Transforming play value in playgrounds
By Helle Burlingame, KOMPAN Play Institute USA
Don Tapscott, in his new book “Grown Up Digital: How the Net Generation Is Changing Your World”, brings a refreshing perspective on technology and the Net Generation. It is a perspective that can calm any freaked-out Baby Boomer parent about what is going on in their family – not to mention bring insight to the work place, product development and the recreation field.
Net generation background
The Net Geners currently range in age from 12 to 32. Mr. Tapscott describes the net Generation as the biggest in history. He points out that more than 81 million people in the United States were born from 1977 to 1997, and that they make up 27 percent of the population. By comparison, the Baby Boomers, born between 1946 and 1964, were 77 million strong and are now 23 percent of the population.
The most defining trait of the net Generation is their lifelong experience using the Internet and cell phones and playing video games – in contrast with their Baby Boomer parents, whose signature medium has been the TV.
Today teenagers and tweens are the authorities on something really important in the world: the communications media. It is a technology that Boomers don’t really understand. “Around the world the Net Generation is flooding into the workplace, marketplace, and every niche of society. They are bringing their demographic muscle, media smarts, purchasing power, new models of collaborating and parenting, entrepreneurship, and political power into the world” 2. It is the first time in history that the role of the child in the home is changing, according to John Seely Brown of the University of South California. (4)
Eight norms of the Net Generation
Mr. Tapscott identifies eight norms of many members of the Net Generation: they prize freedom; they want to customize things; they enjoy collaboration; they scrutinize everything; they insist on integrity in institutions and corporations; they want to have fun even at school or work; they believe that speed in technology and all else is normal; and they regard constant innovation as a fact of life. They want rich experiences from work and play.
The mindset to collaborate: trained by games
When 92 percent of American children ages 2-17 have regular access to video games, entertainment is not just an expectation, it’s big business (4). The Net Generation is the relationship generation. They still hang out when they play electronic games, often in groups, or playing online with friends from around the world. The Net Generation is social – not individualistic like their Baby Boomer parents. According to historian Neil Howe, today’s kids like to do things together. Some 81 percent of tweens (ages 8-12) and 53 percent of teens (13-18) say that the number one way they like spending time with their friends is in person. 5)
Designing activity environments
The lesson that we can extract from this book when designing activity environments is among others that this young generation wants to have a say. We should expect that to be the case more and more with regard to how communities plan spaces for people to socialise and stay fit.
The playground industry is launching new electronic playgrounds as ways to motivate kids to be active. New industrial electronic designs of modern playgrounds are now appearing in the environments. Whether they pass the test or not, we find out on YouTube and Facebook –as well as how we can improve these designs! If the verdict is thumbs up, we might experience a renaissance in park use – not only as a space to spend time and enjoy nature, but also as a space that offers the Net Generation the prized opportunity to spend time together in person, having fun with intriguing electronic games outdoors.
- Don Tapschoot, Grown Up Digital: How the Net Generation is Changing your World, McGrawHill 2009
- Ibid, page 3
- Ibid, page 28
- John C. bekc, and Mitchell Wade, Got Game: How the Gamer Generation is Reshaping Business Forever, Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 2004, 3.
- Ibid, page 294
The ICON digital playground in New Orleans |
