Teens and Technology

PEW Report

While interesting, there are a few problems that I had with this report.

My first issue, while less important than the second, is still a pressing one. Who on earth conducts phone interviews to collect data? If someone were to call me and ask me to participate in a phone survey, I would probably either come up with some elaborate lie as to why I could not, or just hang up the phone. Granted, the researches pulled their sample from previous participants in other studies - but even then, their sample size was only 46% compared to the groups in their previous studies. That means, from 2004 to 2006, more than half of their sample pool decided to call it quits. That's a message that's hard to ignore, I think. Time to find another method of data collection.

The second major issue that I have is that this report is about four years old. A lot can change in four years - heck, I fell into the survey category four years ago and there are some very important differences, I think, between social networking practices then and now. The internet is never in a state of stasis. It is constantly changing, constantly updating, and constantly promoting "the new." Frequent internet users tend to follow suit.

The biggest difference is what I like to call the "Great MySpace, FaceBook Schism." Practically no one other than perhaps someone who is likely to appear on "To Catch a Predator" currently uses MySpace. Its glory days are over. I had a conversation with a high-school freshman the other day in which she said, and I quote, "MySpace is dumb." The report even mentions a social networking site called Xanga, which I remember using as a 13-year-old and has long been considered a fossil. I can say with some certainty that the current majority of 12 to 17-year-olds couldn't even tell you what Xanga even is.

In summation, FaceBook has replaced all other social networking sites as the go-to application for online communication, and this is definitely not reflected in that report.


Boxxy and Sexman

If I were to just objectively compare the two videos, I would have to say that Sexman worries me more than Boxxy. In the video he seems obsessed with violence, reliving the fight that he saw at school that day. Boxxy, on the other hand, seems merely to be hyperactive and a little too obsessed with the internet.

However, knowing what I do about the internet, it is hard for me to view these videos objectively. Both of these individuals were viral hits at one point or another. While I have heard very little about Sexman, other than the fact that he is now most famous for his "film reviews," Boxxy is an entirely different matter. Her first video, the one that we were assigned to watch, somehow attracted the attention of a now rather infamous group of internet users who frequented the image-sharing site 4chan. This girl sparked an internet phenomenon. Her youtube account has been hacked, re-hacked, duplicated, parodied, and completely trashed. Fake MySpaces, FaceBook pages, and IM accounts were all created under her name and then used to promote or trash her image. The site 4chan completely shut down multiple times due to Boxxy-related issues. Hundreds of people completely loved or hated this girl - all because of a video. Therefore, taking all into consideration, Boxxy definitely worries me the most out of the two.

How a single 15-year-old girl could garner the adoration or malice of the entire underbelly of the internet, and then continue to post videos, is a dangerous lesson on attention-seeking. This all began because the girl (who's name is Cate, by the way) spent all of her time interacting with her online "friends" instead of interacting in real social relationships. Although an extreme case, It is a worrisome one for those who are concerned about teens spending too much time in their self-created "online worlds," and refusing to interact with the real one.

I honestly don't know what I would do if I were to encounter someone like Boxxy or Sexman in my class. How someone behaves in a classroom environment and then how they behave outside the classroom can be two entirely different ways. In fact, the reason that they may be seeking such huge attention on the internet is because they are often introverted and overlooked in common social settings, like at school.


My Survey Findings

You are an Digital Collaborator

If you are a Digital Collaborator, you use information technology to work with and share your creations with others. You are enthusiastic about how ICTs help you connect with others and confident in your ability to manage digital devices and information. For you, the digital commons can be a camp, a lab, or a theater group – places to gather with others to develop something new.

I wasn't too terribly surprised about my results. It's a common joke amongst my roommates and I that I would probably die without the internet. I use it for everything - even to create documents and presentations.