Hah! Too late! Bought it FridayâŚ
Reasonable on Kindle or Nook. Bought a copy since I like to support writers, but a nice thought. I have a 17 year old so if it helps me understand him and his world even a little better it is worth it.
I just finished listening to this book on audible, and I have to admit I was a little underwhelmed. Blame it on my graduating from high school in 2005 with a livejournal and a facebook account, but I really didnât feel like there was anything surprising in âItâs Complicated.â
Maybe Iâm just thrown off because Iâm closer to a ânetworked teenâ than a âclueless adult.â Anybody have the same experience with the book, or maybe the opposite one?
Hmmmm, must be popular - the page does not existâŚ
You are probably a lot closer to being the subject of the book than being the audience, and the fact that you didnât find anything surprising could be a flag that boydâs research is reasonably accurate to your experiences. It wasnât that surprising to me either, but Iâm even closer to that demographic ('08 high school).
Rest assured, there are people for whom this book is quite shocking. Thatâs kind of the social science dilemma, actually â either something is incredibly shocking and could never be true ever, or itâs something âeveryone knows.â Often itâs both at the same time to different people.
The original title for this book was âLike, Duhâ because whenever Iâd turn over my findings to teens they would roll their eyes and tell me it was obvious. And then theyâd ask why I was wasting my time. Their parents, OTOH, would look at me like I was an alien. Itâs this disconnect that Iâm trying to solve but I donât expect younger folks to necessarily come away so shocked and awed. Iâm more grateful when they come away thinking I did justice to the dynamics that were all around them. Itâs really the older crowd that Iâm trying to help see the world from a different perspective.
That was basically the impression I got.
Donât get me wrong, Iâve been recommending the book to a lot of people, but mostly older people I know rather than peers.
Just posting to say thanks for the book, since the author ir reading this thread.
Iâm firmly in the demographic that saw Coryâs previous post and thought, âThat sounds interestingâ, but wouldnât buy the book because itâs of limited relevance to my life (my child is a toddler, so Iâll be more interested in a revised 2020 edition/sequel).
Since itâs free, Iâll read it at some point to get a better idea of what itâs really like to grow up with âonlineâ being a normal thing rather than some exciting new technology.
Iâm really interested to see if my following car analogy holds true:
Generation X and Y grew up in a car-society but we donât expect Generation X to have an intuitive knowledge of car mechanics, and in many cases they know less than their parentâs generation. They merely know the basics of driving and hope nothing expensive/dangerous goes wrong. Iâm pretty sure Generation Z wonât have an intuitive knowledge of the new âonlineâ society, theyâll just know the basics of how to work the technology involved and hope nothing expensive/dangerous goes wrong.
I bought it on Thursday after seeing the BB recommendation. I have a 13yo who is new to instagram, and two younger kids who donât have online presences. So far nothing in the book has surprised me but Iâm still glad Iâm reading it. My 13yo looked at the cover and concluded the book is stupid and she doesnât want me reading it.
That is a statement youâre going to need to get used toâŚ
Thatâs an interesting analogy. I wonder if another aspect of it will also become true: I think people in my generate (X) are less inclined to work on cars because it has also become much more difficult to work on cars. The engines are computerized and more complicated in general. Heck, I know a bit about cars, and I couldnât do anything with mine because itâs impossible for me to access most parts of it, physically. Gone are the days when you could get a wrench in there without removing half of the engine first. I suppose that might be analogous to computers becoming less tinkering-friendly, in general.
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