A Net Genner on the Net Generation
.
I’ll admit, I didn’t read this book cover to cover. I spent about 3 hours reading it, which probably means that I ‘read’ about half and skimmed the rest. This speaks both to the book’s strengths and its weaknesses. On one hand, the book is clearly organized, with three levels of subtitles within the book making skimming much more efficient. On the other hand as a member of the generation that Tapscott is trying to describe, at least 60% of the information is intuitive to the point of banality.
.
What Tapscott does bring to the table, however, is a quantitative approach to how the Net Generation is truly different from those preceding it, with some concrete information deeper than our ubiquitously cited ability to multitask or our improved hand eye coordination. His chapter on “The Net-generation Brain” contained some interesting statistics. For example, he discusses how 10,000 hours of video games and 20,000 hours of internet before age 20, have a positive effect on our ability to process visual information in rapid and complex ways. Additionally, like the Economist review that introduced me to the book, I believe the chapter on ‘Obama, Social Networks, and Digital engagement’ is the primary selling point for the book with interesting anecdotes and a broad view picture of its effectiveness, although the book was published too early to claim it was the reason for his victory.
.
In the end, there’s not enough new information contained in this book for a blanket recommendation. It is has enough to interest genre hacks willing to wade through the banalities, or those who have not yet been exposed to Net Gen ideas. I guess that means I should recommend this book to my mother.