Independent intimacy has always existed. Books, newspapers and magazines were all personal media that could be used in a shared space, as is portable music. Mobile devices take things to a whole new level.

Youth often rebound from the attitudes and preferences set by previous generations. For example, in the recent past, generational differences were dramatically apparent in Boomer parents' and Millennial kids' attitudes toward technology. Boomers resisted technology's influence in raising their children, often going so far as to ban cellphone use at the dinner table.

Selling to teens is tough, but selling "through" them to parents can reach varsity-level difficulty. Teens (and young Millennials in general) carry a great amount of influence with their parents, particularly in certain categories such as electronics. According to a 2015 YouGov study, teen influence over parents' purchases ranges anywhere from 25% (for parents' footwear) to over 90% (for teen fashion).

This summer has offered a strong rebuke to those who complain that kids and teens never leave the house to enter the great outdoors. Thanks to the hit Pokemon Go game, they are now walking around everywhere in search of characters and other rewards via the smartphone app's scavenger hunt-style game, even reportedly stumbling on a dead body or tripping and falling as they succumb to the daze of the augmented reality game.

For a long time, online marketers' favorite success metric was number of views. It's a fairly easy thing to measure, it's instantly available and readily understandable. The assumption was that getting a lot of views meant your content or ad was good and your message was getting through. As the web and its consumers have evolved, we've learned that's not necessarily the case.