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Lesson 1.08 – Your generation

OBJECTIVE: To identify your generation norms and which ones you most identify with.

INSTRUCTION

People call your generation by the following labels:  Generation Y, the Net Generation or the Millennials.  There are over 80 million people in this generation who are currently between the ages of 11 and 31 and were born between the years of  1977 and 1997.  Your generation is the first generation to grow up on the computer and the Internet.  You have never known a world without the Internet or computers and cell phones.  This makes your generation a very unique generation.  Although some writers have suggested that your generation is the “dumbest generation.”  

Do you think you are the dumbest generation? 

Read this and watch the video:  http://www.grownupdigital.com/archive/index.php/the-dumbest-generation/

Don Tapcott, who you just saw in the video, wrote the book, Grown Up Digital (2009).  He suggests these are eight Net Generation Norms:

• Freedom (flexible hours, flexible places to work)
• Customize and personalize  (likes to personalize)
• Scrutinize (can distinguish between fact and fiction, appreciate candor)
•   Integrity and openness  (honesty and trust)
• Entertainment and play ( like to have fun and play games)
• Collaborate  (appreciate relationships in person and online)
• Need for speed  (used to an instant response 24 X 7)
• Innovate (like to invent, be creative and collaborate)

PRACTICE/ASSESMENT

What do you think?  Do you agree that these are your norms?

Choose one of the above norms.

1. Answer this question in the forum:  Which of the Gen Y norms do you most identify with and why?

2. Assignment 1.08:  On your own:  Write a paragraph about the norm you chose and include:

• The name of the norm and your definition of the norm
• An example of what it means
• An example in your life of how it applies (for example, if you chose “collaborate”, give an example of how you collaborate with your friends)
• Your final thoughts about how true the norm is that you chose

Submit the assignment in the assignment area.

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