The Digital Generation
Thanks to JP for the pointer to this article penned by Steven Johnson (author of a number of very interesting books including one of my favorites Emergence: The Connected Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities, and Software.)
Today’s kids see the screen as an environment to be explored, inhabited, shared and shaped. They’re blogging. They’re building their MySpace pages. They’re constructing elaborate fan sites for their favorite artists or TV shows. They’re playing immensely complicated games, like Civilization IV–one of the most popular computer games in the U.S. last fall–in which players re-create the entire course of human economic and technological history. I believe this dramatic spike in digital participation is, for the most part, sharpening the minds of Generation M, not dumbing them down.
Generation M is the digital generation.
March 26th, 2006 at 1:36 pm
Absolutely true its the newspapers and television ( well most papers & TV shows) which are dumbing down society.
Games like Civilisation taught me more about history than the teachers at school.
April 11th, 2006 at 1:26 pm
Interesting subject. I agree that I don’t see it as dumbing them down, I just worry that too much time is spent at a keyboard and not social interaction. I see my eldest daughter for example glued to these interactive games, and has now become somewhat sleep deprived
However people tend to be far braver and more outspoken with their comments whilst behind a screen and away from peer pressure, and to that extent it would be interesting to see if that social bravery is translated to the classroom or playground….. I fear it isn’t. I hope someday teachers learn to harness this.
April 19th, 2006 at 5:27 pm
[…] Also demography is on the side of Enterprise2.0 - Generation M, the Digital Generation won’t give companies the choice. Trackback · […]