Getting to Know the Net Gen
sending e-mail and why too they find the morning newspaper —the one actually printed on paper— an anachronism. A study carried out in the United States in 2006 revealed that adolescents there spend 72 hours a week using electronic media – including the Internet, cell phones and videogames. The same study shows that 68% make use of social networks in order to connect with their friends.
Erica and Julián belong to the Net Gen, a generation of networked individuals who learn, think, buy, believe and relate in ways that are different from those of their parents. While the previous generation grew up reading newspapers, listening to radio and watching television, they sit in front of their computers, interacting and participating. With the tools that Web 2.0 has placed at their disposal, they create and give shape to new worlds. These tools are not neutral, however. Thanks to them, the youth of this generation have unprecedented power over the communications media at their fingertips. What remains to be seen is whether they will use this power to defend their right to exchange a code that facilitates intellectual piracy —as in the case of Digg— or if they will make the media their own in order to improve the society they live in. According to the definition set down by Don Tapscott, who provided the first detailed report on them in his book, Growing up Digital, the young people of the Net Gen were born between 1977 and 1996 and have entered or are about to enter the job market. They are fast and can handle several tasks at a time: for example, watching TV, downloading music on the Internet and doing their homework. They live in real time. That’s why they chat or send each other IMs (instant messages) instead of
A Change of Habits TV
Internet
Media Controlled by the Adult World
Provides Greater Control to Youth
Passive Observers
Interactive and Participative Users
Mass Sales Messages
Google AdSense
Technology Implies Hierarchy Technology Gets Distributed: Free Software
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