Internet generation

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The Internet generation is one of a variety of terms used to represent the generation of people who have grown up with computer technology as a commonplace. The distinguishing mark of this cohort is that its members spent their formative years during the rise of the World Wide Web. Thus, they usually have no memory of (or nostalgia for) a pre-Internet history. In the United States, Japan and certain parts of Europe, these people are usually the people born from 1993-present.

This term is the one used by William Strauss and Neil Howe, in their Generations theory, and occasionally found elsewhere.^[1]

Other terms are used by other writers.

The iGeneration^[2] (a jocular allusion to all the iBusiness names popular in the 90s and the iPod boom as experienced by the Internet Generation) takes the Internet for granted, accepting the utility of services such as internet forums, email, Wikipedia, search engines, MySpace, Facebook, imageboards, Bebo and YouTube.

The term "Generation Now" has been used as well,^[3] to reflect the urge for instant-gratification that technology has imparted.^[4]

Other terms that have been used in conjunction with this generation include:

Computer Generation^[5]
Generation M^[6] (for Millennium or Multi Task)
Millennials^[7]
Google generation
Generation Einstein
Generation Q (for "Quiet", termed by Thomas L. Friedman)
Net Gen, a shortened form of "Net Generation" (similar to the related term "Net Natives") used frequently in books by Don Tapscott and several of his co-authors, such as Anthony D. Williams in Wikinomics: how mass collaboration changes everything.

New York Magazine's report on this generation emphasized their lack of privacy, expectation of speaking to an audience even in personal communication, and a familiarity with harsh, anonymous criticism.^[8]