1. Cover
2. Title Page
3. Copyright
4. Preface
1. A Revolutionary Shift
2. Notes
5. PART 1: A Generation Unlike Any Other
1. 1 Virtual Is the New Digital
1. Finding Your Fam
2. The Road to Virtualization
3. The Essence of Virtualization
4. Notes
2. 2 What Is Reality, Anyway?
1. The Time and Space Discontinuum
2. Traveling with Your Mind
3. Everywhere and Anywhere
4. Doing Everything, and All At Once
5. Notes
3. 3 Fluid Identities
1. Skins, Brands, and Identity
2. Love Is Love
3. “I'm Whatever, and It's … Whatever”
4. Redefining Gender
5. Living the Dream
6. Metaverse Games
7. Notes
4. 4 Radical Acceptance
1. Shared Interests, More Than Shared Identities
2. First Love
3. For Fans, Virtual Is Real
4. AI Love You
5. Notes
5. 5 Putting on the “Rizz”
1. Stardom and Social Media
2. I'd Say Yes
3. Notes
6. 6 From Apprentice to Expert
1. Virtualization, Virtual Worlds, and Immersion
2. We're All Otakus Now
3. A Faustian Bargain?
4. But What About the Children?
5. From Apprentice to Master
6. Notes
, 7. 7 Create, Consume, and Own
1. From Hobbies to Full‐time Hustle
2. Free Agents
3. Digital Goods, Real Incomes
4. Virtual Sweatshops?
5. Notes
8. 8 Autonomous Agents
1. No More Bullshit Jobs
2. Hustle Harder: The Birth of the Gig Economy
3. Okay, Boomer
4. Late‐Stage Capitalism and the Revenge of the Precariat
5. Quiet Quitting and the Rise of Alternative Employment
6. Virtual Natives, Virtual Work
7. We're All Freelancers Now
8. Notes
9. 9 Send Pics
1. A Generational Shift
2. Virtual Search
3. Connecting Across the Generational Divide
4. Notes
10. 10 The First Cyborgs
1. “Tell Us About the New Digital Natives in Virtual Spaces”
2. Machines Are for Grinding
3. Learning, Development, and Artificial Intelligence
4. Can We Beat the Bot?
5. We're All Centaurs Now
6. Notes
6. PART 2: The Revolution Starts Here
1. 11 Meet the Degens
1. The Fever Is Rising
2. Searching for Gold in El Dorado
3. Notes
2. 12 You're Not the Boss of Me
1. The Airline Puzzle
2. The Virtual Native Megaphone
3. The Age of Conspiracy
4. Fake News
5. Notes
3. 13 Love, Sex, and Algorithms
1. Are Dating Apps Designed to Fail Users?
2. How Are Relationships Different on Virtual Media Platforms?
3. Is Love a Game?
4. Fortnite and Flirt
5. Love Is Love
6. Notes
4. 14 Web3 and the Culture
, 1. Whole Lotta Love
2. Do the Renegade
3. When the Default Is the Same Type
4. Economic Access Is Key
5. Notes
5. 15 Life Is Games
1. “Red Light, Green Light, One, Two, Three!”
2. Notes
6. 16 The Charismatics
1. If AI Invented Politicians
2. The Estonia Model
3. Changing Expectations: “I should be able to …”
4. Sparking Joy
5. Virtual Natives Have the Edge
6. Substance and Shine
7. Notes
7. 17 Main Character Energy
1. Working from Home: A Structural Shift
2. Greed Is Good and Closers Get Coffee
3. The Uniform Versus Uniqua
4. Valuing the Human Beyond the Resource
5. Rebuilding with the Employee at the Center
6. Notes
8. 18 Future Forward
1. The Future of Labor: Radical Self‐Reliance
2. The Future of Education: Education as a Service
3. The Future of Collecting: “Show Me What You Own and I'll Tell You Who
You Are”
4. The Future of Social Life: It's Global
5. The Future of Entertainment: Interactive and Revelatory
6. The Future of Money: Digitized and Accessible
7. We're All Natives Now
8. Note
7. Epilogue: Invisible Architecture
1. An Enduring Miracle
2. The Digital Divide
3. Notes
8. Acknowledgments
9. About the Authors
10. Index
11. End User License Agreement