I am from Gen X when I feel like I’m from the Net Geners!
Hey Folks, sorry I’m a little late getting this post up. The day sort of got away form me.
I was six months before the end of Generation X, according to Tapscott’s timeline, but I think I relate more with his description of the “Net Gen”. That’s probably because I’m generally a pretty geeky guy and as such was a bit ahead of the curve growing up. It’s also because these generation divisions are pretty blurry and it’s easy to make generalizations that aren’t terribly accurate.
I have to agree with previous comments that the stereotypes that Tapscott carts out kind of rub me the wrong way. I’ve spent a lot of time working with young people over the last several years, and they come in a huge variety of personalities and learning styles. I understand why Tapscott is using these generalizations to illustrate the shift that is going on in the way young people live and think, but he does seem to go a bit far some times.
Brains create technology which in turn affects the brain. This is nothing new, and I think that the written word had at least as profound an effect on the human brain as the internet age will have. We, especially as the “book people” we are, automatically assume that the rather anti-social behaviour of a family sitting together in a room, each reading his or her own book is healthy, while each person staring at his or her own screen is somehow perverse. I would argue that to an oral culture, both are equally unnatural.
I appreciate Tapscott’s passion on this topic, and I think he’s a necessary counter-balance to the fear-mongering that seems to go on so much these days. I also agree with his concern over privacy issues, though it does seem a bit strange that this is his only big concern in his otherwise positive view of the effect of digital technology. Perhaps he digs into this issue a bit more later in the book.