Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

This text offers an overview of the N-generation, the generation of children who in the year 2000 will be between the ages of two and 22. This group is a tsunami that could force changes in communications, retailing, branding, advertising, and education. The author contends that the N-generation are becoming so technologically proficient that they will lap their parents and leave them behind. The book also demonstrates the common characteristics of the N-generation, acceptance of diversity, because the Net doesn't distinguish between racial or gender identities, and a curiosity about exploring and discovering new worlds over the Internet.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Preface (p. ix)
• Acknowledgments (p. xi)
• Chapter 1 The Louder Echo (p. 1)
• Chapter 2 The Net Generation (p. 15)
• Chapter 3 The Generation Lap (p. 35)
• Chapter 4 The Culture of Interaction (p. 55)
• Chapter 5 The N-Gen Mind (p. 85)
• Chapter 6 The N-Gen Mind: Part II (p. 105)
• Chapter 7 N-Gen Learning (p. 125)
• Chapter 8 N-Gen at Play (p. 159)
• Chapter 9 N-Gen as Consumers (p. 185)
• Chapter 10 N-Gen at Work (p. 209)
• Chapter 11 N-Gen and the Family (p. 235)
• Chapter 12 The Digital Divide (p. 255)
• Chapter 13 Leaders of the Future (p. 281)
• Appendix (p. 307)
• Notes (p. 311)
• References (p. 319)
• Index (p. 325)

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Library Journal Review

Following right behind the Boomers are their children, the Baby Boom Echo, or Net Generation (N-Gen). This population is nearly 90 million strong and is the first generation to grow up surrounded by digital media. Tapscott (The Digital Economy, LJ 11/15/96) interviewed 300 N-Geners who participate in online chat groups such as FreeZone to identify the characteristics and learning styles of this already influential segment of society. Anticipating that over 40 percent of U.S. households will be on the net by the year 2000, Tapscott predicts how the N-Geners, many of whom are already expert net users, will be the catalyst for change in education, recreation, commerce, the workplace, the family, and government. His immediate advice is to listen to our children because we can learn from them. Recommended for all libraries.‘Laverna Saunders, Salem State Coll. Lib., Mass. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Publishers Weekly Review

A love song to the Internet, this follow-up to Tapscott'sThe Digital Economy (1996) outlines the Net's effects on today's young people. According to Tapscott, children who cruise the digital wonderland are smarter, more independent, more self-confident and better suited to the work force of the future. Further, the worst the Net has to offer is not as bad as what exists in "real life." Short on hard science, save for statistics, and long on quotes by young netizens, the text argues for use of the Net in homes, schools and the workplace. While many of Tapscott's points have been made elsewhere in a more convincing fashion, the author, chairman of the Alliance for Converging Technologies, a corporately funded think tank, has amassed an entertaining group of examples of and testimonials to "N-Gen" (Net Generation) learning. One company goes from country to country, chronicling the everyday lives of culturally diverse children and "putting them up" for interactive lessons in sociology. A 10-year-old claims, "the Web is the only place where you can insult someone and not have to worry about them pulling a gun on you." Pornography, attention-span concerns, "cybersitters" and the effects of advertising are also addressed. While sometimes reading like a handbook for prospective N-Gen manipulators ("The challenge for advertisers lies in finding the sites N-Geners actually slow down to read"), the book will serve parents and corporations alike as an introduction to under-18 Net culture. 100,000 copy first printing; $100,000 ad/promo. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Booklist Review

Tapscott calls the generation that is growing up taking the Internet for granted the Net-Generation or N-Gen. These kids do not share their parents' fears of the new technology but embrace it and discover new ways to use it to learn, play, consume, and work. To the N-Gen, the Internet is "like the air," an everyday part of their existence. Although alarmists warn us that a burgeoning generation of socially inept, impatient, vain brats are being preyed upon by scores of pedophiles, Tapscott disagrees. Using research garnered by the Alliance for Converging Technologies, a think tank he chairs, he presents evidence indicating that the N-Gen "appear[s] to be smart, accepting of diversity, curious, assertive, self-reliant, high in self-esteem, and global in orientation." Further, "evidence suggests they process information differently than their predecessors; they have new tools for self-development and making their way through adolescence." Although all is not hunky-dory in this new, digital society, Tapscott's optimism is more than welcome. --Benjamin Segedin

Kirkus Book Review

Add this to the swelling pile of books on new media that pose many questions and leave all but a few unanswered. Tapscott's (The Digital Economy, not reviewed) problems begin with his formulation of the ``net generation'' of his subtitle--or ``N-Geners'' as he conveniently packages them--on so broad a canvas that the term is devalued: N-Gen may be as young as 2 or as old as 29. As a result, the theories that Tapscott draws from his study of the N-Gen's tastes and inclinations are as shaky and weak as a house built on sand. There may be, Tapscott suggests, as many as seven million young North Americans under the age of 18 spending time on the Internet. While that figure is impressive, and the impact on the country sure to be considerable, Tapscott seems to ignore the fact that many children and adults have no access to the Internet. In this brave new electronic world, the poor and disadvantaged seem to be largely invisible. Tapscott is well over two-thirds of his way into the book before directly addressing the question of how expensive technology is to be made available to the disadvantaged. And when he does, he has little to offer. He suggests, for instance, that the homeless may find shelter information at wired libraries, but he does not address how local libraries will afford the technology to connect to the Internet (let alone the unlikelihood of a homeless person entering or being welcome in the library). Crucial matters are slighted in favor of voluminous anecdotal evidence meant to chart the tastes of a generation growing up unafraid of technology. Too vaporous and unreflectingly enthusiastic to be of much use to anyone deeply interested in the questions of new tehcnology and American society. (illustrations, graphs, not seen) (First printing of 100,000; $100,000 ad/promo; TV satellite tour)