Editor's Notes

By Bob Bouyea

Have you noticed just how wired people are these days? I don’t mean wired as being on edge or juiced up by caffeine, but rather how technology plays a bigger part in their lives.

I first took note of this several years ago during a business trip to San Antonio, Texas. As the airport shuttle approached my hotel, I noticed three young men walking down the sidewalk together each talking on a cell phone.

I remember thinking, “What is so important that you need to talk to people you’re not with rather than the ones you are with?”

You’ve probably seen people in restaurants carrying on long conversations on their cell phones while they dine with someone else. I’ve wondered if the person they’re talking to is having lunch with someone else. This could bring a whole new meaning to let’s do lunch: You go to you’re restaurant, I’ll go to mine and then I’ll call you. That would eliminate the awkward pause when the check is brought to the table.

Cell phone use is only one example of being wired. More people than ever are using the Internet. They are blogging, vlogging and instant messaging in record numbers. They are using PDAs and wireless connections.

A recent survey conducted for the Pew Internet & American Life Project found that roughly 66% of adults use the Internet. By comparison, nearly 90% of teens, ages 12 to 17, have Internet access.

Teens are establishing their habits now. They are using technology as a research tool, for communications and as a news source, the survey says.

The survey also found:

• About half of the young people who have online access say they go on the Internet every day, up from 42% in 2000.

• Three-quarters of wired teens use instant messaging, compared with 42% of online adults. Teens most often reserve IMing for friends and e-mail for adults, including parents and teachers.

• About half of families with teens who have an Internet connection have broadband access, while the other half still use connecting phone lines.

• While 45% of those surveyed have cell phones, those phones aren’t necessarily the preferred mode of communication. Given a choice, about half of online teens still use land lines to call friends, while about a quarter prefer IMing and 12% say they’d rather call a friend on a cell phone.

• Teenage girls ages 15 to 17 who were surveyed are among the most intense users of the Internet and cell phones, including text messaging.

So what does all this tell us? The obvious conclusion is if your long-term plan is to continue to grow your company, then you need to capture the attention of this next generation. You need to be where they go.

First, if you don’t have a presence on the Internet, you better create one. Chances are if they are looking for a product you sell, they are going to Google first. (Yes, Google, a noun, is an Internet search engine that is so popular that it has become a verb.) If your company doesn’t come up during this search, then you don’t exist.

Second, if you want to attract these future employees to your company, you will need to make sure your employment postings are on job Web sites.

Third, to stay in step with this group you will need to stay abreast of the technological advancements and make changes to your business accordingly.

This is not a fad. Habits are being formed, and the use of technology will only increase.

How wired is your business? Let’s talk over lunch. I’ll call you.

SECOND-HAND SMOKE. I’m going to be direct with you. I hate cigarette smoke. I hate the smell. I hate breathing it. I hate the way it attaches itself to my clothes and hair (what little I have left). I hate having to pass through a cloud of it as I try to enter a place of business. And I particularly hate it when I’m trying to eat.

When my family and I go out to a restaurant, we always ask to be seated in the no-smoking section, as far away from the smoking section as possible. In some restaurants it doesn’t matter where you sit because the room is too small. In those cases, we’ll never patronize that restaurant again, regardless of how good the food is.

I can’t understand this state’s unwillingness to pass a law to restrict smoking in bars and restaurants. Study after study has shown that smoking bans do not hurt business, they enhance it. Plus bans remove the risk of illness to bar and restaurant employees.

Florida has a smoking ban in its restaurants. There, if a bar or restaurant receives 10% or more of its revenue from food sales, it can’t allow smoking. While there was a compromise to satisfy bar owners who don’t serve food, it was a good first step.

Georgia also has a smoking ban in restaurants but only if the restaurant serves or employs people under the age of 18. OK, this is a little weaker than Florida but it, too, is a start.

Come on South Carolina, it is time to join your neighbors.

Bob Bouyea is the executive editor of the Business Journal. E-mail him at bbouyea@charlestonbusiness.com.

SUBSCRIBE | REPRINTS | CONTACT US

Phone: 843-849-3100    Fax: 843-849-3122