Grown Up Digital
How the net generation is changing your world
Donald Tapscott

Book Review

Grown Up Digital: How the net generation is changing your world by Donald Tapscott - Buy Now From Amazon

Reviewed by Marty Vanags, CEO, Economic Development Council

 

I have a hard time explaining to my mostly twentyish staff what work was like when I started my career. Frankly, it is a bore to them. No one likes the "back in my day" speech, particularly the people who have grown up with such a rich supply of technology at their fingertips.  It's like describing the first wheel.  But, to add context to this essay, I must take a brief step back in history to have everyone better understand the topic of this month's review.  To not do so would give those who are older than me (I'm 48 this year) the inability to comprehend the changes that are coming and the way in which we are living.

 

Listen clearly: everything about today's generation of younger people is different. And while one can say that about any generation that follows one's own, this generation is blessed and cursed by technology and all its implications simultaneously (my opinion).  How this generation reacts and what they do about business life, the economy, their families, climate change, the environment and their political leaders is impacted by technology. The failure of existing business and political leaders to understand how this generation thinks will render one incapacitated in all those areas as the future arrives, or at least immensely dumbfounded.

 

For the past several years I have been on a quest to understand the generations behind me. Part of this is understanding what my two teenage daughters are thinking and doing and how that impacts our relationship. Understanding why texting is so important and how they communicate with their friends has been eye-opening and sometimes frustrating for me, but as I learn more it is apparent to me that reversing our present pace and method of communication and technology will do me no good. At the Bloomington-Normal EDC we developed a group called the New Leadership Board (NLB) which was also designed to provide me (and our community leaders) with information on how younger generations think about technology, the workplace and quality of life. What do these concepts mean to them and how do they impact the economic future of the community? They are presenting a white paper on this subject in the coming year.

 

Now, along comes a book that provides detailed study in these areas and, perhaps, has given me the clearest understanding of what the author calls the Net Generation. Donald Tapscott, author of Grown Up Digital: How the Net Generation is Changing Your World, provides a detailed view of this new generation, how they act, why they act the way they do and what the impact of this is on our world.  According to his Web site (http://www.grownupdigital.com/), Don Tapscott is the one of the world's leading authority on business strategy with an emphasis on how information technology changes business, government and society. He is also chairman of nGenera Insight, based in Austin, Texas (where else?), and is an adjunct professor at the J.L. Rotman School of Business at the University of Toronto.

 

I first saw Don Tapscott in 1995 at a real estate conference in Albuquerque, New Mexico. I was impressed with his futurist outlook at that time and, fortunately for him and us, he has not fallen off the map as a leading writer and researcher of economic trends and issues. At the time, he was promoting his his 1992 book, Paradigm Shift: The New Promise of Information Technology. People still used the word paradigm back then, and it hadn't been overused at that point. Tapscott even co-authored a book in 1982 titled Office Automation, A User-Driven Method.  Without reading it, I'm betting the ideas in that book are probably outdated, but you never know with a guy like Tapscott.

 

Grown Up Digital is a follow-up to his book Growing Up Digital (2007) and even earlier, Wikinomics (2006). Tapscott is no research slouch. The book is based upon a $4 million research grant that involved interviews with over 10,000 people and 40 reports.  The book is filled with tables and diagrams and well thought out analysis supported by over 43 pages of additional research-based graphs, footnotes and an extensive bibliography at the end of the book. Tapscott says the Net Generation has arrived, and we are to learn from them and act. They are not lazy or stupid like Mark Bauerlein, author of The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes our Future, and whom Tapscott seems to have a running written dialog in this book hoping to dispel Bauerlein's notions.  I have no idea if Bauerlein's book is as strong from a research perspective, but it is a book that may be covered in the future in this book review feature.

 

So what do we find out about the NetGen group in this book, and who are they? Early in the book Tapscott outlines the different generations we always hear described in popular media. He starts with the Baby Boomers (1946-1964) and ends with the NetGen group (1998 to Present). The entire book centers on explaining the eight norms of this newest generation. These eight norms are described and analyzed over 11 chapters. They include:

 

• 1. They want freedom in everything they do, from freedom of choice to freedom of expression: An example is their desires for the workforce. Our own NLB has indicated in their preliminary research that NetGen wants the ability to work from home or other remote places and not be a slave to the traditional corporate policies and rules most of us have grown up with. This is hard to break through in traditional companies, but more and more you see this desire having an impact. With the ability to access work with virtual private networks, Skype video phoning and the cost of travel, they may have a point, and they may be getting their wish in the long run.

 

• 2. NetGeners love to customize and personalize: NetGeners want to be able to customize all their "stuff." After all, that is what NetGeners have grown up with. Whether it is a Facebook page, their personal digital assistant (PDA) or phone, they have been able to personalize their things their entire lives. Why would they let someone tell them they can't personalize the rest of their life? Tuner cars are a great example. The dollars invested in after-market accessories in small four-cylinder cars by the tuner community sometimes nearly equals the cost of the car itself. Look out for this generation to want to customize their job descriptions, homes, clothing and everything else NetGeners touch.

 

• 3. NetGeners are the new scrutinizers: NetGeners are, perhaps, the most skeptical generation ever. When they can look up anything on the Internet, they will. There is little you can put past them. NetGeners are only harnessed by their desire. Retailers need to take this into account when pushing their product. If they have not spent time developing the ability to customize their product (see #2 above) or developed a strong following via rating services that this generation uses, their brand and sales will suffer. This generation has researched the goods and services they want long before they enter the store, and this has impact on advertising and the messages retailers provide to their targets.

 

• 4. NetGeners look for corporate integrity and openness when deciding what to buy and where to work: In a discussion about sustainability in the Bloomington-Normal area, our intern and the only one in the room under the age of 35, said that students are not seeking jobs at companies they believe are not or do not have a sustainable or "green" strategy in place. Tapscott's research for this book bears that out. This generation will not tolerate a company that is not cognizant of the environment and its impact on it as a company.

 

• 5. NetGeners want entertainment and play in their work, education and social life: NetGen wants their lives to be entertaining and fun, not only when they are home, but also in the workplace and everywhere else they go. Playing with video games has given this generation the idea that there are more than one way to achieve a goal. Having a staid, conservative workplace isn't the only way to do things.

 

• 6. NetGeners are a collaboration and relationship generation: The NetGeners want to collaborate on everything. Think of their participation in texting, communicating, gaming and all things Internet. Social sites are all about generating cooperation and teaming up.

 

• 7. NetGeners have a need for speed, in everything: Again, re-telling stories about dial-up service and other inconveniences of the early net age are not interesting to the NetGen group. NetGeners want speed and more speed. The story about having more power in your digital watch than the astronauts took with them on the first trip to the moon is meaningless. Everything has to be delivered with speed. That is why newspapers in their old form are having trouble staying alive. When a person can get on the Internet and find information instantaneously, they don't need a piece of paper that shows up once a day. Every story, every coupon, all information can be found right away on the Net.

 

• 8. NetGeners are innovators: NetGeners want the latest and greatest innovations. NetGeners want to work for companies that are interested in innovation and can deliver. The old style of "anything" is no good anymore. And the more NetGeners consume, the more they want. If your organization is not innovating and moving ahead, you will lose their interest.

 

Is all this true? The research behind Tapscott's book is overwhelming, and it isn't as if he just started looking into technology yesterday. He has been at it for a long time. Is Tapscott's book an apologist for this generation? Perhaps, but NetGeners would probably claim they don't need one.  Tapscott does a great job delivering solid information and strategies for delivering the world to the next generation. Each chapter is punctuated by tips for managers and others to work with and cope with this change that NetGeners bring to the table; tips for educators, tips for a sharper mind (a la NetGeners), guidelines for managers and even guidelines for government leaders.

 

Tapscott does not shy away from giving the NetGeners tips for the future as well.  He believes the NetGeners will change the world. We'll have to see. The book provides information for people like me, with one foot in the Baby Boomer generation but feeling more like a tail-end Generation X.  I have seen the overwhelming change that has occurred over the years. It has occurred at a faster pace than any other generation. I have judged this generation from the view I have of this transformation and the behaviors and activities I find unseemly or disconcerting, but I am willing to view it with different shades thanks to this book.  I love technology, but I also enjoy and appreciate the generation in which I grew up. I think the two can reconcile themselves, and we can have a richer, more vivid quality of life.

 

I certainly don't want to go back to reading Office Automation, A User-Driven Method. I wonder if it is still in print?