Generational Word Gaps
January 8, 2010 by Doreen
I recently finished reading Words That Work by Dr. Frank Luntz, which discusses the most effective words and phrases for getting a message across. The book’s cornerstone is that no matter how “good” your message is, it’s useless if the person on the receiving end doesn’t understand or relate to it. This passage in the book made me think about how terms lose meaning with some audiences:
The idea of spending your entire adult life at a single company and then retiring with a gold watch and a pension is so ancient to most young people today that it might as well be feudalism. In fact, if you talk to a person under age thirty and use the term “gold watch” in relation to retirement, they probably won’t get the reference.
In addition to the “gold watch” reference, here are some phrases/terms that I think can be potentially lost on Generation Y:
- ”Give me the Reader’s Digest version”
- ”Can you fax this?”
- ”9 to 5″
- ”Do you know shorthand?”
- ”Where is a pay phone?”
Of course, there are also messages that can be lost on Generation X and Baby Boomers. It all comes down to remembering your audience and what resonates with them. What are some other terms you could add?
