Customer Reviews

Playing the Future: What We Can Learn from Digital Kids

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I found this book while browsing in the anthropological section of a bookstore (where it belongs). This is a tremendously hopeful book, even if it is occasionally circular. Everything from vampire games to grafitti is explained as a recapitulation of society's previous values, just accelerated and adapted by the newest version of human--teenagers. Rushkoff deftly analyzes the existance in which young adults are operating and creating as part of a bigger, brighter reality. These anaylses are always interesting, but they occasionally seem over-thought and repetetive. This book is coherent and well-presented--the author certainly knows what he's talking about, even if the reader doesn't always agree. A wonderful, insightful book that gives credit where credit is due--to the millions of young adults who manage to operate efficiently in an increasingly complex and chaotic world, even if their parents don't get it.

Took me a while to get through this one. Rushkoffs' Playing the Future: how kids' culture can teach us to thrive in an age of chaos is a very impressive read. Douglas R. illustrates a cultural transition that moves from linearity to chaos, from duality to holism, from mechanism to animism, from gravity to consensual, from metaphor to recapitulation, and from God to nature, all through the lenses of role-playing games, comic books, 3-d animation, and computer games. By far, the central theme of P the F is cultural movement we experience towards an organized chaos (fractel being the metaphorical shape Rushkoff uses) and ultimetly higher levels of organizations.

Rushkoff is a very talented writer being able to string together long and complex sentances that connect many different ideas in a relatively short space. This work is of impressive scope and it definetly dives deep into the nuances and intricacies of kids' culture and thier interpretation of the world. An excellent read

The cultural examples in this book are dated (fractals and Pogs?) but the general idea is still relevant: embracing the coming age of chaotic culture is a healthy alternative to Doomsday predictions about short attention spans and loose morals. It's Marshall McLuhan's Global Village, with "but in a good way" tacked on. If you already like the internet, you can probably skip ahead in the Rushkoff bibliography.

For kicks, two funny problems with this book:

(1) Rushkoff is addicted to tortured metaphors and endless similes. This is painful to read, but also kind of hilarious during the entire chapter about the death of metaphor. The death of metaphor is a parabola? No, it's a rushing faucet. Wait, it's a type of childbirth. The death of metaphor is a metaphor!

(2) Rushkoff likes chaotic culture because it's evolutionary, but he can't quite wrap his head around evolution itself as a chaotic process (at least he didn't in 1996). He repeatedly insists that evolution tends to climb a ladder towards complexity and that humans are the most "highly evolved" species: basically The Crown of Creation shoehorned into biological terms. Using a Judeo-Christian concept of species hierarchy to explain the decline of God and authority? Weird!

The author asserts that parents can develop stronger, more positive relationships with their children if they stop criticizing and start appreciating and understanding the technologically advancing culture in which today's kids are immersed.

I admit it. I approached this book with a degree of skepticism. As a futurist, I'm interested in reading what others say about trends, but this one didn't strike me as worth more than a skim.

Whoa! What a surprise! I started underlining on the second page-of the introduction!

This book delivers a fascinating look at youth culture and relates that culture-and its implications-to our future. It's an enjoyable read, exploring a wide range of aspects of the culture of today's youth, our future employees and leaders. I gained a great deal of insight into the Millennial Generation, and I've been studying them for a while myself.

Every once in a while, I shook my head in bewilderment or struggled to get a connection, but that was seldom. As I moved from page to page, I had a recurring urge to discuss parts with my 14-year old step-daughter. Her response to my amazement and learning would probably be something like, "Duh. Don't you know this? Don't you get it?" Don't get me wrong; Samantha is not like all the different types of kids described in the book. But, she fits where she wants to fit in the picture . . . which is part of the picture.

The author is himself a card-carrying member of Generation X. This perspective is manifested in his writing, both in style and language and topic. I felt like I was getting a private interview to gain a deeper understanding of the teens and twenty-somethings. While I won't admit to being comfortable with all that I read, I do confess to having learned something. Actually, a lot of somethings. Now with a greater appreciation of today's youth, their culture, and their perspective on the future, I feel more secure in what will come in the years ahead.

Screenagers, Rushkoff's moniker for the generation he presents to us, is a valid and worthwhile study. Page after page delivers food for thought and consideration. Are you ready for the future? To know the future? We're surrounded by the future-and its movers and shakers-today. Better get to know these folks, how they think, what they expect, and where they're going.

Now that I've written my review, I'll give the book to my 14-year old, already a voracious reader. I wonder what she'll have to say about this evaluation and study of her generation. My guess is that she'll agree. . . and then go on to tell me more. What an intriguing discussion this will be . . . .

When it comes to new media, no one does it better than Rushkoff. This book, "Media Virus", and especially "Coercion"... all books shed excellent light on the information age.. and not just the doom and gloom or bubblegum optimism we usually get thrown at us. Rushkoff takes everything apart, explains it all in realistic ways, then puts it all back together for us. Like Coercion, this book should be on the required reading lists of every worthwhile college in the country. I am better prepared to handle the world and my job (computers) for having read this book.