Grown Up Thinking

We are the Mr Youth interns. In honor of Social Media Day last Thursday we are sharing our POV on the good life of YouthNation, the present and future of social media, and whatever else crosses our young, millennial minds in 140 characters or less:

- Elizabeth C: Social media icon sheets & comforters will replace dinosaurs and rocket ships.

- Kara B: #D0M!N@T!0N

- Jon I: Some people think the internet is ruining are ability to comunikate, but I think we’re just fien. The future is #social.

- Thomas S: I am not witty enough for this, I defer to the Twitterverse.

- Vinny S: Emoticon Media, The future of Social: – A typical day.

- Annie D: Social media helps to engage the brand and the customer through dynamic, interactive, and unique experiences (games, applications and videos).

- Lauren F: I have a feeling Facebook is going to lose its spark soon. The site has lost its simplicity and exclusivity, #unlike.

- Alison W: SM lets me stalk a dog named Boo on Facebook, tweet at Barack Obama and keep in touch with my grandma in Florida #EndlessPossibilities…

- Adam P: In the modern battle of David versus Goliath, social media is the slingshot.

- Alexa D: Rule #76.5: Social Media plays like a champion.

We want to hear your musings on social.  Tell us in the comments!

Mr Youth’s splashy S-List party was a big hit down in Austin. Billed as a ‘seriously social SXSW soireé’, these handy booklets were snapped up like hotcakes by our invitation-only crowd. Our handy guide even got a shoutout by the socially savvy Eliza Dushku who was in attendance. So flip through below and get schooled, yo.

The most fascinating piece of this conversation, sparked by Mr Youth’s very own Matt Britton (far right), was the topic of anonymity online. As brands become people and people become brands, the online presence of every person will be the dominant record of your life story and personal brand attributes. As many teens start conversations online there is a trend of hiding behind a curtain in order to truly be themselves. Teens feel a need to create a persona online to express themselves and be someone that they don’t have the opportunity to be in real life (or don’t feel comfortable being in real life).

There are goods and bads to anonymity. It makes teens feel safe and allows them to test and learn without damaging their real-life reputation, but at the same time discourages them from being themselves in real life, accepting who they are, and merging their online world with their offline world. The internet creates communities of acceptance. Let’s make the real world like that, too.

Monday evening I wandered downtown in search of Beauty 2.0, an Internet Week panel discussion about the future of the beauty industry in social media. Not knowing what to expect (except that two members of Rachel Zoe Inc would be in attendance, OMG), what I witnessed was an hour discussion about social media, lip plumper, beauty metaphors and the power of peer to peer (aka Beauty and the Geek.

One of my favorite moments was when Tina Hedges, a L’Oreal/Estee Lauder vet, broke down the importance of humanizing your brand using terms even the most inexperienced beauty-maven could understand. Urging prestige brands to be more transparent and less exclusive she said, “At a cocktail party, I want to talk to the person who is open and warm, not the girl who’s sitting in the corner thinking she’s better than me”.

Adding to that was Karen Robinovitz, my new crazy-haired idol and founder of PurpleLabs.com. “The internet and social media are the most democratic system”, she said, “People are going to talk. Some of it may be negative, but it’s like popping a pimple. It’ll be red for a second, but then it will go away and the good stuff will bubble to the top in the end”. Wowzers, how’s that for a beauty metaphor?

More generally, the conversation took an interesting turn when another panel member lamented about how concerned the marketing industry is with “what’s next”. In the mad rush to discover the next foursquare/twitter/gamechanger, we often overlook what’s happening now, at this very moment. Deep thoughts, beauty panel, deep thoughts. Do you agree?

Media Post writer Kelly Samardak reports on our carnival-themed holiday bash and touts it as the gold standard for events.

And wanna see the superultraamazing dance team (ahem)? This is us at the beginning of  ’Beat It.’

What’s better than reading GrownUpThinking? Being able to take our social media musings on the road.

To thank our loyal followers for keeping up with both GrownUpThinking.com and our Fresh Ideas newsletter, Mr Youth hooked one lucky reader up with a brand new Kindle. Happy Holidays, Barret R!

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Want to unlock the mysteries of marketing to today’s new moms? Mr Youth has just released Millennial Mom 101, our latest white paper which explores How Millennial Moms are Supplanting College Students as the Most Connected and Technology Dependent Population.

The paper concludes with the Millennial Mom Roadmap, 10 keys to marketing to this ever evolving consumer. Download the full white paper at MillennialMoms.com.