Grown+Up+Digital+Chapters+3-4

Chapter 3

This chapter was interesting in talking about the 8 norms of net geners, and it seemed that many of these norms fit a description of me. One of the normas was customization. Many people now these days get something and have to immediatley change it so that it's "theirs." They do something to it or change it someway/how so that it more of what they want it to do/ look like. The integrity section also was something that definetly fits into me. I would fall into the seventy seven percent of people who believes the statement: "IF a company makes an untrue promise in their advertising, I'll tell my friends not to buy the product." I think this is absolutely correct, but also for the other way. If I find a great deal and a great product I would also let my friends know. Now everything is so much easier with all of the new technologies to let a number of people know in a matter of seconds with a post on Facebook. I thought the entertainment part was interesting in how Microsoft and Google workplaces are set up. That would be awesome to go to work to, I just think it would be too distracting for me to go to work there with all of those things to do. Would I ever leave work? I do agree though that one needs to enjoy their job and work place. Another quote that holds true with me was: "Having fun while using a product is just as important as the product doing what it is supposed to do." Take a cell phone for example. I had a phone with games and it was great to play them while waiting for an appointment or such. I then got a new phone and it didn't have any games, I mean really come on. Now what was I supposed to do while I was waiting. My newest phone now has games again as well as the internet so it does a lot more that needed but is very satisfying. The last thing that really hit home with me was speed. I can't imagine going back to the days of dial-up internet. When my family first got a computer that was the internet we had and I was jacked at the time to just have internet. Looking back, I don't know how I would do it. I do get real antsy when things go slow and aren't timely. I will tend to hit stop and refresh if it doesn't come up soon. The text messenging was true as well that if you don't get a quick response, one tends to wonder if something is wrong? VEry interesting chapter and I enjoyed this one.

Chapter 4

This chapter basically talked about the brain and how it works with so much more time spent in front of computers and other gadgets. They had an interesting comparison about reading articles in a radio newscast, online newscast, interactive Webcats, and a Webcast with links. They found the this generation remembered less from the tradtional radio cast, and most from the Webcast with links. People these days are so much more hands on and seem to learn so much better with technology. It's that driving force that holds their interest.

The most shocking thing I found was when they were talking about the "Reading Risk." They found that only one third of 13 year olds are daily readers and one in five 18 year olds don't read literature at all. This didn't include online and non-fiction material. This would be very true with the class I have now. Back when I was in school, Book-it was the coolest thing and getting the free pizza was awesome. This year, and most years, I have 5 or so students who will do it on a regular basis. Not that they aren't good readers, they just don't do a lot of sit down and read time anymore. How high would the numbers be if you kept track of computer usage?

The last coouple of topics were interesting about searching the internet, scanning, and memorizing facts and how those concepts have changed. Now instead of reading a whole book to find something out, you search and scan the internet. This is a whole new skill students have to learn with so much information out there. It's almost like a cheat to get away from the book, but it's a skill that requires thinking about where the information came from and finding out the credibility of the information they want to use. Students also memorize things in a much different way. They don't seem to be able to memorize school facts as easily, but they know everything about their 100 Pokemon cards that they have, weird?