Is Morgan Stanley really down with the kids?

By Tom Kirkham

 

This week everyone’s been talking about Matthew Robson and his revelation that – shock-horror(!) – teenagers don’t use Twitter.  Personally, I think this excellent news, as by and large, teenagers are not very interesting.

It is impressive nevertheless that following just one week’s work experience at Morgan Stanley, the young gent (15) has managed to achieve unprecedented global fame and recognition (check this profile in The Times for one) for his How Teenagers Consume Media report.  I can’t help but feel a bit sorry for our own work experience lad Louis, who also did a first rate job but unfortunately – to the best of my knowledge – his reorganisation of our media database hasn’t yet become the talk of Tokyo, Wall Street and the City.

It does feel as though the significance of Robson’s report is being overstated – there’s no great evidence to suggest that he is the archetypal teenager.  He was given the task because he was in the right place at the right time, he admits that it really only sums up the views of some friends he texted, while his Headteacher describes him as “a very reflective young man” – hardly consistent with the image of the knife-wielding, hoodie-wearing, pensioner-intimidating youth we’ve all come to know and dread.

Okay, so this is facetious, and certainly a number of Robson’s claims do sound like they’re on the mark, but I suspect the real reason for all of the fervour is simply because most of the CEOs and analysts out there have NO IDEA what teenagers are actually like. 

  

The ridiculous pace of technological change is accentuating existing generation gaps as well as creating new demographics – “the mobile phone generation”, “the Facebook generation” etc. – based purely on the technologies that different bands of teenagers grow up with, and crucially, take for granted.  While CEOs may be able to use these same products and services themselves, it’s getting harder and harder to bridge the divide and understand the full extent of technology’s social impact on young people.  Hence Morgan Stanley and the business world jumping on the first glimmer of insight that comes along.

  

It will be interesting to see whether other companies now look to engage more directly with teenagers to track trends and identify emerging youth consumer habits.  Maybe in the future, we’ll even see kids opting to become part-time media consultants instead of taking on paper rounds or working in McDonalds.  One thing’s for sure – if I was Matthew Robson, rather than working on my next report, I’d be living out the fantasies of teenage boys everywhere and using my new found fame to pick up hot girls…