The Past isn't what it used to be

Prof. Charles Schewe, co-author of Defining Markets, Defining Moments, has shown that the social environment of our 'coming of age' years continues to define the personality and values of a generation throughout life, and this applies even in countries and generations lacking a distinctive 'youth culture'.

Yet, with half of teenage and a fifth of adult net users regular users of social networking sites (Ofcom, 2008), it is as easy to track down past acquaintances as long-remembered media experiences on YouTube - our life-stories themselves have become profoundly reversible.

Does this disrupt traditional models of identity and life history? Is there opportunity to apply generational marketing theory for more targeted exploitation of 'long-tail' content? Time-shifting is about more than media, and can now happen over decades as much as hours.

Marketing Week 17 April 2008