Recently, I was visiting with a young adult who showed me their MySpace page. This page, like many others do, opens with a popular song by the group Nickelback.
Immediately, I asked the young adult, "Did you go to their concert in Roanoke last spring?"
The young person said, "They came to Roanoke?"
"Yes, you did not know that?"
"I had no idea!"
This illustrates a fundamental problem not only this region, but many regions across the country are having – complete communication disconnects between generations.
Younger generations repeatedly say there is nothing to do in Roanoke and when a popular band comes to town, those same people making that statement do not know about the event.
The vast number of traditional and non-traditional forms of communication are driving people further away instead of bringing them closer together. We see it socially with concerts and professionally with jobs.
Our issue is not that there is nothing to do or that there are no jobs, but it is a communication and promotion barrier we must overcome. This is our #1 issue in addressing brain drain.
