Don Tapscott talks about how the New Generation is changing the world by developing new ways of thinking and interacting.
CONQUERING FEAR WITH KNOWLEDGE
Why the apparent hostility toward the youth culture and its media? People become defensive when threatened by something new and which they don’t understand. Historic innovations and shifts in thinking are often received with coolness, even mockery. Vested interests fight change. Just as the proponents of Newtonian physics argued against Einstein’s general theory of relativity, so the leaders of traditional media are typically skeptical, at best, toward the new. Both film and print media showed considerable unease with television. Baby boomers set a precedent of being a major generational threat to their elders. Previous generations didn’t have the luxury of a prolonged adolescence; after a brief childhood, kids went straight into the workforce. But babyboomers grew up in a time of relative prosperity and attended school for manymore years than did their parents. They had time to develop their own youth culture. Rock ’n’ roll, long hair, protest movements, weird clothes, and newlifestyles made their parents uneasy. They also had a new medium through which to communicate their culture—television.
Now it’s the boomers’ turn to feel uneasy. A new generation has emerged, with new values, and it understands the new media much better than the boomers do. The situation that has developed is a classic generation gap. No wonder you see so much confusion and insecurity being shown by the boomers, not to mention all the nasty books, articles, and TV shows targeting today’s youth and the Net Generation’s culture and new media. I think that, overall, the Internet has been good for them, and they will be good for us. Of all my concerns, one big one stands out. Net Geners are making a serious mistake, and most of them don’t realize it. They’re giving away their personal information on social networks and elsewhere and in doing so are undermining their future privacy. They tell me they don’t care; it’s all about sharing. But here I must speak with the voice of experience. Some day that party picture is going to bite them when they seek a senior corporate job or public office. I think they should wake up, now, and become aware of the extent to which they’re sharing parts of themselves that one day they may wish they had kept private. You will also read that other concerns are more complicated and require a thoughtful response on our part, rather than the cynical and popular sport of attacking and ridiculing youth.
Most of the criticisms are founded on suspicion and fear, usually on the part of older people. Those fears are perhaps understandable. The New Web, in the hands of a technologically savvy and community-minded Net Generation, has the power to shake up society and topple authorities in many walks of life. Once information flows freely and the people have the tools to share it effectively anduse it to organize themselves, life as we know it will be different. Schools, universities, stores, businesses, even politics will have to adapt to this generation’s style of doing things , and in my view, that will be good. Families will have new challenges too, as their kids explore the world out there online. Life, in other words, will change, and many people find change hard. It’s only natural to fear what we don’t understand.
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