Don Tapscott's Generation Y Speech

When I heard the Don Tapscott speech about the net generation, I was extremely skeptical because it is very rare that someone who talks about my generation or the internet is ever remotely correct. Mr. Tapscott, however got most of his point right on the target save for one or two problems that I had personally with some of his examples.

For example, Don Tapscott used an example of a young student named Joe who seems to be the second coming of the savior considering how Mr. Tapscott describes him (forgive my exaggeration). As insane as that claim sounds, this guy doesn't read books, gets straight A's, has gotten the coveted Rhodes Scholarship, helped set up a health care clinic in New Orleans called the 9th Ward Health Care Clinic (which is still open), has set up a site for teenagers can organize their volunteer work, and helps his family stay in touch after the death of their parents by leading missions in World of Warcraft. Although Joe is probably a nice guy, there is almost no man in the world who can do all that. I'm not saying that Mr. Tapscott is a liar, but this particular example fits too perfectly.

Other than the little aspects of his arguments, he was otherwise right. He mentioned that now that everybody can collaborate and work together, we're learning more on the internet than we ever could by simply watching T.V. He also talked about how we can multitask easier than most adults. I can attest to this because I can have up to 30 tabs open at once while talking to people on MSN and Yahoo chat services. His speech was very accurate and informative, which I honestly didn't expect because I'm a cynical person and normally seeing a baby boomer talk about MY generation and the biggest technological wave (of which WE are the rulers) in the world doesn't tell me anything informative, interesting, new, or, most importantly, correct.

In conclusion, his speech was quite good for someone teaching me what I already know, but his biggest flaw was his perfect friend, Joe.