Author: Don Tapscott
BOOK REVIEW: FT
In 'Grown Up Digital,' Don Tapscott argues that young people's skills in 'playing' with information are undervalued and that the best managers can learn from these employees.
By Richard DonkinDecember 29, 2008
It is the privilege -- or possibly the curse -- of each new generation to be different from the last. But rarely has a generational divide been as noticeable as that between those in their early 20s and the baby boomers.
This, at any rate, is the proposition put forward by Don Tapscott, a management professor at the University of Toronto and author a decade ago of "Growing Up Digital: The Rise of the Net Generation." In his latest book, "Grown Up Digital: How the Net Generation Is Changing Your World," he argues that senior corporate managers must strive to understand what he calls the Net Generation -- born between 1977 and 1997 -- often described as Generation Y.
Too often, he says, the generation that grew up with the Internet is derided by employers as ill-informed, Web-addicted, unfocused, poorly read and narcissistic.
But in a long-running, $4-million research project involving thousands of interviews with 16- to 19-year-olds in 12 countries and comparative interview programs with earlier generations, Tapscott and his team reached a different view.
The Net Generation, he notes, was raised on a much more varied media diet than its parents who, in the United States at least, watched an average of 22 hours of television a week in their youth.
The "Net Geners," he says, have access to so much competing media that they are more likely to spend their home time on computers, simultaneously interacting on several screens, while talking on the phone, listening to music, doing homework and reading.
This all-in-one generation cannot be defined as passive learners. "They are the active initiators, collaborators, organizers, readers, writers, authenticators, and even strategists. . . . They do not just observe, they participate. They inquire, discuss, argue, play, shop, critique, investigate, ridicule, fantasize, seek and inform."
Technology is shaping their minds in a different way, he writes. Unlike their predecessors who absorb information sequentially, Net Geners "play" with information -- clicking, cutting, pasting and linking to interesting material.
"They develop hypertext minds," in the words of William Winn, learning center director at the University of Washington's Human Interface Technology Laboratory.
Such behaviors, Tapscott writes, mean this new generation is well equipped for handling information.
He quotes research by father-and-son brain scientists Stanley and Matthew Kutcher, who argue that the scanning practices of young people are developing their potential for analytical thinking.
Henry Jenkins, director of the comparative media studies program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is also cited. He believes so-called digital immersion may be encouraging a new form of intelligence that is strengthened through collaboration with other people and machines.
In a direct challenge to the conventional school syllabus, Tapscott argues that although it is still important that children have certain basic knowledge, the details, such as the date of the Battle of Hastings, are less important when they can be accessed instantly on the Web.
This is controversial thinking with far-reaching consequences for the way young people are taught and employed. But the book aims to tackle Internet prejudices head on.
His conclusion is that "the kids are all right."
The best managers and educators will understand that there is much they can learn from this cohort, as well as the other way around. His seven guidelines for managers include a recommendation to "rethink authority," giving feedback where it is needed but remaining open to learning from young employees.
Other guidelines include encouraging employees to blog and avoiding bans on access to social networking sites. Instead, managers should work on ways to harness these technologies to promote better collaboration.
The book is a thoughtful antithesis to entrenched and sometimes alarmist managerial opposition to Internet-influenced behaviors. Read it next to the computer, scanning, flicking through and annotating it as a valuable addition to the Internet knowledge that is revolutionizing our world.
