Net Geners Come of Age

A new generation of Americans that has grown up digital are poised to make history on Election Day, if the polls are right

By Don Tapscott

(Editor's Note: This is the first in an eight-part series of Viewpoints by author Don Tapscott, who will draw on the $4 million research project that inspired his new book, Grown Up Digital, to explain how digital technology has affected the children of the baby boomers, a group he calls the Net Generation.)

The Nov. 4 election will be a spectacular display of the power of a new generation of Americans. I call them the Net Generation because they're the first to grow up digital, and in this election year they've shown that their revolutionary model of working collaboratively online can topple powerful leaders and, if the polls are right, even make history.

Around the world this generation is flooding into the workplace, marketplace, and every niche of society. They are bringing their demographic muscle, media smarts, purchasing power, and new models of collaboration. While some dismiss them as "screenagers," with short attention spans, low IQs, and zero social skills, they are a remarkably bright generation that has developed revolutionary new ways of thinking, interacting, working, and socializing. They are an unprecedented force for change.

Consider how they helped Senator Barack Obama win the Democratic nomination and, most likely, the Presidency.

In Sync with Obama

It's no surprise that Obama has captured most of the youth vote. They overwhelmingly disapprove of President George W. Bush, and they're leaning harder to the Democratic side than their Gen X predecessors. Their attitudes toward social and economic policies put them in sync with the Obama campaign. Inspired by Obama, they been politicized this year. Youth turnout in some primaries tripled from 2004. Although only half of the youngest American voters turned out for the 2004 Presidential election, it's likely they will vote in unprecedented numbers this time.

But their true power as a force for change in politics stems from their ability to organize themselves online, without waiting for instructions from the head office. Obama, unlike his more powerful rivals in the Democratic primary race, tapped into this phenomenal power. In 2007, Chris Hughes, then the 23-year-old co-founder of Facebook, took over as director of the Obama online organizing effort. He swiftly rewrote some of the key rules of campaigning. Instead of using the Internet in an old-fashioned way, to give campaign workers instructions, Hughes made sure that Obama supporters could organize events, tell friends, and of course raise money, which they did spectacularly.

The Net Generation's ability to work together online comes from growing up digital. This generation, which turns 11 to 31 this year, uses technology differently from their parents. They've developed very different reflexes when they're on the mobile phone or on the Internet. Take how they use cell phones, for example. Parents use them to talk on the phone and check e-mail. Net Geners think e-mail is old-fashioned. They'd rather use the phone to text, carry out Google (GOOG) searches, find directions, take pictures, make videos, and collaborate.

TV Is Like Muzak

The upbringing has left a deep imprint on how this group thinks and behaves. Consider the typical teenage media diet. In the late 1960s, the teenage baby boomer watched an average of more than 22 hours of television each week. They were passive viewers; they took what they were given. When the commercials came, they might even have watched them. Net Geners watch less TV than their parents do, and they watch it differently. A Net Gener is more likely to turn on the computer and simultaneously interact in several different windows, talk on the telephone, listen to music, do homework, read a magazine, and watch television. TV has become like Muzak for them.