The wonderful thing about starting a new venture is that you don't know where it will take you.

For over a year now, I've been researching and trying out social media–tools for the 21st century for doing business, deepening friendships, and finding new opportunities. My initial research was around how to use the tools to turn an idea into sustainable, scalable movement, as part of the model for A Bigger Voice.

A funny thing happened. As I learned more about social media, I became worried, not for myself, but for other people my age  and older. Really accomplished people–CEOs, small business owners, authors, speakers, savvy CFOs.  These are people with wisdom and experience. They are also digital immigrants–individuals over the age of 35 (some well over the age of 35) who moved into the Internet age after they became an adult. They know how things were done before the world became digitized. Photo by aNantaB

What I can see coming, more clearly each day, is that as the digital natives move into places of power in government, business, and academic institutions, they will have their way of doing things. And it will be influenced by their use of social media.

Today, digital immigrants who can't meet digital natives on their terms don't fully feel the consequences (although they do when these digital natives are also consumers.)  The DI generation still populates the top of the hierarchies in society's most influential organizations.

This will change in five years. Or seven. Or three.

Those digital immigrants who get on board with social media and the underlying principles (e.g., transparency, personalization, listening to the community) will be the ones who get the business deals, job offers, and wild opportunities. Those who don't will miss out. Big time. Photo by Per Ola Wiberg

A Wall Street Journal article about the obsolescence of GM's board of directors hints at the future.  Most of the board members are former CEOs who haven't run a company in years, sometimes over a decade. Only one is currently an active CEO, running a company. Such a board becomes out of sync with what's happening in the marketplace quickly. I suspect they were advising Rick Wagoner based on an old base of knowledge, that would have done just fine a decade ago. A lot has happened in 10 years.

If you are over the age of thirty-five, are you adapting to the way the world is going? Or will you be left behind? 

My mantra for the last few months, while the world as we knew it slips away rapidly, has been "Reinvent to Be Relevant."  This applies to all of us but as I type this post, it particularly applies to digital immigrants.

P.S. Before publishing this post, I read it to my husband, who is 52 years old, and probably one of the most non-technical, non-social media people I know. He uses email and reads blogs but that's about it. He reminds me that it's not "either/or" but rather "both/and." I heartily agree.  Digital immigrants need to add to their toolkit, instead of throwing the old one out and starting all over.