"Focus On the Net Gen Family"

This article is the seventh in an eight-part series of Viewpoints by author Don Tapscott, who wrote Grown Up Digital, to explain how digital technology has affected the children of the baby boomers, a group he calls the Net Generation. The article is about how the family model has changed from hierarchical (Dad as CEO, Mom as COO) to collaborative. He calls it the "open model of parenting". He writes:

This is a different model of authority inside the family. It has conditioned Net Geners to recognize that the best way to achieve power and control is through people, not over people.

We definitely belong to this group, always trying to decide by building consensus within the family. It doesn't always succeed, but the more the buy-in from everybody, the less hassles you face down the road in implementation! (Not really coincidentally, consensus is the model we follow for decision-making in our cohousing community as well - and much for the same reasons.)

The article is worth reading not only for its content, but also for its positive tone. It is easy to take on the posture of "kids nowadays are no good and it is going to be the end of civilization". The author avoids that and tries to stay true to his data (always a good idea!).

And now I must find the earlier 6 articles!