Tapscott Part 2

In part 2 Tapscott tackles the differing affects that a Net Generation has had on different institutions. These being Education, Business Management, Consumerism, The Family, Democracy/Government, and Activism. The aspect that I would like to focus on in this blog post would be the family aspect and how growing up in a revolutionary digital world has changed the average family dynamic.

Tapscott outlines how a family dynamic has changed since the baby boomer days. Now that advancing technology needs to be constantly checked up on and kept up to date with, kids of a family actually have the advantage because they have grown up with it. Parents are turning to their children to learn how to use a new device or to access and new application. My personal experience with this was not as extreme as I hear from some of my friends. I’ve heard that some parents even needed help accessing, and getting a little lesson on using, the internet. My parents weren’t like that. My dad is a computer engineer and my mom was a programmer before she stopped working. They both are actually really well apt at figuring out technology. However, I do notice that I am more aware of upcoming technology than they are today. I’ll mention a new app or device that has been recently released and they will not have heard of it. In this way we are a family that is collaborative because once I mention something that’s coming out that is worth having on their radar, they become users and we have bonded over a new tech. Our family even has a little Apple Vs. Android civil war happening. For the longest time I just loved iphones and my dad would say that Android is the thing to have. I agree with him for the most part now, but it is an example of how a family can change and have very different conversations than in previous generations. In other words, I can talk to my parents like equals instead of the previous norm of them teaching me a way, or the new norm of me teaching them current ways.

This is an excellent example of what Tapscott was referring to as a new dynamic. This is also a good example of one of his “seven parenting guidelines from the kids who have grown up digital.” The points to which I am referring to are the “collaborating parenting” and the “customize parenting.” I have always thought of my family as a collaboration of intelligent minds rather than a set of parents talking down to their children.