Me-too

It used to be “build it and they will come” in traditional Vietnamese society.

“Huu xa tu nhien huong” (if you got reputation, people will know about it).

Now, in the age of Pay per click, you have to build personal brand, to have your Unique Selling Proposition (elevator version or youtube version).

Either way, young Vietnamese are playing catch-up with Korean and Singaporean counterparts.

Image, impression and inbound marketing.  From We to Me-too, from collective self to individualized self.

Moving out and moving up. Nuclear family model.  Two-wages and one-child.

Shop until you drop.

Technology enables. Technology disables (traditional ties. Can you imagine grandma posting her younger-days pic? When I was just a little, girl, I asked my mother….Quel sera, sera).

So the We-too vs Me-too cultures are coalescing with the trajectory moves toward Me-too.

Smaller screens, mobile. I saw a student biking to school while on a cell phone. Mobile at its best.

Me-too. What’s you mobile number? Text me, load me some money, send me a clip, download me a song.

People in motion. You would think you are in San Francisco during the 60’s, except that helmets replacing flowers on their hair.

Students drinking iced-coffee milk, sitting on the sidewalk (cafe “bet”, squatting).

Self-assertion, self-promotion, self-expression. I know they love to learn, online or offline.

Good sign.  The future is in their hands: the knowledge economy.  You see, this new shift favors not the strong, but the fittest. And online, nobody knows you are a dog. As long as you can manipulate the 1’s and 0’s. SEO yourself.

Pagerank to the top.  Modesty is not a virtue, or at least, hard to discern.  And it’s no longer who you know. It’s those who know those who you know. “people who look at this profile tend to look at these recommended profiles etc….”.

Me-too, I don’t want to be left out. On line, nobody knows I was wearing shorts. As long as I put on a tie for the pic.

It’s the age of change. And Vietnamese society provides the continuity, with its thousand-year long history. Trends come and go. So have empires. People here keep up their smile, even when they have to limp along to sell lottery tickets. I bought two last night. Who knows, me-too will join the rank of noted nouveau riches flourishing the city even in the down turn economy.  The online thing just happens to arrive at the critical juncture when young students are open to learning, to experimenting and being assertive about their identity and connectivity with others.  I hope to learn a lot from people who know people whom I know.  Me-too, I want this to work for all.