Tapscott Pt 3

From the third part of Tapscott’s book I like the outline made about a possible fear of the new generation for the future. Reading through the outline, I realize that I (like usual) relate to the points made throughout this book.

1. The dumbest generation?

With respect to the amount of time watching television and online versus reading books for enjoyment, you could say this is a dumber generation. Not all the time this generation is online is for enjoyment, there is a lot of multitasking with school/work/enjoyment trying to all work at the same time. In this time, the younger generation has a world of information at the simplest point and click, so no I don’t think this is the dumbest generation; but there are definitely cases of people not accomplishing anything for  hours due to internet use.

2. Screen addicted? Losing Social Skills?

Along with the fight of social networking sites and interactions, some of the sites are used so that people from far away are able to still converse with each other. There’s a balance of using social media to find others with similar interests, being lazy and not wanting to leave your house to meet a friend, and other sorts of creating ‘meetups’ and groups to ease the communication for projects or for shared interests.

3. Are they giving up their privacy?

Privacy is very much so compromised more than ever because anything you post online is there for basically ever. Some of the postings are meaningless to the poster but can be used some how by someone on the other side of the world. There are privacy features available, but apparently the generation now isn’t adequately using them when they complain they want privacy.

4. Are they coddled? Do they lack independence?

This generation has a closer relationship with the family than ever before, which is probably due to the fact of increased school costs and they become financially dependent upon them. Being close to their family doesn’t mean they lost their independence. I admit I’m close with my family and grateful I have them, but there are times when they get on some nerves and I have the room to get away.

5.Does the internet encourage youth to steal/cheat?

With the intense web network of today and accessibility to everything, 77% of Net Geners have said they had illegally downloaded something. The thought is that why not just download something that otherwise would have spent a lot of money one. I feel the same about some things, but when the numbers grow higher, then the money lost on sales can hurt our economy.

6. Does it encourage bullying?

More recently in this time era of the internet, you hear more of cyber bullying creating more havoc due to the amount of technology present now. In older generations people were bullied usually at school with physical or verbal but on the internet it could be anyway and do the same without leaving home. Seeing the actual risks of bullying face to face is diminished through the web and people don’t see the consequences making it seem that it’s okay to do. It has been shown to go too far, but is more easily tracked for those doing it.

7. Does it incite youth violence?

I have heard this question quite a bit with these sorts of games, and from the book reading a statistic was shown that crime rates have dropped from the time of 1993 to 2005. There was a smaller percentage than originally thought of those who would play video games and prompted the youths to commit those same instances. More often are the ones who use their video games to play out those instances instead of committing them in the real world.

8. Do the Net Gen have a misguided sense of entitlement; bad work ethic?

With all this technology assisting our daily lives you’d think that it would hinder our work ethic. Well for some it is true, but the accessibility through technology has made this generation want to have their own freedom and not spend hours in a cubicle like previous generations. The ones who are lacking the hard work ethic are most likely to be co-dependent on their parents and not wanting to make their own life and make their own earnings.

9. Are they narcissistic?

Along with technology and editing has led to people becoming more aware of themselves and the ones around them. Although I found it interesting that the book pointed out that our generation smokes, drinks, and less crime than previous generations; calling this generation not as ‘self-centered risk takers.’

10. What about values? Always want to be rich and famous?

Along with the narcissism aspect, it seems that this generation’s goals are usually to aspire to become rich and famous mostly due to cost of going to college. That makes some sense in that they make almost a heinous amount of money, compared to a large amount of debt of going to school for years. But it has been found that this generation has been more driven to volunteer than ever before.