The App Generation by Howard Gardner, Katie Davis Page A

materialize, even anxiety.
BEYOND APPS
    It would be myopic to look at digital media’s impact on young people’s time and attention without also considering important changes to other aspects of their lives. Indeed, our focus group participants expressed regret that certain changes to the educational environment prevent youth from pursuing their creative interests. In school, arts programming has been sidelined or even eliminated as administrators place test preparation at the center of the curriculum and the heart of the day. One educator bemoaned, “Many of the vehicles that [students] used to be able to express themselves creatively are now gone—theater, arts . . . different electives.” This sidelining is most pronounced in struggling schools that typically serve underprivileged youth. At the time of our study, these schools faced the threat of closure if a sufficient percentage oftheir students failed to meet mandated annual yearly progress goals.
    While affluent youth may benefit from greater opportunities for art while in school, participants noted that the regimented quality of their extracurricular activities leaves little room for them to exercise their imaginations outside school. There is little of the precious “time to waste” in youth that is nostalgically recalled by many highly creative artists and scientists. 25 Extracurricular activities have become résumé-building opportunities; students try to distinguish themselves in increasingly impressive ways in the hope of gaining admission to a selective college and, thereafter, to a prestigious internship or job placement. Even the camp experience has been affected, as camp directors feel pressure from parents to provide a documented “value-added” summer experience for their children. As a result, camp has become increasingly structured, the activities more goal-directed. It’s hard for imagination to take root, let alone sprout buds, in such arid soil. Indeed, scholars have found that participation in highly structured activities undermines problem finding and creativity. 26
    And what of the workplace? Companies like Google, Facebook, and IDEO claim to value, nurture, and reward creativity in their employees. They go out of their way to create an environment conducive to imaginative thought: innovative office layouts, flexible work schedules—Exhibit A: Google’s famous fifth day to pursue a project of one’s own design. Such practices would appear to stand in stark contrast to the educational experiences and risk-averse orientations of today’syoung people. There are two reasons why it does not. Google, Facebook, and IDEO have quite distinct notions of what counts as a good or bad answer to their puzzles. More important, theirs is sanctioned risk-taking. Employees are told, “Here is a context in which you
should
take risks.” And, of course, then it is no longer a risk. That said, these programs and recruiter techniques do call for certain creative qualities of mind—ones now described in books that let you figure out whether you “are smart enough to work at Google.” 27 They are biased against people who are not good at playing that kind of game—or employing that kind of “app.”
WHEN APPS ENHANCE
    Although the arguments and evidence presented above concern us, our investigations also give us reason to be optimistic about the creative potentials of apps and other forms of digital media. At the beginning of this chapter, we shared examples of young people—including Molly—using digital media in imaginative ways. These examples illustrate aspects of new media technologies that impress our focus group participants: the lowered bar for entry into creative pursuits, the increased sophistication of what youth can create, and the wider variety of creative opportunities now open to young people. One educator working in a low-income neighborhood reflected: “I