Growing Up Digital: The Rise of the Net Generation

By Don Tapscott

Book Overview

Die Netz-Generation ist da, die "Generation N". Sie wird fast vollkommen durch digitale Technologie und interaktive Medien gepr?gt. Don Tapscott beschreibt, wie Millionen Kinder und Jugendliche mit... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0070633614
• ISBN13: 9780070633612
• Release Date: January 1998
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill
• Length: 338 Pages
• Weight: 1.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.8" x 1.5" x 6.5"

Customer Reviews

Very Insightful

This is the type of book that will open your eyes or remind you that what you already think is happening. I loved it.

Growing Up Digital

By a doctoral student at Gonzaga University--Growing Up Digital is a must read for educators, parents, organizational leaders, and anyone seeking to better understand the influence of technology on our society. This book takes a look at a generation (called the Net Generation, referring to children between the ages of 2 and 22 in 1999) that has grown up "surrounded by digital media." Tapscott takes a look at how this generation learns, plays, communicates, works, and creates communities, which he paints as very different from their parents. The author states "children without access to the new media will be developmentally disadvantaged." This is commonly referred to as the "Digital Divide," a topic he explores in one chapter.Most of the ideas for this book came from discussions with about 300 N-Geners between the ages of 4 and 20 over a one-year period of time. Kate Baggott (age 24) led the research. The insights are fresh and challenging, especially to adults who consider the computer to be much like a TV in usefulness.Tapscott is very positive in his impressions of N-Geners. His research seems to support that "the children of the digital age appear to be smart, accepting of diversity, curious, assertive, self-reliant, high in self-esteem, and global in orientation." He even claims that "it is not the N-Gen children who are being robbed of social development, it is those adults, through fear or ignorance, deny themselves the experience of participating in the great revolution of our times." I couldn't help but read this book with an eye to my own children. Even though I could afford very little when my children were young, I bought a computer when they first became available, forsaking a color TV (ours was black and white), a VCR, and a microwave for years. My son, age 18, has been programming for fun for years, having taught himself various languages. I could only help him with BASIC when he was 10. My daughter, age 12, has been developing websites for several years (completely self-taught), including graphics, opinion polls, discussion forums (which she administers, seeking moderators to assist her). Her most recent discussion board had over 2000 posts in a matter of days. My discussion board (my first) had 10 posts after 3 weeks (and half were mine). I have never regretted giving this educational opportunity to my children. I teach at a local community college, where my students are mostly adults who want to learn how to use computers. These adults must adapt to the digital age, much like learning a foreign language, and it is difficult. For my children, I just gave them access and got out of the way.In conclusion, I was reading this book in the month of September of 2001. On the 11th my focus turn to the news events on the TV. My children barely watched the TV, but instead turned to the Internet and found what they needed to know, many times before I heard the same news. Not only were they informed, but also through t

A Must Read for those Working with Today's Youth

Tapscott does a phenomenal job of explaining how a new generation is growing up in a digital world. He explores how they think, play, learn, and interact differently as a result of being immersed with technology all around them. He mixes a decent amount of research along with examples and stories to illustrate various points. Teachers, marketing reps, and anyone else that wants to reach out to today's young people should read this book. It stands alone in terms of its research and the comprehensiveness of its coverage. A number of insights I've already applied and use for reference. There are few other books that explore the Net Generation in how technology is impacting their lives.

Finally, a true representation.

I'm a 17 year old from Toronto (an "N-gener"). When I picked up a copy of this book, I expected to find what I always see - a skewed, assumtion-based, innacurate view of how people my age think and act, written by an "adult" who thinks they know. What this book is, in fact, is an extremely real representation of how kids feel about technology. I was pleasantly surprised (to say the least). I'd love to thank Tapscott for writing this book, so that people can hear what's really going on from an established, respected source.

Shifting paradigms

Just when I thought I had a handle on the n-gen's way of thinking and communicating, Tapscott reveals even more insights. GUD is a paradigm shifting read. Every educator and parent of n-gen kids should read it more than once.