Business Insider:
A 15 year-old working in Morgan Stanley's London office has written what may be the firm's most popular research report in years. In it, he explains that none of his friends read newspapers and few watch TV. He also, interestingly, says none of them use Twitter, because no one reads the tweets texting costs money.
That's right folks. Thanks to Twitter, our television watching experience is increasingly customizable and further integrated with our online persona.
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Here's my feedback from generation X: www.bluehatsystem.com
I have absolutely no idea why people are so hyped up about this. Last year I produced a 150 page study on the habits of teenagers in this society. I have also done reports on migration, the value of money, China's emergence as a world super power, and what under-18s feel about the crime on our streets- all backed up with sources and quotes and references.
Do these investment bankers really feel so desolate about Britain's youth that they get excited about this report (which, as many people before have also said, does not really correlate with many teens at all)?
Yes, there are still children who read books on investment banking and the financial times. Yes, they have read Warren Buffett's biography and Intelligent Investing by Ben Graham. Yes, there are 8 year olds who make great returns on their stocks. Yes, super-charged, financially savvy, and diamond bright children are still alive in this world. And yes, I AM YOUNGER THAN THIS BOY. I AM A 14 YEAR OLD GIRL.
Trust me, that boy is no wonderkid. I could have done exactly the same thing, better. I have half a mind to charge up to Morgan Stanley today and see how those guys react to me. (I am planning on doing work-experience there next year anyway, they'll see me even if they don't want to.)
WAKE UP, WORLD. CLEVER KIDS DO EXIST. MANY OTHERS HAVE DONE MUCH BETTER.
Look, if you're as smart as your obviously think you are, you know that personal connections will get you far on Wall Street. Robson is almost certainly a normal 15-year-old with the privilege of having at least one parent or close relative in high places at Morgan Stanley; that connection's almost certainly what got this into the hands of the MS higher-ups, not the crappy writing, lack of sourcing, and the-Pope-is-Catholic "revelations" found in this report.
The fact that Wall Street is paying attention to some kid who spent an hour polling his XBox Live friends, rather than to you any of the dozens of researchers, young and old, professional and amateur, doing groundbreaking work in this area, is a very potent reflection on them and their intellectual integrity. Frankly, I'd let that ship sink and put my mind to work somewhere it would be appreciated.
Actually, as everyone now knows from the Times, Matthew DID NOT originally have great connections at MS. Anyone with common sense knows that to get into MS/ Goldman etc when you are 15 LEGITIMATELY you need one hell of a personality, a first rate mind, a thorough understanding of the industry preferably with previous investing experience, and, of course, some kind of link within the bank.
I find your comment - that if I am as smart as I 'obviously think (I am)' I would know about 'connections' - highly amusing. My best friend's dad is the boss of the trading floor at Citi, and trust me, I know all about this game =]
But I disagree with your view that you'd 'let that ship sink'. I am in the middle of planning to apply for work experience at a number of major banks, (since my birthday a few days ago I am now 15, and thus on equal footing with Matthew- hooray!) and like I said on Ypulse.com, the question remains about what EXACTLY Matthew did. Did he write a letter stating his intention and turn up at the bank without further ado? Did he include a resume, letters of recomendation, or what? TELL US MATTHEW!
Although the report itself is now relatively passe, it has raised the issue of HOW DO 15s GET INTERNSHIPS AT BANKS, which is still very much hot as long as there are intelligent 15s in the world. Please, someone from within the sector,
explain!!
(also, although everyone seems to be calling me stella after my username, it is pseudo (not real))
drat my first comment is pending. It was quite long, maybe that's why :)
SMART KID!!!!!!! HE'S ALSO 100% CORRECT
t.v. requires too much attention for today's youth. You have to actually sit through the commercials to enjoy a program, unless of course you have tivo or some other dvr device, even then, you have to record the show and watch it later.
What on t.v. is tailored for teens? Not much. In these times, kids prefer places like youtube to watch what they want, when they want - rather than being force fed shows and other forms of entertainment. It's the forced feeding that's causing kids to reject traditional media, which is exactly why twitter will never succeed. Twitter is the same basic format as television: One primary source disseminating information to a larger audience. Today's youth completely reject that model.
Even if t.v. shows are good, today's youth wont watch it because they live in a world where they wield a lot of personal power: They watch what they want, whenever (youtube and the like), listen to what they want, whenever (ipod, music downloads). NO WAY you're going to get them to WAIT for a show to come on t.v. once a week, or WAIT for a song to play on the radio, that entire model is dead.
If it has a gram of veracity, take sample size in to consideration. That and the kid is British, not American. The two cultures share similarities but they are disparate in means of consumption (arguably, the latter is for more prodigious in consumption than the former).
So how does a 15 year old get an internship at Morgan Stanley?
Are we sure this isn't a hoax?
this is not a normal typical teen. Yes teens do not read nor twitter so on that ok but in television man show me a teen that does not laze for hours in front of some monitor and suck up the boob tube. An intern at Stanley Morgan also is not the stat norm kid. Sounds like a super money inclined nerd to me but hey it was interesting on just a statidical level to hear how his world is one by the way which has a sad attention rate.
When I was 15 (back in the early 1970's), I didn't watch much tv because I was out playing sports, at the beach, reading or just partying with my friends. I did read the newspaper, but so did most guys I went to school with (though most probably only read the sports section). Teenagers are just more active and not indoors as much as adults and that has always been true.
Advertising wasn't as burdensome as it is now. Ads are just out of control these days and much of this bombardment, to me, is indicative of insecurity in the corporate world. All major corporations could cut their advertising budgets in half today with no change in sales accrued tomorrow. But corporate group think knows no restraint, so I doubt that such a sensible solution will happen.
There's no need for television anymore since you can watch whatever you want whenever you want online.
How does a 15 year-old get an internship at Morgan Stanley? Director's kid??
I suppose the opinions of the youth are important as it points to the wave of the future, but I hope the media does not forget that there are older, poor people out here. I care for an old woman totally bedridden, and her sole company is her TV set. There may be a day when it is obsolete, but not before at least two generations die off. I hope "the powers that be" continue to provide content for them until that time. Additionally, not all the young people have the assets to spend on gaming, etc. as well as not being big on socializing online, so TV still provides them with entertainment. It seems as though unless 50 million people are being marketed to it isn't worth their while.
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word from the trenches
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I'm a frequent visitor to a few popular gaming forums, and so many of the teens could actually benefit from sitting down and actually reading anything, including a newspaper. Considering how horrible so many teens are at writing, reading a newspaper would probably teach them sentence structure, punctuation and spelling.
The Internet is raising a generation of functionally illiterate children. Technology and the idiocy of "social media" isn't doing them any favors as well.
Is it the internet or is it the failure of the schools?
What you say was true when I was a teenager and it was blamed on tv and drugs. In the 1950's, that was blamed on comic books and rock and roll.
If there is any good thing about kids using message boards, chat programs, etc, it is that it forces them to write SOMETHING and they have to organize their thoughts in some fashion to do so. Mind you, it doesn't have to be to a high functioning standard, but in my teen years, they wouldn't write hardly at all unless it was some school assignment that was compelling them to.
So it could be that things are getting better in a screwy sort of way.
From the mouths of babes?
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First Posted: 07-13-09 09:35 AM | Updated: 08-13-09 05:12 AM