Read Online The App Generation by Howard Gardner, Katie Davis - Free Book Online Page B

three aspects of the lives of young people that have been most affected by the digital technology: their sense of identity, their capacity for intimate relations, and their imaginative powers. Later, in conclusion, we’ll return to reflect on the effects that the app consciousness may have on other aspects of life today and, more speculatively, on the lives of future generations.

SIX
Acts (and Apps) of Imagination among Today’s Youth
    A PPS LIKE S KETCH B OOK , B RUSHES, ArtStudio, Procreate, and ArtRage allow artists to draw, sketch, and paint using their smartphone or tablet. Photographers can create and manipulate images with Flixel, Instagram, Fotor, and PhotoSlice. For aspiring filmmakers, there’s Viddy, iMovie, Video Star, and Movie360. Musicians can compose and arrange their music using SoundBrush, GarageBand, Songwriter’s Pad, and Master Piano.
    We could make similar lists for just about any artistic genre. A sizable portion of the app ecology is devoted to supporting artistic production. Even apps that aren’t ostensibly meant for creative pursuits lend themselves to imaginative uses. Recall our earlier discussion of the mini-performances that Molly stages and sends to Katie via the messaging app Snapchat. Living up to the name that we have bestowed on them, apps have changed how members of the App Generation engage their imaginations. We’ll explore what’s gained and what’slost by using apps (and other digital media) for the purpose of artistic expression.
    We find that digital media open up new avenues for youth to express themselves creatively. Remix, collage, video production, and music composition—to name just a few popular artistic genres of the day—are easier and cheaper for today’s youth to pursue than were their predigital counterparts. It’s also easier to find an audience for one’s creative productions. The app metaphor serves us well here, since apps are easy to use, support diverse artistic genres, and encourage sharing among their users.
    And yet—reflecting patterns we observed in youth’s expressions of personal identity and experiences of intimacy—an app mentality can lead to an unwillingness to stretch beyond the functionality of the software and the packaged sources of inspiration that come with a Google search. We ask: Under what circumstances do apps enable imaginative expression? Under what circumstances do they foster a dependent or narrow-minded approach to creation?
    Before proceeding, two background points. First, a word about our focus on art. We recognize that the imagination can be exercised in just about any sphere, be it science, business, a hobby, or sports. Indeed, Erik Erikson was referring to a wide range of endeavors when he wrote about the challenge of using one’s mind and one’s resources actively and imaginatively to pursue a meaningful, generative life. We focus on art because it may have the broadest provenance, because it’s generally what people think of first when they think of imagination,and because we have had the opportunity to examine wonderfully revealing collections of art secured over a two-decade span.
    Second, a word about the term
imagination
. We are interested in how young persons use their cognitive, social, and emotional capacities to broaden their understandings and enrich their productions—to think outside the box, as the saying goes. Many commentators are interested in this twenty-first-century skill, and they readily invoke words like “creativity,” “innovation,” “originality,” and “entrepreneurship” to capture the idea. We like “imagination” because it focuses sharply on the psychological process that the young person can bring to an activity—and, to be candid, because it allows us to speak of the Three Is.
FROM VIDEOTAPE TO VIDDING
    There can be little doubt that apps and other digital media technologies have