The app generation: How today's youth navigate identity, intimacy, and imagination in a digital world

When I finished reading The App Generation by Howard Gardner and Katie Davis, I was struck by an example in the book about young people who have never been lost because of their smart phones. With a global positioning system (GPS) app or Google Maps at their disposal, they have never had to problem-solve or orient themselves based on a landmark, or rely on memory. This, the authors say, is an example of the impact digital media have had on today’s youth. Howard Gardner is a professor of Cognition and Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and is best known for his theory of multiple intelligences. His coauthor, Katie Davis, is an Assistant Professor at the University of Washington Information School studying the role of technology in teens’ lives. Combined, they present a unique perspective on the discussion of what we know of as “digital natives.” They set out to define today’s young people as the “App Generation,” using the literary device of the authors’ own configurations across generations. The three generations used as a framework are Howard, a digital immigrant who grew up in the 1950s in America; Katie, who grew up in the 1980s and early 1990s in Bermuda; and Molly (Katie’s younger sister), who grew up in Bermuda and the United States and cannot remember a time without digital media. The authors define the word “app” as a software program, often made for a mobile device, utilizing one or more operations. It can be a shortcut that takes you straight to where you want to go with no searching on the Internet or in your own memory: