Grown Up Digital: How the Net Generation Is Changing Your World

This book is a must read for people who don't get Gen Y/ Net Gen as Tapscott calls them. It is full of anecdotes and data on why Net Gen are actually the smartest generation, activists, techho-friends and able to change the world (check out Obama no 1 on Twitter!) I have changed my own net habits as a result of this. As a Gen X (but a techy one) I can see how quickly social networking and social groups online are changing the net. If you want to make money online, recruit Gen Y, understand your children or just get with the technology, then this is a great book. I tweeted it, and I am blogging it!

As a Net Gener myself, I couldn't help but wonder if Don Tapscott had been looking over my shoulder when he wrote this book. Grown Up Digital not only captured the essence of what it means to be a part of the Net Generation, but I found myself acting out the exact things he wrote. When I began reading, I had the television on (strictly as background noise) and my laptop was only feet away if I needed to check my email or visit a Web site mentioned in the book. Tapscott's explanation of what it means to be a part of the Net Generation is consummate. I found myself nodding along as I read the eight Net Gen norms illustrated in multiple chapters. I have more friends changing jobs every two or three years, or moving back home while they figure out how to have a more worthwhile career. I have received emails calling a company out on things such as their employee treatment or their non-philanthropic agenda. I, in turn, scrutinize that email to make sure it is factual before I take any boycott action. And sometimes I do lose my patience when things are not progressing at high speed. Executives, politicians, Net Gen parents and Net Geners themselves need to read this book. All would benefit from Tapscott's insight into what makes the Net Gen tic. He touches on this generation's current and eventual impact in the workplace, government and the family structure. Grown Up Digital clearly illustrates how much this generation already has and will affect this world. I don't think my generation has all the answers to the world's problems, but I finished this book with a sense of hope. Not everyone sees us as lazy and apathetic. Tapscott recognizes us for who we are- an innovative, passionate and history-changing group of young people, and he provides plenty of anecdotes and research to back him up.

Several years ago two books greatly impacted my life: The Social Life of Information and Wikinomics. I decided to leave teaching graduate business courses and jump into developing collaborative and social networking technologies. Little did I know that in short order I would join nGenera and Don Tapscott. Grown Up Digital: How the Net Generation is Changing Your World HC is the product of an amazing amount of research, and provides a thorough, timely and thought provoking qualitative analysis of the "Net Generation," aka Gen Y or Millennials. For a Gen Xer or Baby Boomer, this is a must read and leadership manual like no other. We are experiencing one of the few eras where three generations in significant numbers are in the workforce at the same time. The gap from Boomer to Millennial is substantial, not just in technology adoption and behaviors, but even in brain development. Tapscott succeeds in explaining these differences and also dispels many of the common myths surrounding Gen Y. Some of the key Net Generation characteristics identified by Tapscott include making choices that ensure professional freedom, customizing technology to suite individual needs, scrutinizing the claims of others, living with much more integrity and tolerance, being highly collaborative, and a focus on entertainment, speed and innovation. Another key point, especially for educators, is that the Net Generation is enrolling in and dropping out of college in huge numbers. The problem is not their desire to learn, but antiquated methodologies for delivering education that do not appeal to their collaborative and connected nature. This book provides a great roadmap for redesigning education delivery and educators should reconsider how they design the learning experience. Tapscott's key caveat, which I share from my own experience, is that the open nature of GenY may come at the cost of future personal privacy as social networking behaviors are now captured digitally and permanently. But perhaps Gen Y's lack of secrecy and resulting integrity will create a future where we have fewer Enrons and Bernard Madoffs.

The book provides some fascinating insights on this generation - a generation that is all too readily written off in other books and articles. In particular, the list of characteristics, such as need for customization and desire to scrutinize, provides a great lens with which to view how this generation will change the world. Although each of these characteristics taken separately does not set the Net Generation apart, the combination goes a long way in explaining the behavior and tastes of youth today. The most interesting parts of the book were the chapters on education and the future of work. And that is where the true test of this generation's strength and potential will occur. Although we can already see the Net Generation's impact on consumer markets, family structures and the political world, today's educational institutions and traditional corporations are much harder to change. The vision laid out in the book will lead to the creation of the best educated and most competitive workforce ever - that is if today's educators and business leaders can embrace the new ways of thinking necessary to get there.