WORRIES about the damage the internet may be doing to young people has produced a mountain of books—a suitably old technology in which to express concerns about the new. Robert Bly claims that, thanks to the internet, the “neocortex is finally eating itself”. Today’s youth may be web-savvy, but they also stand accused of being unread, bad at communicating, socially inept, shameless, dishonest, work-shy, narcissistic and indifferent to the needs of others.
The man who christened the “net generation” in his 1997 bestseller, “Growing Up Digital”, has no time for such views. In the past two years, Don Tapscott has overseen a $4.5m study of nearly 8,000 people in 12 countries born between 1978 and 1994. In “Grown Up Digital” he uses the results to paint a portrait of this generation that is entertaining, optimistic and convincing. The problem, he suspects, is not the net generation but befuddled baby-boomers, who once sang along with Bob Dylan that “something is happening here, but you don’t know what it is”, yet now find that they are clueless about the revolutionary changes taking place among the young. “As the first global generation ever, the Net Geners are smarter, quicker and more tolerant of diversity than their predecessors,” Mr Tapscott argues. “These empowered young people are beginning to transform every institution of modern life.” They care strongly about justice, and are actively trying to improve society—witness their role in the recent Obama campaign, in which they organised themselves through the internet and mobile phones and campaigned on YouTube.
Mr Tapscott’s prescient chapter on “The Net Generation and Democracy: Obama, Social Networks and Citizen Engagement” alone should ensure his book a wide readership. Contrary to the claims that video games, Facebook and constant text-messaging have robbed today’s young of the ability to think, Mr Tapscott believes that “Net Geners” are the “smartest generation ever”. The experience of parents who grew up watching television is misleading when it comes to judging the 20,000 hours on the internet and 10,000 hours playing video games already spent by a typical 20-yearold American today. “The Net Generation is in many ways the antithesis of the TV generation,” he argues. One-way broadcasting via television created passive couch potatoes, whereas the net is interactive, and, he says, stimulates and improves the brain.
There is growing neuroscientific support for this claim. People who play video games, for example, have been found to process complex visual information more quickly. They may also be better at multi-tasking than earlier generations, which equips them better for the modern world. Mr Tapscott identifies eight norms that define Net Geners, which he believes everyone should take on board to avoid being swept away by the sort of generational tsunami that helped Barack Obama beat John McCain.
Net Geners value freedom and choice in everything they do. They love to customize and personalize. They scrutinize everything. They demand integrity and openness, including when deciding what to buy and where to work. They want entertainment and play in their work and education, as well as their social life. They love to collaborate. They expect everything to happen fast. And they expect constant innovation.
Web wizards
These patterns have important implications for the workplace. Employers who ban the use of Facebook in the office—the equivalent of forbidding older staff to use their rolodexes—show clear signs of being out of touch, he argues. Two out of three Net Geners feel that “working and having fun can and should be the same thing”. That does not mean they want to play games all day, but that they want the work itself to be enjoyable.
They also expect collaboration, constant feedback and rapid career advancement based on merit. How they will react to being fired en masse as the downturn worsens remains to be seen, but Mr Tapscott suspects they will take it in their stride. Two things do worry Mr Tapscott. One is the inadequacy of the education system in many countries; while two-thirds of Net Geners will be the smartest generation ever, the other third is failing to achieve its potential. Here the fault is the education, not the internet, which needs to be given a much bigger role in classrooms (real and virtual). The second is the net generation’s lack of any regard for personal privacy, which Mr Tapscott says is a “serious mistake, and most of them don’t realise it.”
Already, posting pictures of alcohol fuelled parties, let alone mentioning drug use or other intimate matters, is causing a growing number of job applicants to fail the “reference test” as employers trawl Facebook and MySpace for clues about the character and behaviour of potential employees. More optimistically, the Net Geners are much more positive than their predecessors about their family. Half of those interviewed regard at least one parent as their “hero”.
Mr Tapscott believes the internet is producing an improved, more collaborative version of family life, which he calls the “open family”. Parents increasingly recognise that their youngsters have digital expertise they lack but want to tap, and also that their best defence against their children falling foul of the dark side of the internet, such as online sexual predators, is to win their children’s trust through honest conversation. Ironically, Mr Tapscott’s recommended “platform” for this essential social networking could hardly be more old tech: the family dinner table.作者: prettywraith 时间: 2010-2-15 14:25:44
Comments (2010-02-11):
The world has been changed thoroughly by internet, and so does the net generation. My first time hear about "the net generation" this term. And even I never realize I am counted the net generation before reminding by this essay. It is interesting that people care more at the net generation. From my perspective, generation gap has existed for a long time. Even if there are no internet, as one result of development, there still have many differences between our grandpa and us. Admittedly, internet or web extends the gap among different generations. Internet makes us receive more information, more interaction with others, and more convenient communication. Author's optimistic attitude for the net generation is reasonable. But, as I known, some youngsters indeed are bad at communicating, socially inept, indifferent to the needs of others and even addict internet world. Certainly, it is unreasonable to complain the internet for these sad things. After all, internet is only a tool. How it serves for us is decided by how we used it.
Useful Expressions Words and Phrases
In “Grown Up Digital” he uses the results to paint a portrait of this generation that is {2}entertaining, optimistic and convincing. Paint a portrait of sth.=describe
“These empowered young people are beginning to transform every institutionof modern life.” Institution=convention, custom, habit, practice, tradition
Employers who ban the use of Facebook in the office—the equivalent of forbidding older staff to use their rolodexes—show clear signs of being out of touch, he argues. Ban the use of， Show clear signs of
One is the inadequacy of the education system in many countries Inadequacy=shortcoming
The other third is failing to achieve its potential. Fail to achieve one’s potential
The second is the net generation’s lack of any regard for personal privacy
Place more/Lack regard for personal privacy
Parents increasingly recognise that their youngsters have digital expertise they lack but want to tap Youngster=young people Functional Sentences
1.【Issue让步，Argument反例】
Contrary to the claims that video games, Facebook and constant text-messaging have robbed today’s young of the ability to think, Mr Tapscott believes that “Net Geners” are the “smartest generation ever”. Contrary to the claims that (..claim..), (..someone..) believes that (..claim..)
2.【Issue, Argument-Extremely Situation/Case】
Already, posting pictures of alcohol fuelled parties, let alone mentioning drug use or other intimate matters, is causing a growing number of job applicants to fail the “reference test”
------------------------------------------------------------------------ Materials(Ideas/Examples/ Technique)
【Issue- Beginning of an controversial topic】
WORRIES about the damage (that) the internet may be doing to young people has produced a mountain of books—a suitably old technology in which to express concerns about the new.
Worries about a worse society our children would bring has produced a mountain of essays after financial crisis.
【Issue- Inadequacy/Shortcoming of Net Generation】
{1}Today’s youth may be web-savvy, but they also stand accused of being unread, bad at communicating, socially inept, shameless, dishonest, work-shy, narcissistic and indifferent to the needs of others.
【Issue-Merit/Advantage of Net Generation】 {2}the Net Geners are smarter, quicker and more tolerant of diversity than their predecessors
{4}They care strongly about justice, and are actively trying to improve society—witness their role in the recent Obama campaign (which bear John McCain), in which they organised themselves through the internet and mobile phones and campaigned on YouTube.
Net Geners value (1)freedom and choice in everything they do. They love to (2)customize and personalize. They (3)scrutinize everything. They demand (4) integrity and openness, including when deciding what to buy and where to work. They want
(5)entertainment and play in their work and education, as well as their social life. They love to (6)collaborate. They expect everything to happen (7)fast. And they expect (8)constant innovation.
【Issue-Antithesis of generations】
{5}“The Net Generation is in many ways the antithesis of the TV generation,” he argues. One-way broadcasting via television created passive couch potatoes, whereas the net is interactive, and, he says, stimulates and improves the brain. (130 Better Society)
【Issue-What staff want for】
They also expect collaboration, constant feedback and rapid career advancement based on merit.
------------------------------------------------------------------------ My Comment
I am so lucky that I belong to the net generation for several reasons.
First, I could have more convenient and more various accesses to more information through Internet. Google, BBS, E-Books and other web-sites all over the world really help a lot while our predecessors could only be limited in few bookshops and libraries in a small town.
Second, computers and Internet exercise our ability to deal with complex visual information and process multi-tasks as that the author mentioned. In the past, people cannot get such computer tools to train such ability
Some people blame the Net Generation of being bad at communication, socially inept and indifferent to society. However, I do think our generation own strong justice and ready for any chance of improving our society. The author gives us a convinced example. In the recent Obama campaign, youngsters organized themselves through the internet by Blog, Twitter, YouTube and so on to help promote the votes of today’s president. We can see a good command of communication and virtuous social interaction in such events.