Oct 30 2008
Grown Up Digital
Last night I began to consume Don Tapscott’s new “Grown Up Digital” book with great interest. I was a big fan of “Growing Up Digital” when it was published around a decade ago. I was curious to learn what he has discovered since then.
After only a couple of chapters I can tell that this book will be a fantastic read, telling me much about my students who have reached adulthood completely immersed in digital technology. One thing I find interesting is my own kinship with the Net Generation, even though technically I’m not counted among them.
I was born somewhere between the end of the Baby Boom generation the beginning of Generation X, yet I identify with many key aspects of the current Net Generation. For example, Tapscott talks about the popularity of making mashups… selecting video and audio content created by others and repurposing it into something new. As a high school student in 1983, I remember doing this very thing, albeit with far simpler technology, mashing Bugs Bunny together with Judas Priest on our VCR.
I have always been a fan of recorded media, but what kids today have that I lacked was a global network through which I could share my creations. I was also using slower, less flexible analog technologies. But I completely understand what is compelling about digital media, and why young people want to be involved with it.
Another thing I share in common with the Net Generation is an openness to diversity and people from other cultures and perspectives. I have to say that this comes less naturally to me than it does my younger counterparts. Having grown up in rural Kansas where the population was composed of nearly 100% Christian Caucasians, joining the Navy and traveling around the world did more to change my perspective than anything.
The current generation is more accepting of differences than any generation before it, and I think that is fantastic. This generation is also more skeptical, and this is no surprise to me. When digital technology allows John McCain to dance like Elvis, I can certainly understand where an attitude of healthy skepticism comes from.
One idea Tapscott mentioned that I found very interesting was the notion that the dynamic of the family is changing. Before this generation, parents were the authority on virtually everything in the household, and the children passively followed the lead of the parents. With the rise of the Net Generation, children are able to know things and be the authority on some aspects of family life; particularly those aspects dealing with technology.
This notion of shared authority also applies in the classroom. As a computer teacher, I have long understood that I will have students who know things about computing that I do not know, and I should be comfortable with sharing authority on the subject. Not every teacher is comfortable being in this postition, but for me it would be disingenuous to behave as though I have all of the answers and know everything my students know.
We live in truly amazing times. I am writing this in my living room easy chair, typing away on a wireless laptop, sharing my thoughts with anyone who is interested from potentially every corner of the Earth. What is even more amazing to me is that I am far from any city or population that could remotely be considered cosmopolitan, yet I regularly converse with people from all over the world. No wonder the current Net Generation is full of hope and optimism; they have been doing this stuff their entire lives!
