Blog #2 - Grown Up Digital pt 2

In the second part of the book, near the end, the author revisits the "The Dark Side" and I'm glad of it. If anything about this book strikes me as impacting, is his immediate presentation of the "The Dark Side" in the beginning of the book. It was the one thing that made my blood boil hotter than the sun. However, Tapscott goes back and responds to each one effortlessly and much more positively. I especially enjoyed the segment about stealing. He basically described his ideal music platform like Zune Pass, I believe. ( I don't think Pandora and 8Tracks count, as they are radio-esque). But he makes a point, as a generation, it becomes...a money waster to spend $1 per song you want to download. Considering how much music is being put out these days, and how much music form other countries are gaining popularity, it certainly adds up. 

On the topic of pirating, basically, a famous author Neil Gaiman says this, "We took “American Gods,” a book that was still selling and selling very well, and for a month they put it up completely free on their website. You could read it and you could download it. What happened was sales of my books, through independent bookstores, because that’s all we were measuring it through, went up the following month three hundred percent." He realized that pirating, like a case in Russia, was practically free advertising for him, and when people read his works for free, they were more inclined to purchase the material and anything he published in the future. For the net-gen, we've become more and more frugal and weary of where we're spending our cash (well at least the middle-low class). So it comes down to the point that we're curious about products, and want to have it for free to see if we'll like it. We don't want to spend potential rent/grocery/laundry money on a movie we buy and end up hating it, and you can't resell your ticket, digital copy, or DVD. 

The Net-Gen is remarkable I think, nothing wrong with narcissism either. What may appear as narcissistic behavior for the baby boomers, is strange, since isn't this self-esteem celebration? Why is it considered hazardous for someone to embrace their chubby bodies, or dark skin? To look good and feel good?

And the response from net-gens about the book "Stupidest Generation" are so snarky and on-point. Which is awesome.