The Net Geners

We have come up with clever names to identify and classify generations. Now comes the Net Generation which has been give quite a number of names (the Dot Com generation, the Millennial Generation, Generation Y, the Internet Generation, iGeneration, ). Net geners are members of the Net Generation, and in demographic terms, though no clear demarcation is available is agreeably the people who have grown up with the digital technology (what Mark Prensky would call digital natives). This generation, to some, is a cohort of people who were born between 1982 and 2001.

The net geners are characterized by their:
High digital literacy: It is a generation of people who have been born and/or brought up when most of the digital devices are available e.g computers, internet, iPods, etc
Connectedness and socialisation: It is in this generation that the connectedness between peers, especially using online social software and sites (myspace, facebook, Hi5, Graduates.com, tagged etc).
Multitasking: They can been seen doing an assignment, chatting with friends on IM, view friends profile online among other things at the same time.
Consumption and production of digital information: Being born in the age where Web 2.0 is the net buzzword, net geners not are not only passive recipients of information, but also they participate in its creation.


For more information on the Net geners and implications in teaching and learning, check out the current and previous issues of the Innovate magazine.