now. 

"It is said that Jonesers were given huge expectations as children in the 1960s, and then confronted with a different reality as they came of age in the 1970s and 1980s, leaving them with a certain unrequited, jonesing quality.")

(the slang word "jones" or “jonesing”, meaning a yearning or craving)

Being a small business owner and realizing that marketing trends and public relations have all been meandering not so slowly and almost exclusively into the world wide web, it has become clear that there is no diversion away from this dangerous learning curve, curva peligrosa. Learning to navigate these murky waters has become a challenge worth relishing. I have started appreciating the virtual world like I didn’t know I could. Good old necessity. I guess because it is such a creative environment. 

I have been meeting so many interesting, mostly very young people, all of them teaching in their virtual ways of how to keep up with the virtual Joneses. They’re all so smart and accomplished. I am blown away daily at their seeming lack of fear.

I wonder what generation analysis says about their expectations or what they have been confronted with in the way of reality as they came of age in these virtual days.

Have they been left with any unrequited qualities? Shall we call them “Generation Virtuals”? Whatever their label, they are a reservoir of virtual gold.

Meandering ("not leading by a straight line or course to a destination") has several descriptions and connotations. For me it simply infers that something hasn't gone directly there.

Having a kind of gypsy mentality, I have taken many routes in my destination thus far. I have been meandering. I feel as if I am meandering when I am surfing all over the web for inspiration to write. It feels like I am idling, perhaps wasting time. But at every turn, in every nook and cranny, the circuitous journey leads me to places I never imagined I'd go, exposes me to things I never thought I'd care about, carves out an even greater depth and impression into my understanding.

What has been a trend for too long now has been to go faster, travel farther, do more, consume more. I have always lamented this underlying Jonesing sensibility I suspected lurking about. I have always yearned and craved a simpler life than the one that envies others or feels a dissatisfaction with the wealth I have.

I think the upcoming trend is going to be toward simpler, minimalistic interpretations of the things that have been before. Away from conspicuous consumption. For as I have witnessed with just simply a domain name search, there is nothing new under the sun. If you can think of it to do, it has been done. But I also am advised by the witness of the cleverness I see every day that there is always a new way to express it.

Take tweetygotback as a perfect example. You go girls! An awesome job well done. They took what already was and made more of it.

As Thom Hartman always says, "Good on you!" And thank you too, Thom Hartman. Good on you for all you do. You're a true Baby Boomer.