The App Generation: How Today's Youth Navigate Identity, Intimacy, And Imagination In A Digital World

No one has failed to notice that the current generation of youth is deeply involved with digital media. Professors Howard Gardner and Katie Davis name today’s young people The App Generation, and in this book they explore what it means to be app-dependent versus app-enabled and how life for this generation differs from life before the digital era. Gardner and Davis are concerned with three vital areas of adolescent life: identity, intimacy, and imagination. Through innovative research, including interviews of young people, focus groups of those who work with them, and a comparison of youthful artistic productions before and after the digital revolution, the authors uncover the drawbacks of apps: they may foreclose a sense of identity, encourage superficial relations with others, and stunt creative imagination. On the other hand, the benefits of apps are striking: they can promote a strong sense of identity, allow deep relationships, and stimulate creativity. The challenge is to venture beyond the ways that apps are designed to be used, Gardner and Davis conclude, and they suggest how the power of apps can be a springboard to greater creativity and higher aspirations.