Tapscott Part Two

Don Tapscott brings up a lot of excellent points in section two of “Grown Up Digital.” Tapscott focuses mainly on The Net Gen in section two, showing us Net Gens as Learners, in the Workforce, as Consumers, and as family members. Although he mainly focuses on the Net Gen, he does compare these characteristics with the Net generation to the Boomer generation as well. I will be discussing chapter eight, where Tapscott discusses the net generation and families.

Tapscott allows us to travel back in time to show us life for the boomer generation. We see how parents were strict in the boomer generation, how as Tapscott puts it, “Children were meant to be seen not heard”(221). Children challenging parents was seen as being disrespectful; children were expected to be well mannered. We see through this chapter that although parents of the boomer generation were strict, they were also not aware of the risks children were taking outside of the home. When the boomer generation grew up to be parents to the net generation things changed. Boomer parents did the opposite, they knew the risks, and did everything to keep the children safe and sound inside the home. Tapscott states, “So the first Net Geners found their freedom indoors---especially online. Then, once they could access the Net from their mobile devices they could be free online—anywhere”(220). Net Generation didn’t mind their boomer parents fears of not letting them outside too much, because inside the house they had their gadgets and toys and according to their parents were safe…Or were they?

The net gen as we know, is very computer and gadget savvy. If they’ve never used a gadget before, they don’t read the instruction manual they observe it, and are hands on with it. For the boomer generation not knowing much about computers, it was easier for net generations to keep things hidden. Boomer parents were only concerned about the dangers in the real world, and not the dangers of the virtual world that their children were getting into. Tapscott explains that although there were many dangers outside of the house there were just as many dangers in the home, on the computers. The net generation could possibly come in contact with bullying, sexual predators, pornography, and many other dangers with web surfing. Tapscott states, “41% of U.S teens under age 18 say their parents don’t know what they’re doing online, according to a 2002 survey. And 38% percent of high school students sometimes hide their online activities from parents, according to a 2006 report”(229). I believe these numbers have jumped significantly since 2002 and 2006. I also wonder if because of Facebook being so popular among teenagers and adults if this number hasn’t gotten somewhat better. I’m sure things are still hidden from parents, but I think because Facebook has been equally popular among both generations, parents are more aware of how to get into children’s lives, and are more aware of the possibilities of dangers with the virtual world. It would be interesting to see how much these numbers have changed since 2002 and 2006, because of tools such as Facebook.

While reading through chapter eight I began to wonder if this is how the Boomer generation grew up, and now their parenting this way to the net generation, how is my net generation going to be parenting. While it just so happens Tapscott had a section to give me some more insight. He believes that we will be more aware of online dangers and tricks with our children, but still family oriented. I think we will work on things that our parents didn’t work on, just like the boomer generation with their parents. I believe that everything will evolve around technology in the family. The family will be more disconnected than ever because of these technologies, which is already starting within families. Children would rather be in the virtual world than in family world. I think as years pass, technology is going to make it harder on families to connect with each other not easier. I’m definitely curious to see how my net generation will handle things differently than the boomer generation that’s for sure! Only time will tell!