Your Students Are
Watching, Is Your Staff?

The audiences for You Tube and other Internet video sites rose sharply in 2007. Nearly half of online adults surveyed say they have visited such sites. On a typical day at the end of 2007, the share of Internet users going to video sites was nearly twice as large as it had been at the end of 2006.

Close to 50 percent of Internet users said they had visited a video-sharing site such as You Tube. In December 2006, 33 percent of Internet users said they had visited such sites. That represents growth of more than 45 percent in the last year.

The dramatic growth in the population using video-sharing sites is tied, at least in part, to the popularity of such sites among men, younger adults (those under age 30), and college graduates. Nearly a third of wired young adults surveyed ( 30 percent) watch a video on a site like You Tube on a typical day and fully a fifth of online men ( 20 percent) do the same.

At the same time, growth in daily traffic surged among other demographic groups. The percentage of women surveyed who use such sites jumped from 5 percent to 11 percent; the percentage of those ages 30 to 49 who use such sites on a typical day grew from 7 percent to 14 percent; and the percentage of high school graduates now viewing such sites daily rose from 5 percent to 13 percent.

of Internet Users Viewing Video Sites

50%

33%

2006

2007

Pew Internet and American Life Project, October 24–December 2, 2007, Survey of 1,572 Internet Users

Feeling Stuck? Move On

Most people at one time or another feel as if they are just spinning their wheels, unable to gain traction either in a career or in life. The feeling of being stuck in one place, while troubling, is part of a necessary crisis leading to personal growth, says Timothy Butler, senior fellow and director of career development programs at Harvard Business School.

“Without it we cannot grow, change, and—eventually —live more fully in a larger world,” Butler writes in his new book, Getting Unstuck: How Dead Ends Become New Paths (Harvard Business School Press, 2007). Although impasse is usually first expressed as a failure, it is a requirement for individuals to change their way of thinking about themselves and their role in the world. He explains six phases for getting from here to there.

As psychologically painful as it is, feeling stuck is the first phase in creating new opportunities in career and in life. Phase two is a deepening of the crisis in which the inner critic becomes louder and more powerful. Phase three is a final realization that the old model is not working and the situation must be faced with new eyes and new ears. In the fourth phase, we begin to listen better and to be open to a new type of information. The fifth phase of the impasse process, occurring over time, is a deepening of insight into the patterns of self: the things we value, the things we like in the world, the activities that are more meaningful, and the types of environments that are more pleasant and rewarding. The sixth and final phase requires taking action to seal the deal. “We do something to show the world and ourselves that we’ve gone through the impasse, it’s been a real experience, and now we can act in the world based on what we’ve learned,” says Butler.