Today’s youth seem inseparable from the fast-changing technologies that define our times. In a world where rotary phones and dial-up internet are unknown concepts, has this generation become “app-enabled” and “app-dependent”? In The App Generation: How Today’s Youth Navigate Identity, Intimacy, and Imagination in a Digital World, Katie Davis (an Assistant Professor at the University of Washington) traces the history of the digital revolution and its effect on creativity, as well as the many potential benefits of work organized around apps, suggesting that these tools can even serve as a “springboard” for creative thinking and life goals beyond the tasks they’ve been designed to fulfill.

Learn more: Davis talks about “app-enabled” vs. “app-dependent.”

Presented by: Town Hall in partnership with Third Place Books, as part of the Civics series. Series supported by The Boeing Company, the RealNetworks Foundation, and the True-Brown Foundation. Series media sponsorship provided by The Stranger and KUOW.