Review: Growing Up Digital

Growing Up Digital by Don Tapscott
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I have never read about about the sociological impact of technology of such vintage that still seems so prescient, considered, and relevant. Built around interaction with actual 11 - 15 year-olds (mostly), there is a lot of first-hand "N-gen" experience here, as the author labels the generation born and growing up digital. Admittedly as a non-parent much of this is not targeted at me directly, but I find the many situations presented and observations made entertaining and even enlightening. For me, judging such a book come inevitably from grading its predictions. This one has a good list toward the end of Chapter 9:


Real Estate: I find much of this book's insight demographic, centered around the bump up in youth numbers in the Baby Boom Echo. Still, these N-Geners I find want mobility not ownership and needing "wired" homes, etc.? Well, the author missed the wireless transformation...
"telework centers": I wish...
Community gardens and whatnot ...I see that. Missed the whole Whole Foods thing where this gets sold back to the N-Geners
"They'll want the car to be a place for entertainment" Yup.
"Clothing. This is a generation with a strong sense of style." I see that.
"cyberbank" Check.
"N-Geners love to play" They sure do!
"Education... delivered to them on the Net" Yes
..and more accuracy, like the growth in UPS etc. for Net-ordered goods. Totally missed all that pirated digital media, though...


In this postTo Catch a Predator times it really seems the dark corners of the Net are downplayed: "pornographic images represent less than one half of one percent of images on the Net." More recent data suggests that "30 percent of Internet content is porn" and that "90 percent of boys and 60 percent of girls are exposed to Internet porn by age 18."

The author does warn about "dataveillance" with foresight and accuracy in regarding the privacy debates and commodification of identity that happens today.

As a footnote, the author recommends Virtuous Reality.

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