Giving Way to the NetGen

The NetGeneration – anyone between the ages of 11 and 31 that multitask five activities at once such as: texting, surfing the web, making videos, taking pictures and uploading to Facebook, checking Facebook, selling/buying on Craigslist, receiving RSS feed of the news they want to know, iPods always playing in the background, the list could go on and on.

It is a generation that is 28.1 million strong and they have come of age. 

According to DonTapscott , author of Grown Up Digital (2009), growing up digital has had a profound impact on this generation and how they think, even changing the way their brains are wired. For one, this group is more tolerant of racial diversity and is smarter and quicker than its predecessors. They are revolutionizing everything we know, including the workplace, the marketplace, politics, education and even the structure of the family. 

So how are they doing this? Take a look:

1.  They approach work collaboratively and are forcing organizations to rethink recruiting, developing, and supervising talent.
2. As consumers, this group wants to be “prosumers” – they want to help shape the product to better suit their needs.
3.  In education, they are forcing instruction to be more student-focused and collaborative.
4. In the family structure, the NetGeners are the “experts”, redesigning how the family structure once existed—the parents
   knew everything because of their life experiences. Our children have definitely become experts in the Internet. 
5. They are much more involved with civic activity. With the use of the internet, they are becoming powerful with social activism. 

What does this mean as parents? It means that our children are actively engaging with media eight to 33 hours a week. Statistically,
this generation is watching a lot less television than that of the Baby Boomer generation because digital media allows them to be active participants, and not just passive listeners.

It means that we, as parents, are not always comfortable with the fact that they turn instantly to the Internet for everything. Many parents have said kids need to know how to write in cursive, kids need to write their spelling words five times each, kids need to know how to read
a map. While I agree to a point, I also challenge you to think of it differently and I ask you how will this help them in 20 years from now, if our world continues to change exponentially?

Our time would be better spent if we encouraged our kids to ask questions that will point them in the right direction for the information they are looking for, and decide what is valid and what is not valid.  This group of kids will challenge and look for the truth, not resting until they are satisfied. 

As digital immigrants, parents are trying to learn a new language.  Think of it as an old dog learning a new trick.  It is going to take time for us to understand why they can do five things at once, why they need to be plugged in every second, and why the Internet is so important to them.  But it is.

We must learn to adapt, recognize that our children are experts in some things, and love them all the same.  The NetGeneration has opened doors and is changing our world exponentially.