Youth and Technology

I thought a lot today about teenagers, and the crazy amounts of technology that is available to them.  I consider myself "born digital," but I know in actuality, I have been re-born digital. I did not have the technology that is available to teenagers today.... not even close.

I remember calling my mom from a payphone at the mall, getting so angry I was wasting quarters when she didn't pick up.  I remember sitting at the computer, watching every second I was online because it we paid for the internet by the minute.  The most complex computer class I had in high school, was typing class.

If I was a teenager today, how would my life be different? Texting, Facebooking, YouTubing... all at my fingertips. Would I perceive my future differently? Would I have been more connected with the world - instead of just my neighborhood?

With the opportunity this gives teenagers, I also think about the repercussions. When is access to information too easy? Porn and violence at a click of a button.  Maybe things are not so different, maybe I am undervaluing a young minds ability to filter these images and messages... but I have been thinking about it... a lot.

Comments

[Dave Huston]

I'd still consider myself to be born digital... just raised by wolves and finding my true calling later in life. All the while that I was, like you, watching pictures download line by line over a dial-up connection that cost by the minute, or sending messages to friends, waiting a couple minutes for their response, then disconnecting and calling them to talk about how cool that was... I was dreaming of these days. The days when we all have personal communication tools in our pockets. The days when we can share anything we see or hear with everyone we know and then some.

Thinking about it... I think I was born during this time and sent back in time by some evil anti-digital being.

[Dan]

This is a great post... Being in my early 30's with a two year old son I ask myself similar questions.

[Joe Maller]

I remember when our family got our first computer. My parents remember the first time they saw television. My grandparents could remember getting their first refrigerator.

Every generation makes a leap. I often wonder what my own children will see, do and make.

[Yianni Garcia]

My little brother's high school has a yearly mandatory seminar on MySpace safety.

[Andrea Vascellari]

Hi Julia,

Here a couple of links

Frontline:
http://tinyurl.com/2bqr2j
Thoughts:
http://tinyurl.com/2lx4bh

Andrea

[Roldano De Persio]

Hi Julia,

I think U R 2 Old! Ok Ok I am joking :-)
I agree with Dave this is a great post.

Have you read this article?
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/09/business/09cell.html

PS

I am 42 years old and I´ve seen things you people wouldn't believe... :-)

bye from a cold and sunny Rome.

[Dave LaMorte]

I think a lot of kids are still having trouble figuring out how to use technology in their lives in a social stand point. There are a lot of social rules that aren't quite clear. We knew growing up that you couldn't call someone too late at night because you would wake up their parents, but now a cell phone is a direct line to your friends.

[Tom W]

Your post poses a very interesting question.

In my opinion, the effect of the social web will not really be felt for the next 5-10 years as the generation that is growing up now matures.

When this happens I believe that we will see a new and different world economy, the blurring of borders, and a move to more worldly existence.

American kids that are young today may have on line fiends in many countries and will have a better perspective on how their actions are perceived by different cultures. They'll also be aware of problems and triumphs that take place far away from their neighborhood.

I think that the level of connectivity that future generations will enjoy could be the silver bullet of a lot of the worlds problems.

[McLarty]

It's a big question of present value, and I think it's a higher net in the plus. The risks and downsides are bigger, but so are the upsides. So, society takes the good with the bad and ends up with the net result of a greater good.

[Don Lafferty Facebook Comment]

My son is 20 and I have three daughters, 18, 15 and 13.

Amazingly, there's a bit of a digital divide, even between the older two and the younger two.

I remember when the big gift my oldest daughter got one Christmas was a Motorola pager at a cost of $200 plus a plan that cost twenty bucks a month. Soon after she got her own mobile phone which resulted in $300 monthly text messaging charges and an early termination fee on the pager plan, plus a pretty piece of useless technology junk.

Eventually it became family tradition (and social necessity) for the little girls to get mobile phones on Christmas of their twelfth year. Now with unlimited text messaging and rollover minutes, I think all four cost me about a hundred bucks a month and my 13 year old carries a freakin' Sidekick.

I didn't have my first $400+ phone till I was 40!
My son is 20 and I have three daughters, 18, 15 and 13.

Amazingly, there's a bit of a digital divide, even between the older two and the younger two.

I remember when the big gift my oldest daughter got one Christmas was a Motorola pager at a cost of $200 plus a plan that cost twenty bucks a month. Soon after she got her own mobile phone which resulted in $300 monthly text messaging charges and an early termination fee on the pager plan, plus a pretty piece of useless technology junk.

Eventually it became family tradition (and social necessity) for the little girls to get mobile phones on Christmas of their twelfth year. Now with unlimited text messaging and rollover minutes, I think all four cost me about a hundred bucks a month and my 13 year old carries a freakin' Sidekick.

I didn't have my first $400+ phone till I was 40!

While there’s no longer a divide between them regarding Internet access, the older kids first online experiences were a lot like yours. Timed dial-up via AOL. I remember how jazzed everybody was when we went to the unlimited plan at $29.99 a month. This required a whole set of published rules of fair use when it came to the one computer in the house. Even with the rules the computer remained the origin of great upheaval in day to day life.

Now they have two wireless computers at their mom’s place and three laptops at my place.

We surf the Internet while simultaneously watching TV, doing homework or playing games, and while it may seem like we’re all focused on our own screen, we’re usually doing it together. Checking facts, getting deeper information about something we’re watching or settling an argument. And all trying to see who can do it faster.

So the digital divide has closed for all my kids. Both their parents are digitally adapted so there’s no divide there either.

But culturally speaking they’ll all have a slightly different story to tell when somebody asks them to describe the impact of technology on their lives.

It says something about how fast technology is moving forward when four kids, seven years apart have such different experiences when it comes to being digital citizens.

[Dawn Jones]

I couldn't help but think about how kids are now lacking social skills. I don't know of almost any teenager that can sit still at dinner and hold on a normal conversation. I am 32, so I remember the exact same stuff that you do, and I never owned my own phone till I was in my twenties. My sister's psuedo-niece has a Firefly, and she's SEVEN. I sort of dislike what technology is doing to us. I feel it's making us more connected to the guy on the other side of the world, and yet more and more alienated from the guy on the other side of the room.