Tapscott

Reading Tapscott's book, "Grown Up Digital", I felt that I agreed a lot with the ideas he brought up. As we talked in class on Tuesday, I was able to relate even more closely with the 8 generation norms of 'Net Gen' especially with regards to personalization and scrutinization that our generation has come to expect and perfect. Technology is sold with a host of personalization traits, like apps, cases, and even which brand you choose says something about yourself and your technological identity. People are a part of their computers - although driven by electricity and technology, real people are connecting with other real people in a host of ways online. Which is really just mind bogglingly amazing. But what users have come to expect is the ability to customize their personal corner of the internet. Although what they post, what they see, and what they search for may be visible and usable to a host of other users, their own sphere is customizable. Desktops with photos, social networks with themes and even who you choose as your friends is a way of customizing your social corner to your specific uses. I find it particularly interesting how how the internet and all of its capabilities fit together only because multiple other users use the same interfaces that you do (Facebook, product reviews, chatrooms, online gaming, etc.), but they are not dependent on everyone using the same interfaces in the same way. It really only works so well because the internet is so huge and the users are so expansive that there is enough room for everyone to personalize how they use it and what they update, but everything has enough users to stay active.  The internet is a network of users who don't care about what every other user is doing, only how it interferes or connects to their own personal use in the interface. Being a part of Net Gen is an interesting phenomena in that we do not know the difference, but since we are the first to grow up this way, we are told constantly how different and puzzling our existence has been made.