Today as I was doing my Christmas shopping, I was listening to Net@Night with Amber MacArthur and Leo Laporte (wow…listening to tech podcasts while Christmas shopping…I am SUCH a geek!).

My husband had called me and suggested I listen to this particular episode closely, and I’m glad I did. Leo and Amber had Don Tapscott, author of “Grown up Digital”, on the show. It’s a book I have yet to read (but fully intend to, now).

It was a thought provoking show. The three of them talked about what I call the digital generation…kids who are now in their late teens and early twenties, who have grown up never knowing a world without computers. The entire point that Tapscott makes is that we need to be paying very serious attention to these young people. They are the ones who are going to take Internet into the future. Long after us thirty and forty-somethings are retired (and I’m on a beach in Turks and Caicos), these are the people that are going to be changing the face of marketing, media and corporations the world over.

I’ve talked about this fact a couple of times before now. In this post a few months ago, I mentioned that today’s students are going to be creating the Web of the future. Their ideas and opinions should be taken seriously. After spending the past three months teaching 80 or so people who are part of this younger generation, I believe that even more strongly now.

I also talked about it with Danny Brown about the contribution that younger generations are making to the online world. I firmly believe that the young people of today are going to do things with this social Web that many of us haven’t even dreamed of yet.

The social media bubble is alive and well, in my opinion. The networks I travel in are typically made up of 30 and 40 something professionals, many in the marketing/PR/traditional media worlds. We spend our days and nights building relationships, being helpful to others, teaching, talking, branding ourselves, and explaining the usefulness of a plethora of tools to bosses, clients, seniors, the dog – whoever will listen.

Don’t get me wrong. There are so many people in this space who are brilliant thinkers, and are working very hard in a positive way to help figure this new medium out. They are doing exceptional things, and I want nothing less than to see this space be moved forward by their thoughtful leadership. What I am saying is that while we are out there trying to pump social media to corporations and business owners and media people, we should not forget about the digital generation. We need to pay close attention to  what they are up to.

Leo Laporte made a wise observation on the Net@Night show when he said that his teenage kids these days are more resourceful and well read than he was at that age. I think a lot of us feel that way, and with good reason.

What our generation has had to learn over the past 15 or 20 years about computers and the Internet, anyone under the age of 25 has always been exposed to. Don Tapscott says “it’s like air to them”. In other words, they’ve never had to live without it.

We talk and talk about how to explain social media to our clients, our grandparents, our bosses. We try to find the easiest way to describe Twitter, or blogging, or Digg. We struggle to come up with real metrics and ROI and all the rest. I wonder what would happen if we got 100 digital genners into a room and asked them to explain it? What words would they use? This isn’t “new”, “life altering”, or a “technological revolution” to them. This is their life. They live it every day. They don’t know life without MySpace, IM, Facebook, and YouTube. Sharing information and communicating online is second nature to them. It always has been, and more importantly, it always will be.

The problem is, social media is not second nature to us. It flips traditional way we were taught to communicate on its head. And that’s why we struggle with it.

If you’re at all interested in this social revolution that’s taking place, maybe it’s time you sat down and had a good talk with the young people in your life. They just might open your eyes to a new way of thinking about all this stuff. And they just might be able to help you take it to the next level, too.

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It’s another ridiculously cold and snowy day in Ottawa. I was talking to a guy in Arizona the other day and where he was it was 82 degrees Fahrenheit (about 27 Celsius and yes, I had to convert that in the Google Calculator. I’m so metric.)

It’s completely unfair and I can’t wait for winter to be over. There’s part of me that would like to just wallow in self pity about it but my new enlightened point of view (thanks to “A New Earth“) has taught me that wallowing is never a good idea. So instead of dwelling on the crappy weather, I decided to stay inside and cook a pile of food for the freezer.

I headed out at about 7:30 this morning to hit the grocery store. Loblaws today was surprisingly busy considering it was so early and there was 15cm (almost 6 inches, yay Google!) of new snow on the ground. I was a woman on a mission. The recipes of the day? Cabbage rolls, vegetable soup, beef stew and cherry chip cupcakes. That oughta keep me out of self-pity mode for a while.

It’s 12:30 and I’m about half way through the process. I’ve decided to leave the stew till tomorrow and focused this morning on the soup and the cabbage rolls. This afternoon I’ll probably make the cupcakes, but they are easy. So I’ve managed to have a pretty productive day so far, I’ve got 50 cabbage rolls, a big pot of yummy, healthy soup and I’ve gotten caught up on some tech stuff too.

I thought then, I would share with you my perfect day indoors – complete with recipes!
As I was cooking I was listening to net@night with Amber MacArthur and Leo Laporte. The first show put me on to Friend Feed, which is kind of a cool tool that lets you tap in to friends’ internet travels via Twitter, Flickr, their blog, etc. And it also gave me more information about my new favourite video player, Viddler, which we are experimenting with at the office now for one of our TV series. More info on that to follow soon!

Now for the recipes. Thom Allen twittered me to ask what cabbage rolls were. I assumed everyone knew what cabbage rolls were! I think he is in Utah. Maybe they don’t have cabbage rolls in Utah? Well, here’s the recipe, so all you Utahns can be introduced to one of the most delicious and inexpensive to make foods EVER!

Suzemuse’s World Famous Cabbage Rolls
(makes about 50 – perfect for freezing!)

2 heads of green cabbage
3 lbs medium ground beef
1 medium onion, diced
3 cloves of garlic, minced
3/4 cup of Minute Rice
salt and pepper
6 cans condensed tomato soup
1 large can all-purpose tomato sauce

Fill a large stock pot with water, add some salt and bring to a boil. With a sharp knife, cut around the core of the cabbages so the leaves will loosen in the water. Carefully add the whole cabbages and cook for at least 20 minutes, or until the outer layers start to peel off. Meanwhile, mix the ground beef, onion, garlic, rice, salt, and pepper in a large bowl. Don’t be a wimp and use your hands for the best result.

Use tongs to peel off individual cabbage leaves and drain in a colander. Take one cabbage leaf and trim off the tough spine. Place about 1/4 to 1/2 cup of the beef mixture (a smallish handful) in the cabbage leaf and roll up, tucking the ends in as you go. Place the rolls in a large roasting pan.

After the first layer of rolls, cover with 3 cans of tomato soup and 1/2 of the can of tomato sauce. Repeat for second layer of rolls.

Bake in a 350 degrees oven for 1 hour and 40 minutes, or until the sauce is piping hot and bubbling.

Suzemuse’s Soon-To-Be-Famous Vegetable Soup
makes a whole pot! Also good for freezing!

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium onion, diced
1 large carrot, diced
2 stalks of celery, diced
1/2 red or yellow pepper, diced
(you could use green peppers, but I HATE green peppers, so don’t tell me if you do!)
2 handfuls of frozen chopped spinach
1 can of red kidney beans
1/2 cup brown rice
2 cartons organic vegetable broth
a couple of sprigs of fresh thyme
salt and pepper to taste

In a large soup pot, sautee onion, carrot, celery, peppers and spinach in olive oil about 15 minutes, until tender. Add in the kidney beans, brown rice, thyme sprigs and broth. Simmer on med-low heat for about 45 minutes, until delicious. Add salt and pepper to taste.

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