Friday's Good Read: Who Are Net-Gen-ers?

When I went to Hulu.com today and watched The Daily Show, an advertisement by DoSomething.org came up. It was a surprise to see a 'do good' organization make its way to the air (wait, I mean wire). It intends to appeal to the young audience by asking them to text "30644" and join their cause. I think it's a good and necessary strategy to engage the next generation--Net Generation. Look at how Obama's election campaign had made the youngsters excited about and involved in politics. Obama understands the young generation and the importance of using internet technology and (of course) other wireless technologies to communicate with these young supporters. Similarly, I also believe that the charities should do the same to engage the youngters.

The first step to realize this is not to start thinking what technologies we use be using, but who are these Net Generation-ers. I have been planning to read Don Tapscott's books "Growing Up Digital" and "Grown Up Digital" to understand more about these youngsters that has been growing up with internet and computing technologies around them. Don is the person who coined the term 'Net Generation' and has written a lot of books about the internet revolution. His first book "Growing Up Digital" published a decade ago has been cited more than 1200 times! Just a few months ago, he came up with the latest version of the book called "Grown Up Digital." I have read the first chapter online for free on Google Book Search and will check the book out from the university library to finish the rest. I will share my thoughts here once I finish reading it.