T A B L E__T A L K Riven and Myst fans discuss their passion in the Digital Culture area of Table Talk
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TALKING 'BOUT MY "NET GENERATION" | PAGE 2 OF 2 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - It's difficult to fault Tapscott for his agenda -- "Growing Up Digital" is clearly aimed at refuting all those spoilsports who see the Internet as nothing more than a vile conduit for injecting smut, violence and anarchism directly into impressionable young minds. And there's no arguing with the basic premise: Kids adapt to new technology faster than their elders. I realized that the first time my daughter, not even 6 months old, reached for the remote control. Tapscott's conclusions are more questionable. Sure, kids aren't afraid of computer mice. But even if they are better equipped for mastering our Zeitgeist of exceedingly fast technological change, does that really mean that they are destined to lead us all to a digital promised land? Tapscott doesn't make the case. For most of his book, he's guilty of the same over-the-top cheerleading that renders so much pro-Net rhetoric easily dismissible. And that's a shame, because by the time he gets to the end of his argument he starts making a lot of sense. The last two chapters of "Growing Up Digital" are relatively devoid of hype. "N-Gen and the Family" offers cogent advice on parenting issues in an Internet-friendly home, while "The Digital Divide" deals frankly with the significant problem of ensuring access to computers for disadvantaged kids. But you'd better be wearing some awfully thick hip-waders if you plan to make it to the end of "Growing Up Digital." It's a bad sign when any writer overuses the words "new," "fundamental" and "paradigm." It's a worse sign when every speculation about the future is framed as inevitable -- "N-geners will do this, N-geners will do that." But it's an absolutely irremediable sin to introduce into the modern lexicon a piece of marketing jargon as putrid as "N-gen." Would any self-respecting teenager call him or herself an "N-gener"? Not likely -- it's the kind of word only a marketing vice president could love. Tapscott, if one is to judge by his day jobs, spends a bit too much of his time in the company of marketing execs. He boasts a buzzwords-R-us twofer: He's the chairman of a "think tank" called the Alliance for Converging Technologies as well as the president of the New Learning Paradigm Corporation. Setting aside the ugliness of its jargon, Tapscott's N-gen mantra does a disservice to his cause. Although he is really just talking about a subset of a subset -- educated upper-middle-class kids with access to the Net -- he repeatedly refers to the Net Generation as if it included every single one of the 88 million children born during the last two decades. And these kids aren't just keyboard-friendly -- they are also "more knowledgeable than any previous generation ... They are as used to having options as they are to breathing oxygen." They have no "ethos of individualism" but do enjoy "high self-esteem," "value their body image" and are set to flourish in the "new noncoercive business world." Oh, and don't even think about seducing them from their ideals with executive perks. N-geners "will not be impressed by mahogany." "They are breaking free from the one-way, centralized media of the past and are beginning to shape their own destiny," writes Tapscott. "And evidence is mounting that the world will be a better place as a result." Tapscott is far from the first to wax lyrical about the video game generation. Jon Katz, Wired magazine's media critic, kicked off the digital teenage fan club with his account of how children will lead the revolution in a 1996 Wired cover story. Then came Douglas Rushkoff, hot in pursuit of a new trend, with his "screenager" manifesto "Playing The Future." They all agree: The skills honed while mastering "Quake II" will save us all. And they all merrily avoid confronting one of contemporary society's greatest strengths -- its ability to co-opt, commodify and culturally digest every threat and every trend. The "N-Gen tsunami" is going to smack into the likes of Nike and MTV and dissipate faster than fog in the morning sun. Heck, Tapscott has already done the 21st century version of Madison Avenue a huge favor: The phrase "Net Generation" is Pepsi-ad ready. No generation, no matter how technologically enabled, will guarantee us a cultural panacea. My daughter may be way ahead of where her parents were at her age, but so is everybody else -- so is our culture as a whole. Her generation will cut its teeth on the Net and do things with it that I can't imagine. But my and her generation will also take advantage of the Net to do things to her at the same time -- to monitor her, advertise to her, evangelize and exploit her. Which is why, when I receive e-mail from my daughter, I'm equal parts amazed and alarmed. Her world may be bright with new possibilities -- but it will also be filled with the same old bullshit.
Will the Net transform our kids -- or just find more ingenious ways to sell things to them? Come to Table Talk's Digital Culture area and speak your mind. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - B O O K++I N F O R M A T I O N: "GROWING UP DIGITAL: THE RISE OF THE NET GENERATION" |
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