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What’s Next for News?Questions about kids and multitasking,explored in a 2006 Time cover story, arestill being asked today.younger teens who spend slightlymore than 15 hours per day.• Multitasking: Older teens reportdoing the most multitasking;according to them, they performnearly seven simultaneous tasks.In “Rewired,” I argue that they arenot really doing them at the sametime, but they are simply better taskswitchers. This constant multitaskingamong teens compares with sixand a half simultaneous activitiesfor younger teens and six for NetGeners. Baby boomers like me reportbeing able to do about four and ahalf things at the same time.• E-communication: Baby boomersprefer face-to-face or telephonecommunication along with e-mail.Gen Xers embrace cell phones,e-mail and instant messaging. It iswith the Net Generation that differentcommunication approachesemerge, including social networks,IMing, Skyping and texting. Butit’s the iGeneration that is rapidlyredefining digital communication.To them, a phone is not a phone.It is a computer (or likely soon tobe a tablet) that they use to tweet,Facebook and, of course, text, text,text. For them, peer relationshipsare all about connecting by anyelectronic means. To them, WWWstands for whatever, whenever andwherever.• Socializing: The two recent minigenerationsare more technologicallysocial than any that came beforethem. For them, connecting is whatdigital technology was invented todo. They built MySpace and Facebook;nearly every one of them hasa page on one or both. Upward oftwo hours each day are spent connectingonline with their communityof friends, whether they are RL (reallife) or SL (screen life) friends. (In2009, “unfriend” was the word ofthe year added to the New OxfordAmerican Dictionary.)• Creativity: They make their ownYouTube videos, post photos, mashup music, create multimedia presentations,and develop personalizedcontent. In their eyes, the “i” iniGeneration stands for “individualized.”iGeners have their own iPhoneapps, their own song mixes, andhave forced developers to minetheir products for personalizedapplications.• Writing: Some argue that LOL,JK, and OMG are symptoms of anilliterate generation of teen texters.Research is showing that isn’t true.This generation writes more thanany other and whether it is textbasedwriting or formal writing, itis still writing. And writing begetswriting. Interestingly, they also readmore, particularly if you expand theconcept of reading to include onlinecontent rather than just books inprint.• Motivation: iGen teens are highlymotivated, as evidenced by thecontent that they post daily online.They are not, as some people haveasserted, lazy. In contrast, other generations—particularlybaby boomersand Gen Xers—are as interested inprocess as they are in product. Youngadults and teenagers hate meetingto discuss how they are proceeding;if forced to meet in person, they’llusually pull out their Blackberriesand iPhones so they can multitask.They do not like interim deadlinesand prefer to be held accountablefor the entire project executed welland on time. They thrive on positivereinforcement for their completedwork, but tend to downplay praisefor subproducts along the way.From all of my research, as long asadults let teens work on their timeschedule, using high-tech tools theyprefer, teachers and employers willmost often find that iGeners andNet Geners will come up with anexcellent final product.Lessons for JournalistsWhat do such findings mean to journalists?In short, the answer is a lot.In reporting and distributing newsand information—and in their interactions—journalistsneed to understandhow younger generations use technology,what they expect to do with it, andwhat they expect to receive throughit. If journalists want their words andimages to be engaging to Net Genersand iGeners, they need to figure outhow teens and young adults operate intheir high-tech world. And they needto keep up with the distinctive digitalhabits of mini-generations.Information is power, but first itneeds to reach an audience. Whetherthe vehicle is Facebook or its next iteration—perhapsnow in the making as anapp—we know that as digital platformschange, so does the psychology ofreaders. And this includes how theyrelate to and deal with information.Each mini-generation is showing itselfto be different—in big and discernibleways, and what makes them sodifferent surely matters to those whoare trying to reach them. Larry Rosen is a professor ofpsychology and past chairman ofthat department at California StateUniversity, Dominguez Hills. He isa research psychologist, computereducator, and the author of fourbooks. His most recent is “Rewired:Understanding the iGeneration andthe Way They Learn,” published inMarch by Palgrave Macmillan.26 Nieman Reports | Summer 2010