Don’t stick Gen Y in cubicle
September 28, 2009 by Sarah Newton
Filed under Organisations
Employing Gen Y
Today’s digital generation thinks differently, but corporations are not dealing with them effectively, said Don Tapscott.
Tapscott, nGenera Insight’s chairman and author of Grown Up Digital: How the Net Generation is Changing Your World, said such corporations include companies and advertising agencies, which are trying to interact with the “Gen Y” crowd.
He spoke to ZDNet Asia about how the digital generation thinks differently, and how companies should manage the arrival of this group of people to the workforce.
Q: We’ve had Gen X, and now Gen Y. What defines this group?
Tapscott: This is the first generation to come of age in the digital age. This is affecting their brains and how they think. My generation, the baby boomers, spent 24 hours a week watching TV.
When you’re the passive recipient of video, that gives you a certain kind of brain. Young people today that have grown up using the technology are using an equivalent amount of time being active users instead. They’re handling information, thinking, scrutinizing, multi-tasking. And this is affecting young people’s brains. And it’s for the good.
They come into the workforce, the market place, and society…there is no force more powerful.
