The generational stall: One generation must make way for another. Click and read my Newsday column

With a select group of persons holding or being recycled through different positions of power, politics and leadership, the generation which might ordinarily be groomed to take over is stalled. They appear quite prepared to create and exploit new media for opinions and consensus, while the monopolists hold firm in their generational places. The pages of the newspapers and other forms of mainstream media remain populated by the usual array of commentators and views. In the interim, for the stalled generation, online social networks are the platforms for opinions and consensus building, if not organising.

Without training in writing or journalism and without much concern for the laws of libel and slander, this generation impatiently tap their views out on their keyboards and publishes them for the world to see. It’s an impulsive and informal form of publishing and commenting and two things are very obvious: they reflect the generation’s preference for function over form and they are instantaneous, reflecting the generation’s penchant for speed.

Click the link above and read the full Newsday column.