Davis, K. & Gardner, H. (2013). The App Generation: How Today’s Youth Navigate Identity, Intimacy, and Imagination in a Digital World. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press.
What is it like to grow up in a generation with apps? What happens to kids when they live immersed in a digital world? How are their minds and brains affected? Howard and Davis define an app as a software application you download and then use to perform discrete tasks. Apps enable us to do tasks quickly and on demand. In essence, they refer to them as “shortcuts” that take you straight to what you want to do and where you want to be. Through a large amount of research, conducted over a 6 year period, the book argues and proves that apps can be either enabling for freeing. They state, “In our own terms, we may think of habits as potentially making us dependent on certain conditions or as enabling us, freeing us to do new and potentially important things.” (Page, 29) Howard and Davis write about three essential themes for adolescents: personal identity, intimate relationships, imagination and creativity. Youths are trying to figure out who they are, they are trying to develop intimate and meaningful relationships, and they are prime for thinking differently and imagining the world in a new and different way. However, those things will be affected in either a positive or negative way, dependent upon if our youth are “app-enabled” or “app-dependent”.
I learned a great deal from this book and Gardner and Davis’ extremely thorough studies. They authors displayed data to uncover the drawbacks of apps: they may foreclose a sense of identity, encourage superficial relations with others, and stunt creative imagination. Young girls and boys are crafting their own online identities. They portray the images and comments that they want to include to make themselves desirable to themselves and their peers. However, while they work hard to portray this polished image online, they leave out and in many ways neglect and minimize their internal self. In addition, they are faced with the pressure to solidify their identity prematurely, while they are still trying to figure out who they are.
Davis and Howard also reveal a number of benefits of apps: they can promote a strong sense of identity, allow deep relationships, and stimulate creativity. However, they conclude that the only way for the apps to have a positive impact, is if youths venture beyond the ways that apps are designed to be used and use them as a springboard to greater creativity and deeper relationships. I have never thought of social media networks as an “app” world or “app” generation. This book really broadened my understanding of social media, as the sites all appear as apps on a smart phone. Apps are designed to be shortcuts and to get us what we want, when we want it. I also learned that young girls and boys are in the midst of developing personal identity, intimacy and imagination, and that social media apps can significantly affect those areas in a negative way. From the data, I also learned that young people are becoming increasingly afraid to take risks and expect quick answers. On a positive note, they are becoming much more accepting of other religions, races and sexual orientations. I was also shocked by one of the positives of apps and social media. Through social media, kids are becoming more connected to their parents and they have many ways to stay in contact. This study was very helpful in answering my guiding question, by displaying in-depth answers about both the positive and negative effects of apps and social media on youth.
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