App Generation Book Review

App Generation

In the book, App Generation, Howard Gardner and Katie Davis assert that today 's youth are highly involved in the digital media. The authors explore the ways in which the digital media affect the life of the youth. In their discussion, Howard and Katie focus on three essential aspects of the adolescent life. These areas are identity formation, intimacy, and imagination. The authors undertake research that involves interviewing youths, designing focus groups for the people who work with the young people and comparing the artworks of youths before and after digitization. It is the survey that the authors use to highlight the effects of technology on adolescent development. This discussion summarizes Howard and Katie 's

The young people prefer building relationships online where they can communicate with as many people as they wish without having to meet the people that they claim to be close. Notably, the youths wish to access those that they are in a relationship when they wish and get the immediate feedback through the digital technology (Howard & Katie, 2009). Howard and Katie assert that the use of digital media encourage shallow relationships because the youths over-depend on the technology for communication without meeting to seek understanding of each other. Additionally, they tend to pretend when using digital media for communication and they may not reveal their beliefs and values to the ones that they are in relationships for fear of provoking them. The authors assert that the use of digital media prevents adolescents from joining with their family members because they tend to be busy in using technology to communicate with the people who are far away. Thus, technology disbands one 's relations with the family (Howard & Katie, 2013).

On a positive note, though, the authors indicate that the use of social media continues to make it easy for the adolescents to keep in touch with their friends and acquaintances. However, the closeness that the youth creates through the social media may not lead to deeper relationships (Howard & Katie,

In conclusion, the authors agree that there are negative impacts of digital media on the lives of adolescents. However, they seek to appeal to the readers, parents and teachers to help the teenagers use digital media for exploration and establishment of sustainable relationships with family and friends. Regarding the acquisition of negative behaviors and identity, the authors encourage parents to remain watchful of the platforms that their children subscribe to and guide them on the best ways to acquire positive behaviors. Teachers can encourage the students to use the apps for inventions and exploration of new solutions to problems. With trust and self-disclosure, the adolescents can use digital media to develop deeper relationships that anchor on the values and cultures of the society (Howard & Katie, 2013). Finally, the authors argue that restoring imagination and creativity should involve the designers of the apps developing platforms that allow exploration and expansion of new ideas without the help of the