Young Knitters and High School Moguls [Microtrends 3/4]

I read something about the growing trend of knitting and apparantly it is also huge in the USA. The Young Knitters have been around for some years now and is part of the 'nesting trend' that started after 9/11. It is "real-life therapy" and some kind of offline community building besides being online with profiles on MySpace. The author points at an interesting fact: we should credit the younger generation for having a longer attention span than we usually do. And we should remember that besides all the high-tech that this young generation uses, there is enough room for stuff that is non-tech.


Although low-tech is still interesting, high-tech makes it more easily for youngsters to start their own business and be a High School Mogul. Some major websites and online stores are driven by young people. A while ago we mentioned whateverlife.com and the author of the book mentions www.chocolatefarm.com as an example. This brings some unexpected problems. Laws intended to protect young people from working, now restrict them. Contracts, not legally binding if a child signs them, are hard and what about school? We know the famous university drop-outs, but do we accept highschool drop-outs? Also, if they are ever going to work for another organisation can they function well or are things going too slow for them? There have always been young entrepreneurs, but this group is younger than ever. We still have to see if the numbers are large enough to have a major impact, but it might become pretty interesting.


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