I didn’t consider it, but starting now and growing over the next 5 years is a list of books that will pinpoint the grouping of people born between 1977 and 1997. Harry Hurt III does a review of a book by Don Tapscott called Grown Up Digital. According to the review, the book does a good job explaining why this generation is the way it is. Mostly it is due to the internet and a changing culture. Here are some tidbits I pulled from the review:
- The group born from 1977 and 1997 (Net Geners) is 81 million people
- 27% of the US population
- The group born from 1946 to 1964 (the baby boomers) is 77 million people
- 23% of the US population
- Baby Boomers watch TV 22.4 hours a week
- Net Geners watch TV 17.4 hours a week
- but spend between 8 and 31 hours a week on the internet
Don Tapscott identifies 8 norms of the Net Geners:
- they prize freedom
- they want to customize things
- they enjoy
collaboration - they scrutinize everything
- they insist on integrity in
institutions and corporations - they want to have fun even at school or
work - they believe that speed in technology and all else is normal
- they regard constant innovation as a fact of life.
Here are some excerpts:
“As the first global generation ever, the Net Geners are smarter,
quicker and more tolerant of diversity than their predecessors,” he
writes. “They care strongly about justice and the problems faced by
their society and are typically engaged in some kind of civic activity
at school, at work or in their communities.”“Not only do video game players notice more, they have highly developed
spatial skills that are useful for architects, engineers and surgeons,”
he says.Mr. Tapscott’s most severe criticism of Net Geners is that they are
“undermining their future privacy” by giving away vast amounts of
personal information along with potentially embarrassing photographs
and videos over the Internet. “They tell us they don’t care, that it’s
all about sharing,” he writes. “But here I must speak with the voice of
experience. Someday that party picture is going to bite them when they
seek a senior corporate job or public office.”
Working Thoughts 