Today’s young people have never known a world without ubiquitous digital media. Education scholars Howard Gardner – the prolific multiple-intelligences expert – and Katie Davis argue that the constant access to software applications – “apps” – and to online information and communities changes how young people approach the psychological challenges of “identity, intimacy and creativity.” Some of their conclusions seem mundane, but many of their findings offer substantial and surprising insights into evolving adolescent psychology. getAbstract recommends this study to anyone marketing to youth, to parents and educators, to software developers, and to young people themselves, whether they read it on paper or online (we’ve got an app for that).
“Digital Natives”
Today’s young people are “digital natives” – they’ve spent their whole lives in a world of digital media and can barely imagine life without mobile phones or the Internet. Has growing up in a digital world affected their “thought processes, personalities, imaginations and behaviors”? How do they differ from “digital immigrants” who adopted digital media later in life? Digital media have had a considerable impact on three crucial areas of psychological development:
- Establishing personal identity.
- Cultivating the capacity to form intimate relationships with other people.
- Developing “generativity” – the creative impulse.
These areas are three of the eight life “crises” that psychoanalyst Erik Erikson identified in his seminal book, Childhood and Society. He posited that developing a healthy, integrated psyche involves successfully navigating these crises. “App” use changes how young people approach these crises. Apps are software programs on mobile devices that enable users to perform specific tasks: You can use an app for news, or for mapping your way, writing a song or drawing a picture. Today’s young...
Howard Gardner, the Hobbs Professor of Cognition and Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, directs the Harvard Project Zero research program. Co-author Katie Davis is an assistant professor at the University of Washington.
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