The App Generation: How Today's Youth Navigate Identity, Intimacy, and Imagination in a Digital World

by Katie Davis, Howard Gardner

No one has failed to notice that the current generation of youth is deeply—some would say totally—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 unique 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 equally 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.

Contents

Preface

1. Introduction
2. Talk about Technology
3. Unpacking the Generations: From biology to culture to technology
4. Personal Identity in the Age of the App
5. Apps and Intimate Relationships
6. Acts (and Apps) of Imagination among Today's Youth
7. Conclusion: Beyond the App Generation

Methodological Appendix
Notes
Index

Genres: Psychology, Parenting, Nonfiction, Education, Technology, Sociology, Social Media

256 pages, Hardcover

First published October 22, 2013

About the author

Dr. Katie Davis is Associate Professor at the University of Washington (UW) and Director of the UW Digital Youth Lab. For nearly twenty years, Dr. Davis has been researching the impact of digital technologies on young people’s learning, development, and well-being. She uses the insights from her research to design positive technology experiences for youth and their families. At the University of Washington, Dr. Davis mentors undergraduate and graduate students and teaches courses on child development and technology design.

In addition to her more than 70 academic publications, Dr. Davis is the author of three books exploring technology’s role in young people’s lives: Technology’s Child: Digital Media’s Role in the Ages and Stages of Growing Up, The App Generation: How Youth Navigate Identity, Intimacy, and Imagination in a Digital World (with Howard Gardner), and Writers in the Secret Garden: Fanfiction, Youth, and New Forms of Mentoring (with Cecilia Aragon). In each of these books, Dr. Davis draws on her expertise in developmental science and technology design, as well as her experiences as a parent, to make sense of the often-confusing landscape of research and media messages about kids and technology.

Prior to joining the faculty at the University of Washington, Dr. Davis was a research scientist at Harvard Project Zero, where she worked on the research team that collaborated with Common Sense Media to develop the first iteration of their digital citizenship curriculum. From 2018-2022, she was a visiting research scientist in the Human Computer Interaction Lab at Hasso Plattner Institute in Potsdam, Germany. Dr. Davis holds two master’s degrees and a doctorate in Human Development and Education from Harvard Graduate School of Education. She is a 2015 recipient of a Rising Star Award from the Association for Psychological Science.

Reviews

[Randall Wallace · Rating 1 out of 5]

Good topic - what the heck happened? This book’s only idea worth conveying was that we should see early B&W TV shows as showing communitarian values while today's shows (not surprisingly increasingly reflecting our capitalist system of selfishness as good) as centered on self-absorption. I hoped to learn something deeper yet the second deepest insight in this book is that we as a people now trust each other less! That shouldn't be surprising; corporations have known for 80 years that if you can atomize the public and keep them that way then they are most ripe for financial exploitation and basic control. As for the rest, any one of us can drop Alfred North Whitehead, B. F. Skinner, Huxley and Riesman's names in a piece about the role of Apps in our lives and hope the publisher buys the manuscript too but these authors teach at Harvard so I thought I could expect something of value! And then to see a book that taught me NOTHING, get praised by Sherry Turkle AND Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi… If those two thought this book was so helpful to Americans then what do they think of Noam Chomsky who actually has a profound message about US technology and pacification techniques of it's citizens that is factually supported (Bernays, Walter Lippman, etc). I read 52 non-fiction books per year every year and this App book is the worst I've read in years. Harvard used to produce great minds like Cornel West; now it produces names of famous sellouts like Lawrence Summers and this book. Great topic and one someone willing to ask deep questions should write about, but this book was a shameful squandered opportunity. If only someone deep like Richard Sennett, James Burke, or Chris Hedges wrote this book instead.

Tellingly, no apps are presently preparing us for countering massive resource depletion, the end of growth, increasing inequality, decreasing social cohesion, epidemic rape culture, let alone avoiding die-offs due to peak oil or the threat of extinction due to runaway climate change. So apparently apps presently keep us from even looking at ANY one of the biggest problems of the next 100 years. Apps instead keep us focused on buying, keep us distracted from all social change, and they minimize our role as citizens and agents of change. I use apps all the time for work and I love them for their help there but why are apps and social change like water and oil? Who will be the first to merge the two and begin to create a social movement that can finally counter the two pro-war/pro-business parties with a populist message not hijacked by Green Capitalism and false energy solutions? In the largest sense, These are the apps needed now.

[Shu Long · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have read quite a few editorials, books chapters, even listened to podcasts that condemned or bemoaned the state of "today's youth" especially when the effects of wide spread technology and education are being discussed. As a 26 year old university graduate, I can nod my head and acknowledge that there are "issues" with both my generation and my much younger siblings' generation, however, I am often left feeling out in the cold, as if the older generation writing the piece is simple whining and getting on his/her soap box without understanding the context or having ever logged into a social media sight themselves.

Not so with Howard and Katie, as they refer to themselves in The App Generation. They come to the issues of the "app" generation with an open, academic, yet sympathetically human mind and access actual data and information given in a variety of studies and their own investigations. Three distinct generations, Howard's, the grandfather age generation, Katie's, middle age or parent generation and Katie's daughter, the youth generation are present fully in the pages of the book and used as the starting point of a useful and clearly well consider contribution to the conversations of today on of education, generation gaps, and technology.

I recommend this read to people of all generations, especially parents and young adults. If you're looking for something to bash over someone's head, you will not find it here, but if you're looking for something well thought out and fuel to start conversations, this is a good point of departure.

[Louise · Rating 2 out of 5]

I looked forward to what Howard Gardner, who brought the concept of multiple intelligences to the public, had to say about the “app generation”. I was disappointed that the first 30 pages of this 200 page book were devoted to defining “generation”. Ensuing pages sprawled. The authors explore the “3 I’s” (Identity, Intimacy and Imagination) making connections and a few conclusions through anecdotes and brief summaries of research.

The book read like a draft. I think the authors were not clear on whether they were presenting research to prove something about this topic or whether they were describing the navigation of the 3 I’s as noted in the sub-title.

Injecting the studies makes it seem like something will be proven/disproven. The book would rest better on the anecdotes, but since the studies were used, they should be more clearly explained as well as their connections to the result. Here are three examples of the kind of dangling studies in this book:

1. After a number of anecdotes and the citation from a study that undergraduates/recent graduates and their parents are in contact 13.5 times a week, the conclusion is that technology weakens the ability to develop an autonomous self and that the app generation needs to seek reassurance outside the self. (p. 85) Since the study is not explained, the conclusion seems to be a leap. What is the nature of the almost twice daily contact? Are the young people living with parents? Working in a family business? Is there shared child care?

2. The “Bermuda Study” is cited in the methodologies and mentioned (p. 11) as contributing to the book but unless the results are in the text unidentified or are buried in the footnotes (not indexed) we never get the results.

3. The authors allude to the identity/isolation issues of technology and connect it to neighborhood violence and binge drinking without attribution but site back up data for other contributing factors such as academic and financial pressures. (p. 78- 80)

Good concepts are introduced, such as this generation defining itself by technology while others define their cohort group by history (“WW2 generation”, “Vietnam generation”), the concept of digital immigrants and digital natives, current methods used to “package the self” and the positive of being app-enabled and the negative of being app-dependent.

I think this book succeeds in defining apps and how they are used for those not up on them. While this generation may well be defined by apps, this book does not make the case. Even the “Conclusion” documents other powerful social trends.

In July, I read The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains and was hoping this book would give more perspective. Unfortunately The App Generation did not deliver.

[Steele Dimmock · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is youth psychology framed with the fad de jour of Mobile Apps. I found all references to Apps, like SnapChat, Instagram and Facebook, as clumsy and shoehorned in to the narrative to be congruent with the title. Largely, I found nothing new or interesting out of this; young people use social media, they post on the web, old people are worried. A deep dive in to youth mental health resulting from being always contactable would have been amazing - the chapter that briefly covered this was very interesting but not long or thorough enough.

The only reason I didn't give this 1 star was for the amazing quote "We are always connected, but not connecting."

[Anastasia · Rating 1 out of 5]

I won this book from Goodreads giveaway. I could only managed to read half of this book. It did not really tell me anything I did not already know. Wouldn't recommend it

[Alyssa · Rating 5 out of 5]

This caused me to think deeply about the way I approach learning and life in general. Very thoughtful remark on the impact of technology and the creativity crisis facing this generation.

[Nan · Rating 1 out of 5]

What a terrible book. I'm working on the influence of technology in our identity, relationships, etc. So I thought this book was going to be useful but it let me down bad, real bad. This sounds like a dad complaining about his teen children, trying to be cool and understand technology... but he is not cool nor understands... And it's not the fact that it was written in 2013, but even their methods are questionable... This doesn't even count as an ethnography study. Do not read it if you expect some help related to its title.

[Stefan Sawynok · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really good coverage of the impact of Apps on the generations. I am not entirely comfortable with the assertion that apps can be a trap, that can be applied to a lot of things. Still it gives both the advantages and disadvantages, though it does seem to make some moral judgements even if disguised by it's academic base. The author labels Apps as "enablers" or "disempowers" and goes on to blame older generations for how youngers view and relate to apps. That as with most new technologies is crap, you can't teach something that is ahead of your learning curve. We are starting to see an App driven world but we are a long way away from really seeing the impacts negative and positive. Yes there are trends but then so is the onesie. Even where I agree there have been negatives, his last example demonstrated that left to their own devices people can see that and develop their own opinions and strategies. Even people as young as six. One example of writing skills being impacted (negative) but image based creative being enhanced (positive) is to me neither negative or positive. It's change. We may need to face the fact that over time writing may slowly pass away as a general skill to be replaced by something else. Sure that's sad, but it's not bad. The real issue for me is the gaps between the generations and their increasing disconnect as each tends to their own "app" to communicate and to complete tasks. We can't all learn all apps. I think those impacts would be more interesting to see and I was hoping for more there but alas.

[Cathy · Rating 1 out of 5]

Mobile technology does have a powerful impact on thinking and behavior, but Gardner and Davis's premise--that Smartphone and tablet applications significantly affect the identity, imagination and intimacy of their users--feels like a real stretch. This unconvincing book felt like an over-extended and flawed dissertation. A better examination of a similar argument can be found in Brian X. Chen's book, Always On.

[Trever · Rating 1 out of 5]

Poorly written book, by this time and day everyone knows that technology is changing people for better or worse. Book is not worth the read, in fact the book should have never been written, if you have been alive or not under a rock for 5 years you know the importance of technology.

[Melanie · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was not at all what I expected. While it is well-written, it is basically a research thesis or dissertation in a book form.

[Peter Atkinson · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the Introduction of The App Generation, Howard Gardner and Katie Davis contend that, due to the “availability, proliferation, and power of apps”, the collective consciousness of today’s youth is distinctly different from any past or present generation’s perspective. (14) Specifically, digital technologies have changed young people’s sense of identity, intimacy, and imagination. In a provocative statement, the authors claim that young people “… are not only immersed in apps; they’ve come to think of the world as an ensemble of apps, to see their lives as a string of ordered apps, or perhaps, in many cases, a single, extended, cradle-to-grave app.” (7)

In Chapter 2, “Talk About Technology”, Gardner and Davis provide an explanation of Marshall McLuhan’s profound insight that the medium is the message. Simply put, each medium – from radio, to television, to apps – “alters the relation of the individual [in its own unique way} to the surrounding world.” (22) Digital technologies, such as smartphones and iPads, are, according to the authors, much more personal than the mass media, such as television, of past generations. Apps have created a “paradox of action and restriction. The feeling of instituting and implementing an app is active; and yet the moves enabled by each are restricted”. (25)

The essential impact of apps can be either positive or negative. They can either restrict or direct one’s thinking and choices, leaving one app-dependent, or they can open one to new possibilities and broaden one’s perspective, making one app-enabled.

• In terms of identity formation, apps can limit a person to becoming a pre-packaged
stereotype, or they can enable exploration of various options and help one form a unique and
meaningful identity;
• With respect to intimacy, apps can “facilitate superficial ties”, or they can broaden and deepen
one’s relationships (32); and,
• When it comes to imagination, apps can cause laziness in thinking and thoughtless imitation,
or they can invite exploration and innovation.

Unfortunately, the authors conclude that more young people are app-dependent than app-enabled. (45)

The main point made by Gardner and Davis in Chapter 3 is that the very meaning of the term generation is changing in this day and age. For centuries, a generation was defined as the period of a person’s birth to the time he/she had offspring. By the 20th century though, distinct generations were identified by “defining political experiences or powerful cultural forces.” (50) For instance, there was the lost generation of the 1920's and the hippie era of the 1960's. However, young people have shifted the notion of generation to mean a shorter period of time that is defined by a trendy, powerful digital technology, such as the iPhone or tablet.

Identity in the App Age is the topic of Chapter 4. The 5-year research that the authors conducted through Harvard, which involved observations and interviews of youth, focus groups, and analysis of young people’s artistic work and fiction, has led them to conclude that “the identities of young people are increasingly packaged” (61) and that youth present a distorted “socially desirable, polished self online.” (63) The problem with such stereotypical and ameliorated views of themselves is that “young persons risk prematurely foreclosing their identities” weakening their potential to achieve true self-actualization. (74) It also can exacerbate anxiety and depression as youth compare their actual selves disfavourably to the persona that others and they themselves create online.

Then again, the authors also note that, through membership in online communities, youth can have access to a wider range of interests than is typically available in the actual communities in which they live. Online, they will find their “digital alter-egos [as] …fan girls, gamers, chess players, or knitters”, and thus, expand the range of acceptable identities beyond those that “fit into a narrow peer culture.” (90)

Chapter 5, “Apps and Intimate Relationships”, delves into the sad irony that social media and apps ‘designed to connect people may actually be making them feel less connected”, and more socially isolated. (101) While social media such as Facebook and apps like FaceTime are great for connecting people across distances, the authors argue that “it’s difficult – if not impossible – to achieve the level of deep, warm connection that face-to-face contact provides.” (109) Furthermore, the “stripped-down” nature of Twitter (140-character messages) and other such social media are not conducive to the deep and intimate connections that are necessary to sustain and grow healthy relationships.

On the positive side, Gardner and Davis acknowledge that there is a body of research that suggests that many young people use social media not just to substitute for face-to-face communication but to augment it. When social media are used in this manner, they can, according to the authors, support the development of meaningful relationships for youth. They note that, in particular, digital communication can benefit young people who are experiencing isolation in their actual communities, as they may “find or forge a sense of belonging in a sympathetic community online.” (108)

The essential question posed by the authors in Chapter 6, “Acts (and Apps) of Imagination” is as follows: Do the constraints built into apps and other computer software short-circuit the creative process in young people? The authors acknowledge that the research they conducted directly with youth provide conflicting answers to this question: “While teens’ visual art has become less conventional over time, creative writing emanating from this age group has become more so.” (135) They add, though, that the art teachers they interviewed feel that today’s students have greater difficulty than students in the past in coming up with their own ideas for art pieces. One teacher stated, “They go to their laptop first.” (139)

The authors, borrowing a term derived from Jaron Lanier (author of You Are Not a Gadget), conclude that, “Apps may represent the ultimate lock-in.” (143) Lanier coined the term lock-in to describe the restrictive range of actions and experiences available to users when they use computer software programs. Gardner and Davis’ analysis of current youth fiction indicates “increased conventionality and use of informal language” that may be the result of the “pedestrian language of tweets, texts, and instant messages”. (145) The author’s overall conclusion on apps and creativity is a middle ground position:

Our investigations lead us to conjecture that digital media give rise to –
and allow more people to engage in – a “middle c” creativity that is more
interesting and impressive than “little c” but – due to built-in software
constraints and obstacles to deep engagement – decidedly less ground
breaking than “Big C”. (153)

In the final chapter, the authors draw some interesting conclusions concerning apps. They also offer some sound advice for educators. Not surprisingly, they conclude that the influence of apps is both pervasive and potentially harmful. The perniciousness of apps is triggered by their accessibility, which Gardner and Davis believe, invites “an app consciousness … the idea that there are defined ways to achieve whatever we want to achieve” if we can only find the right combination of apps. (160) While acknowledging that it is unfair to blame apps and digital technologies solely for what they perceive as the flaws of the today’s youth (dependence, risk-aversion, superficiality, narcissism), the authors nonetheless see them as contributing factors.

The authors do see benefits to apps when it comes to education. They note that digital devices enable collaboration beyond the four walls of a classroom or school. As well, they point to their potential for individualizing learning for students.

However, Gardner and Davis express the concern that their survey of current educational apps suggests that most of them fall well short of their promise and simply “… encourage pursuit of the goals and means of traditional education by digital means.” (179) In other words, they are merely glossier substitutes for more traditional educational resources such as textbooks and promote a “constrained curriculum” that doesn’t spark student creativity.

The advice they give educators is to, by all means, use apps as an engaging entry point for students to access information and apply it with precision. However, they also challenge educators to leverage the potential of apps to augment and re-define learning opportunities such that students can develop higher order skills, critical thinking skills, and their creative capacities.

[Alison · Rating 1 out of 5]

I never thought myself the type to write a negative review, but I am truly shocked at how little this book has to offer on the subject. It read mostly as an amalgam of previous works on the subject, all of which I had already read, even as it purported to set itself apart with the introduction of new research. The book itself was also embarrassingly short; although the page count is in the standard range for a work of research-based non-fiction, the print was large, the margins were huge, and the index was a good fifth of the total length. Very disappointing, especially from Howard Gardner.

Here are my primary objections:

1. The roundabout lengths the authors went to in order to define "generation" did not advance the thesis (but did justify the title).

2. "App" was introduced so as to be understood in the literal sense, but only a few apps were ever discussed. It was mostly used in a metaphorical way, as a shorthand for consciousness. That would have been a very compelling point, but it was not explored.

3. The research cited would paint a very bleak picture, but then the authors would say "it's not all bad" in such a way as to muddle the central argument.

4. The original research (interviews, studying artistic productions) that was meant to show the impact of apps could be "easily" attributed to other sources. I found that changes in the methods and expectations of education, as well as socio-economic forces, would have been a more obvious or comprehensive culprit; technology use is just another symptom.

5. The narrative follows the form of every other saccharine-sweet documentary about a social problem: this is going to be our demise unless we rise up and stop it. It's always more complicated than that, and fear of an uncertain demise is not a great long-term motivator.

There was one paraphrase from Jacques Ellul (someone I'd not heard of before) at the end of the book that almost made the whole thing worth reading, at least for my purposes: "disconnecting technologically may prove easier than challenging the consciousness created by technology." Who is writing that book in our current climate, because I want to read it!

[Alejandro Teruel · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had high expectations for this book since one of the authors (Howard Gardner) is a distinguished psychologist. Unfortunately the book is very disappointing, biting off more than it managed to chew.

At the heart of the book is the question of whether and how apps impact key psychological aspects development of people. Gardner and his daughter Katie Davis believe they due and that key technologies define different generations and that current generations are defined by the apps they use.

They decide to study how apps can either enable or limit the definition, expression and development of three key topics: personal "Identity", human relationships ("Intimacy") and creativity ("Imagination"). This is a very ambitious and hard project, so perhaps it is not surprising that, in spite of some interesting observations and insights, they fail to provide convincing arguments on these topics. The book, in general, stays in the shallows, provides some tantalizing but mainly anecdotal evidence, and makes no attempt to broaden the scope of the study beyond academically inclined, urban US middle class children, teenagers and university students.

The authors are worried about whether apps encourage pre-packaged identities, whether and how they deal with anxiety about personal identity, whether they encourage "hiding" behind a screen or whether they provide freedom to experiment with possible identities. They barely touch upon the problems of the peer pressure to conform digital exposure or cyber-bullying.

As for intimacy, they wonder about growing isolation and lack of empathy.

Finally as to creativity, they believe there is more (audio)visual creativity but more stereotypical writing and wonder what the richness and flexibility of tools to develop mash-ups actually results in.

The book requires drastic pruning and tightening in order to convincingly put across its more interesting insights.

[Carlos Oropeza · Rating 4 out of 5]

Recomendando al 100%. Es un libro derivado de un estudio serio enfocado, principalmente, en entrevistas, grupos focales, categorización de productos artísticos y perspectivas de 3 generaciones (Howard, Katie y la hermana menor de Katie, Molly.
Particularmente me gustó la aproximación que se realiza para justificar el uso del término “App Generation”.
Debemos preguntarnos si estamos “empaquetando” nuestra forma de ser y expresarnos dentro de múltiples App’s.
Cómo suele ocurrir con este autor las notas son extensas y se incluye un Apéndice Metodológico.

[Simple]

#فكرة_كتاب The App Generation
صار جيل ما يعرف اليوم ب - جيل التطبيقات الإلكترونية- يعيش عالما
افتراضيا انفصاميا، يعرفون التطبيقات ولا يعرفون أنفسهم.. ويرون العالم
من خلال نافذة تلك التطبيقات التي حولتنا كبشر إلى كسالى وعبيد..
فهي بالرغم مما أضافته من أشياء جميلة لحياتنا.. فقد مهدت الطريق نحو العبودية
النفسية والعلا��ات السطحية وفرغتنا من هويتنا وقتلت فينا الكثير من الأشياء..

لتحميل ملخص الكتاب :
https://muslim-library.com/books/2018...

[Emily · Rating 1 out of 5]

I love Howard Gardner's research on multiple intelligences, so I really wanted to like this book and gain new insight about the App Generation--but I didn't. It was so dry and boring, and I couldn't filter the message through the labor-intensive reading. I kept thinking that if I stuck with it I would get into, but I didn't. The topic is interesting to me, the book was not.

[Fırat AKDOĞAN · Rating 3 out of 5]

Most of it only states the obvious but it can be read to gain a certain point of view about what's going on especially with the young. It also discusses the differences and similarities about digital competencies between 3 generations through 3 people from each period, one including Howard Gardner himself.

[David Zhang · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good book to introduce the issue, tech & mind. But expected more from Gardner. This may be because current study is very limitated, which also leads to the other problem - some arguments are very expericence-denpend.

[Iván · Rating 3 out of 5]

Un libro sobre la influencia de las nuevas tecnologías en la sociedad.

[Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some interesting stuff surrounded by a load of waffle.

[Kevin Stumpf · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had high hopes. There are some interesting statistics, just not enough of them for my liking but I would like to read some follow up books about this topic.

[Ilib4kids · Rating 3 out of 5]

004.678083 GAR
My review: Consider 3 people representing 3 generation, Howard (as grandpa), Katie (in the middle), Molly (1990-2000 generation, app generation), this book look directly 3 aspects of the lives most affected by the digital technology: the sense of identity, capacity for intimate relationship, and imaginative powers.

app-enabling vs. app-dependent
p25 In mumford's terms, the issue is whether we will control the technologies or whether the technologies will control us. In Ellul's terms, will applications reinforce the move toward the all-encompassing technological worldview, or will they launch new forms of expression and understanding? IN McLuhan's terms, are the apps simply the newest medium, with its characteristic sensory ratio? Or do they constitute an ingenious blend of the range of electronic and digital media and open up a new chapter of human psychological possibilities.
p27 teaching condition vs. exploring condition.
behaviorism vs. cognitivism or constructivism
"The double-edged sword of pedagogy: instruction limits spontaneous exploration and discover. p209 --my comments: I have already notice the bad effect of teaching.
p80 behaviorist approach (like No Child left behind and Race to Top, emphasize on multiple-choice tests) vs constructivist ones.

2 important literacy guide, one is sociology, another is psychology
The Lonely Crowd: A Study of the Changing American Character by David Riesman (tradition-directed individual, inner-directed individual, other-directed individual)
Childhood and Society by Erik Erikson (8 principal crisis, talked in this book, identity crisis, intimacy crisis, interactivity crisis)

Pros-internet books:
A Networked Self: Identity, Community, and Culture on Social Network Sites
Now You See It: How the Brain Science of Attention Will Transform the Way We Live, Work, and Learn by Cathy N. Davidson
Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide by Henry Jenkins
Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations by Clay Shirky
Too Big to Know: Rethinking Knowledge Now That the Facts Aren't the Facts, Experts Are Everywhere, and the Smartest Person in the Room Is the Room by David Weinberger

Cons-internet books
The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains by Nicholas Carr
The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future by Mark Bauerlein
Going to Extremes: How Like Minds Unite and Divide by Cass R. Sunstein
Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other by Sherry Turkle other people comments:Is the mobile Internet age producing people who are fragile, narcissistic, and, ironically, more isolated?

Others
The Filter Bubble: What the Internet is Hiding From You by Eli Pariser
The Aims of Education by Alfred North Whitehead

[Tom Donaghey · Rating 3 out of 5]

It is difficult to imagine what our great-grandparents thought where their children became obsessed with those new fangled radio and phonograph machines, nor what our own grandparents thought of our devotion to the television. Did they dwell on the positive aspects of the devices, machines that allowed into small, sheltered lives all the riches of the world, though at second hand? Did they frown when thinking of the possibility that these devices would cause would cause civilizations to come apart, that relationships would start to be shattered, that people would no longer venture out into the world when it would be so easy to bring the world to the individual?
And so it is with “The App Generation”, where older people are looking at a new technology and the impact it has on people. Are phone applications bad or good, adding to the culture or draining away the very need for culture?
First, the “App Generation” label would make it seem as if only a set within the entire population is under the microscope. There is no “App Generation” to speak of as the use of apps for a method of working through a day is so virulent in society that it defines the traditional view of “Generation.” There are those who engage in the use of apps, and those who do not. While it is nice that Gardner and Davis have taken it upon themselves to both attempt to define this generation and coordinate the effects the use of apps have on them, the reality is that apps, smart-phones and computers in all their manifestations are a commonality in first and second world nations, and their use is rising in all nations to a point that now it is more of a divide between those who are using them, and those who will be using them in the future.
The impact of all this proliferation of technology has yet to be discerned but as the authors point out, it will either enhance our lives, or it won’t. The technology, in al it’s many forms, will either enhance social networking and bring divergent peoples together, or it will lead to a greater separation among individuals. It will unite or divide. In short, it will change us all in some manner.
This was a thought provoking Goodreads win.

[Kamal · Rating 3 out of 5]

I understand the frustration that some readers have with this book. However, I do believe that it makes a valid contribution to the study of a much maligned generation of people. My shredded wheat side tells me that it's too easy to get annoyed with vapid young people and their uncritical use/abuse of new technologies. However, my frosted side feels that we cannot really know what these new technologies will enhance or augment in these youngsters... the best we can do is nurture their sense of discover and wonder. However insightful and topical Davis and Gardner's book is, it really does plant itself right on the middle of the fence, which in many ways renders their critique impotent. There's some good stuff in the pages of the book, but there is also a great deal of unabashed white privilege, upper middle-class biases and a complete on utter lack of interest in social justice issues around youth and "app culture." (e.g., Davis' sister Molly, who figures prominently in the book, talks about getting her first laptop computer at the advanced age of eleven years.) The authors admit this readily, but for me, this admission wasn't enough. It seems like they were hastily covering their asses to allay any commentary about this obvious lacuna in their analysis. It is my hope that Gardner, Davis or other scholars will look at this phenomenon with closer attention to the have-nots and how they fit into the the app generation... if they do at all.

[Lorraine · Rating 2 out of 5]

Relevant for readers who enjoy social science study into modern cultural issues. Authors Gardner and Davis present their research of how adolescents and young adults have evolved in the last 20 years as a result of digital media. They provide methodological data culled from their research teams’ interviews with cohorts, General Service Survey data, and other investigation as to how ‘digital natives,’ as they are called by the authors, identity, intimacy, and imagination are shaped by apps, social media, and internet technology. Among their most provocative arguments is that youth are becoming more app-dependent rather than app-enabled. Essentially, purporting that young adults’ ability to critically think for themselves or persevere without apps is declining. Also, that adolescents’ app-focused life has a quality of narcissism, presenting lives they want others to think they live as opposed to what they actually create and accomplish through their own industry. Apps are not the enemy, but useful tools, according to Gardner and Davis. They are tools best used for generative purposes but must carefully be monitored so that they do not pervade all aspects of youth lives.

[Karen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Excellent proposition and portrayals via both casual and academic research and analysis. Yet much is rehashed and re-presented after the first 50 pages. Plus there's a lot of historical broo-ha-ha that doesn't feel particularly relevant, just shared for the sake of perspective in a slightly facile way.

The best summation is identified in the subtitle: Identifying current transitions in defining Identity, Intimacy and Imagination via digi-devices and their short-cuts. Three generations of authors share their views and experiences. And the best conclusion already hits you in the face by page 34 with the distinction of how Apps help us through each day with 'enabling' uses or stymie our personal development with 'dependent' short-cuts.

Go the first 50 pages then jump to the Conclusion -another chatty 50 pages. You won't likely learn anything new, but you will feel like there is not likely to be (anytime soon) some alternative to having youngsters eyes glued to screens the world over. Go figure.

[Greta · Rating 2 out of 5]

The authors spend much of this book describing how the App Generation uses apps. If you or someone you know belongs to this generation, this information will be obvious to you. The conclusions the authors arrive at regarding the effects of technology on this generation are spurious at best and the studies they use to back up their premises are rather inconclusive. It appears to me the authors are trying to analyze the consequences of growing up with access to all this technology before the people who have grown up with all this technology have actually grown up. We won't know the end result until the next generation arrives, at the earliest. So, if you want to know how the App Generation functions, look around. If you want to know how they're going to turn out, you'll have to wait and see. In the meantime, I wouldn't bother reading this book. Do something useful and go play with your iPhone instead.

[Erin · Rating 2 out of 5]

I finished this a couple weeks ago and have been struggling with how to review it ever since. Two stars to a book by Howard Gardner? Well, yes. There is good information in this book, but it's hard to dig out of the constant defining of what a generation is. There's also significant discussion on how apps are used, much of which is over explained. What I struggled with most, though, is that Gardner and Davis claimed they were presenting a balanced look at how technology impacts current generations, but I found the book to be fairly negative in terms of technology use. Yes, the issues they warn against are issues that we need to be aware of and address, but little to no discussion goes to how these tools are benefiting youth and changing our world for the better. Overall, I was disappointed.

[Brian Palmer · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is very readable and, hmm, affable. It intrigues the imagination by presenting differences between the youth and young adults of today compared with previous decades (and it has an appendix that actually gets into some of the details of how the experiments were conducted, although still only at a high level).

That said, the term "app generation" never really seemed to make sense; the closest was when they talked about (a) it being more important for people to present a 'unified package' in their life, packaging themselves up neatly ; and (b) people being convinced that there was one way to find it and it was just a matter of finding a specific app or plan to deal with any eventuality. But the arguments never quite congealed and, frankly, I find "app generation" a silly term. (I bet it helps sell the book, though).