Thomas Friedman calls the current generation of students, “Generation Q,” the quiet generation (We are also sometimes called Millennials, Generation Y, and Echo Boomers). He seems saddened by what he sees as a lack of protest and activism in current college students. If the standard for activism is based on when Baby Boomers were college students, then Friedman is unequivocally correct. We are a generation who rarely hosts sit-ins or demonstrations.

Our generation is trying to change the world for the better; we have just learned that one way works better than others. In part it is our baby boomer parents’ fault (if it is a fault at all). More than other generations, we have learned that arguing with our parents works better than a full rebellion. A USA Today article says “Generation Y is much less likely to respond to the traditional command-and-control type of management.” “They’ve grown up questioning their parents, and now they’re questioning their employers.” As teenagers when we wanted to go out to a party we learned it was more effective to have an “open discussion” (ex-hippie parents like that phrase) instead of sneaking out the window. So we have learned to go through the establishment instead of protesting it. The authority we encounter on a daily basis seems much less authoritative than the one our parents did.

Friedman says that we lack “real activism,” epitomized for him by James Meredith stepping in front of an angry mob to end segregation. At that time, that kind of activism was necessary — there was no alternative. Yet, where is the angry mob for us to step in front of? It’s not that the world doesn’t have problems, but that as a generation we see another way to fight these issues.

We are a socially-conscious generation. The 2006 Cone Millennial Cause Study found that 61 percent of this generation (born between 1979 and 2001) “feel personally responsible for making a difference in the world.” Seventy-eight percent believe that companies are partially responsible for making this change. We believe change needs to happen and we believe the system can make it happen.

Call us naïve, but don’t say we aren’t trying to do our part to save the world. Why is staging a sit-in more to change your congressman’s mind more effective than working to become that congressman or woman?

I was talking to a friend the other day about my career plans, which focus on socially conscious business, and she said something that clicked with me, and I believe a whole generation. She said we’re all just trying to change the world in our own way. Whether it’s by becoming business people, doctors, researchers, teachers, or lawyers we believe we can make a difference in our profession. Yes, we aren’t overthrowing the system, but don’t think we don’t care.

Maybe we are the quiet generation, but if you think that means we’re not going to change anything, I think you’re in for a big surprise.

Our parents tell us we can do anything. Our boss says “file this, please.” So how’s a generation full of overachieving students going to meld with the work force?

I don’t have to tell you that getting into a good college is getting harder. My freshman year at Stanford, I discovered that my neighboring room contained a debate champion and someone featured in Teen People — this was not unusual. Students need to be enterprising, self-motivated, and creative just to be considered.

One of my friends got an internship at a big-deal law firm in New York City. He was excited going into the summer to get a chance to do real work and to figure out if he wanted to be a lawyer. During the summer I asked him how it was going. His response? “I file all day.” Let’s just say he felt his time was being underutilized.

So what happens when students used to being at the top get a job at the bottom? Students used to changing the world are getting coffee. Is this a rite of passage or a waste of resources? Obviously I’m biased, I’m 20 and I want to have internships where I can do more than file. I have a suggestion for the bosses of college interns: give us a chance and I bet you’ll be surprised at what we can do. We may lack job-specific experience but we learn quickly.

Boring internships may be turning students off from entering the regular rat race. Instead, many students are looking to starting their own businesses. Our business idols are the founders of Napster and Google. We, perhaps unrealistically, want quick success not a long climb up a career ladder. An Inc.com article by Donna Fenn calls this generation “the most entrepreneurial generation in our nation’s history” and The Intuit Future of Small Business Report predicts a rise in young people creating their own businesses.

Instead of politely waiting for our turn to be in charge years down the line, we’ve learned that you have to stand out to get what you want. If going down expected routes doesn’t produce results then we’ll just have to go our own way.

<originally posted on Huffingtonpost.com>

As a 20-year-old junior at Stanford I am both an everyday Facebook user and a summer intern at a software company. What I didn’t realize is how Facebook and my work would collide. Facebook seems to be the current obsession of the business world with thirty-something business users joining all the time.

It seems these business users are joining Facebook not because everyone is on it, but because the cool people are on it. For these older users having a Facebook account actually has little to do with convenience, but instead it is a symbol, communicating to others that you keep up with the latest Internet trends. Yet the “cool people” on Facebook are, for the most part, college students. Why are these thirty-something web users rushing to keep up with college students?

As a Facebook “expert” I get asked: “what Facebook apps do you use?” “why not just email instead of using Facebook messages?” I do my best to answer and sometimes wonder just what it is about Facebook that has so captured the minds of numerous thirty-somethings.

For this generation of thirty-something web users much of their business marketability has come from being web-literate, young, and in touch with the latest Internet trends. As a new generation joins the work force who is younger and learned to use a computer before they learned how to ride a bike the value of the thirty-somethings is slowly changing from youth and knowledge of current trends to experience. I suspect that many who try to join Facebook to prove their youth are instead finding that it makes them feel old.

I think ultimately in the quest to turn Facebook towards business uses, there may be a misunderstanding of the real way Facebook is used by the college students who make up the majority of its users. Facebook has always been, or at least felt like, a private and eminently personal world for college students. It is a place to showcase things you’d really rather your boss and coworkers did not see — pictures from the latest party (think kegger, not cocktail), a less-than-PG YouTube video, your recent break-up, and numerous communications complaining about those who, up until now, were Facebook outsiders.

So how is this to meld with work uses? Uncomfortably. I’ve seen many a post from Facebook friends complaining bitterly about some aspect of their summer jobs — something they could not do if their boss was on Facebook. I was friended by one of my higher-ups at work and, of course I accepted, but as soon as I did I became a little less comfortable with the privacy of the Facebook world. What business users sometimes forget is that accepting friendship means access not just to contact information, but access to my personal world. Should I be deleting any pictures that aren’t office friendly or can I assume that a co-worker would understand that it would be uncouth to browse through all my Facebook pictures? Do I want my coworkers to know if I post something at 2AM? These questions worried me and I suspect the same will happen to all my peers as they are forced to meld Facebook with business.

I am certainly not the first person to deal with this problem, as illustrated by the Wall Street Journal video “Friended’ by Your Boss.”

Once, I almost changed my status during a downtime in the work day to something akin to “Megan is bored at work” but then quickly stopped myself, realizing that was not something I wanted to share with the office. What the business world is missing is that we don’t want to mix Facebook with business. I don’t want to be Facebook friends with my boss. I want Facebook to be entirely personal. So ultimately no matter how many business application get designed, they will meet resistance from a generation who would rather not have their business contacts see their college escapades.

Then again, maybe I’m being too closed-minded. If nothing else, Facebook has certainly proved its ability to evolve. But in order for these two worlds to meet Facebook will need to change to accommodate both desires. My suggestion is that Facebook should allow users to set up two profiles — a business profile and personal profile. Then the user could choose which friends are business friends and which are personal. Each profile could be completely personalized so users can choose exactly what they want to show to each — and I’m betting for most of my generation the two profiles would be drastically different. Whatever is done, I am certainly interested in how this conflict between business and personal will be resolved.

<originally on huffingtonpost.com>