Alternative Titles

I spent far too long trying to figure out what to call this thing. I was working on a pun with "net-gen" or "age" and trying to tie in computers and technology, and just got frustrated with the corniness of it all and gave up.

So then I started thinking about "My Generation" by The Who. Once I gave it a listen and examined the lyrics, I was really struck by the line "don't try to dig what we all say." I was almost going to try donttrytodig.blogspot, but my inner grammar nerd doesn't like URLs that should have an apostrophe in them. Then I started looking at some of the history behind the song and was going to go with "Shout and Shimmy" which was the B-Side of "My Generation" for its original UK Release, but shoutandshimmy was already a registered blog. The B-Side for the US Release was "Out in the Street" but it didn't have the same ring.

So I went back to the lyrics, and the sensation line jumped out at me. It really sums things up nicely for me though because I honestly believe that the song parallels today's technology environment pretty acurately. We're not trying to cause a big sensation, but the older crowd doesn't quite understand how we do things, and does not know how to grasp the shift in mentality that is taking place.

"I'm just talking about my generation..."

A Big Sensation

Welcome to A Big Sensation, a blog aimed at tracking the progress of my Masters Final Project. The project will examine the shift happening in the world right now as the Net-Generation (sometimes called Millenials) enter and gain prominence in the work force, and as the older generations adapt to emerging technologies. Beyond that, the focus is still a bit vague, but that will develop in time.

In many of our class discussions, I've felt like one of a few "young ones" who see things a little bit differently than some of our older classmates. We are part of that generation who grew up with computers, were among the first generation to adopt things like chat, instant messaging, and email for social purposes, and have gotten used to adapting year after year to constantly changing technology.

Why "A Big Sensation," you might ask? In the song "My Generation" by The Who, there is a lyric "I'm not trying to cause a big sensation." As this project is really about My Generation, and I honestly believe it IS a rather big deal (or sensation even), I felt the title was appropriate.