Project Y-ine

Yes, Project Y-ine is a social media based journal about our experiences from the road and meeting members of Generation Y, but an article from the website Under 30 CEO got me thinking about traditional media and how easy it is for people who are so connected to the online world (for example, you will hardly ever see either myself or Ashley sans iphone) to forget that not everyone is like this.

Another aspect of this study is to see what issues mean the most to my generation, how they like to get their information and how long they spend online vs. doing other activities, so I look forward to learning more about people who do not judge others by what cell phone they have or people who do not necessarily check their Twitter account before they get out of bed.

The article 10 Things Gen Y Won’t Pay for made me chuckle, but I also realized that each one of these apply to me.  I wonder how many of these also apply to other Gen Y’ers reading this post.   Let me know!

Some of the 10 that seem to apply to me more:

News: Twitter, Facebook and iGoogle are my news sources.  I have customized what I want to read online and I have done it all for free.  No way you can take that away from me now, Murdoch and Fox News!  While, I agree that “Quality journalism is not cheap” and that “a newspaper that gives away its content is simply cannibalizing its ability to produce good reporting”  I think traditional media needs to figure out another solution then to start charging for something people has received for free for a while.

Wireless: While traveling through the south on this first adventure, one thing I am semi worried about is the possible lack of wifi options on I-10.  I even tweeted about that today and was reminded that McDonald’s actually has wifi now.  I realized that I am so spoiled here in Sonoma County and have stopped going to my favorite coffeeshop in Healdsburg because it does not have wifi.  I haven’t stepped foot in an actual Starbucks for some time now, so I honestly don’t know if they charge for wifi or not….  If they do, it looks as if Ashley and I will be stopping at a lot of McDonald’s on our trip!

Long Distance: Many people I know never change their cell phone numbers when they move.  I got my first cell phone plan when I moved out to Napa on my own almost nine years ago. My number is a Napa number and it has not changed while living in San Diego, Sacramento and now in Healdsburg.  This also applies to roaming charges…. I mean, I will be traveling across country.  I remember once having to pay over $100 in roaming charges when visiting Vegas many years ago…. Thankfully this will never happen again.

Mail: I do not remember the last time I sent anything in the mail. All my bills are online and I now drop off my rent check to the rental management company in town. Though, I did receive a post card from my best friend that he sent to me on his honeymoon thanking me for helping out with the wedding.  I will be honest and say that when I read his postcard, I started bawling.  It meant so much more than an email from them… Even if they are not very technologically savvy or insane as I am with social networking.

So, back to my original point – While this study is a social media expose, there will be some traditional elements to all of this, including actually meeting some of my online friends in person.  So, if you would like to receive a postcard from us during this first Project Y-ine trip, please comment, email, facebook message or DM us your address and we will send you something from one of the  many amazing cities we are planning on visiting.

In order to bring this back online, we would love for you to scan the postcard and post it on one of your websites – Twitter, Flickr, Facebook, your blog, our Facebook page, etc. (of course linking back to us).