Growing Up Digital

The text readings and linked selections were many and varied during this two week span.  I especially enjoyed the NPR interview by Terry Gross of Fresh Air with Psychologist Sherry Turkle discussing her book Alone Together (October 18, 2012) and Fun vs. Engagement: The Case of the Great Zoombinis by Henry Jenkins (2006), the latter discussing educational gaming and institutional resistance to 'fun,' some teachers not embracing the 'engagement' aspect of fun, and how fun and engagement lead to learning.

In the Fresh Air interview, Sherry Turkle discusses how personal digital devices are affecting our relationships with other people, as well as our sense of identity.  Interesting points included the seductiveness of the little red light on the Blackberry ... who wants me? ... we all want to be wanted.  Dr. Turkle outlines how children are getting cell phones at younger ages (e.g., 6, 7, 8 years old) and are constantly sharing where they are and what they are doing; they are never alone.  It is also at these young ages when children need to develop a capacity for solitude, for being alone.  She notes that if one does not develop a capacity for solitude, one will always be lonely.  Dr. Turkle notes we are losing the skill of conversation because of our reliance on texting.  She states teenagers sleep with their phones, often checking messages.  She talks about Facebook and how people put up the self they want to be, curate that self and hide behind it.  Likewise, online bullies hide behind technology, they are not face-to-face with their target(s).  Dr. Turkle advises to meet one's bully face-to-face if possible, mediated by a parent or teacher, because when we are face-to-face we are more inhibited. 

Some of these topics were touched upon during the adolescent interview.  The subject of my interview is a girl who is a high school senior.  Her parents have a desktop computer at home, they have cell phones and she has an iPhone.  She likes to text most of her friends; she likes to call and text her best friend.  She takes pictures and shares some of them.  She has a Facebook account, but she limits it.  She has unfriended one person who would send her games and chain letters and junk she found on the Internet; that was uncomfortable but she felt she had to do it.  Facebook is an easy way for her to stay in touch with family mostly, and friends.  She feels pretty comfortable with it; her mom has a Facebook account, too, so if she has a question about something, she asks her.  She does not do the gaming and/or role playing sites; she likes to read, write stories and watch movies, talk and text on the phone.  She emails her cousins sometimes.  She downloads music sometimes.  She stays up late talking and texting, but she does not sleep with her phone to check messages overnight.  Even she thought that was a bit much.

We only discussed the technology she uses for personal use; we did not discuss if technology is incorporated into her schoolwork and how, though she did say that the types her papers for school at home.  This particular girl seems to be pretty together.  She is not so into her technology that she would rather have it than a face-to-face conversation with a friend.  She has a lot of friends, but she is okay with being by herself, probably in part because she likes to read and write stories.  Or maybe because she seems to have honest, solid relationships with her parents, she is more secure with herself (as opposed to some of the teens Dr. Turkle discussed).   

Media Education

Advertising: Exposure & Industry Statistics (Media Education Foundation, 2005) states that "Internet advertising produced almost $2 billion in revenues in 1998" and that "[i]n 2000, children 12 years and under, directly and indirectly, influenced the household spending of over $600 billion."  Wow!  The text also states, "Sweden, since 1991, has banned all advertising during children's prime time due to findings that children under 10 are incapable of telling the difference between a commercial and a program, and cannot understand the purpose of a commercial until the age of 12" (Media Education Foundation, 2005).

Referring to Henry Jenkins' Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21st Century (2006) he states, "Other studies find that children remain unaware of the motives behind the creation of websites, have difficulty separating commercial from noncommercial sites, and lack the background to identify the sources of authority behind claims made by website authors" (p. 45).

The new media literacies that Jenkins advocates, "almost all involve social skills developed through collaboration and networking.  These skills build on the foundation of traditional literacy, research skills, technical skills, and critical analysis skills taught in the classroom" (Jenkins, 2006, p. 4).

"The new skills include:  Play, Performance, Simulation, Appropriation, Multitasking, Distributed Cognition, Collective Intelligence, Judgement, Transmedia Navigation, Networking and Negotiation" (Jenkins, 2006, p. 4).  Referring to Green (DECS, 1996), the skill of Judgement can fall into Operational, Cultural and Critical literacy practices, but most strongly relates to Critical or Critiquing literacy practices. 

"Judgement, the ability to evaluate the reliability and credibility of different information sources" (Jenkins, 2006, p. 4) would seem to be in step with Sweden's ban on advertising during children's prime time.  As children surf the web at young ages, it is of importance for parents to have discussions with their children about what they encounter on the Internet and how to evaluate content and purpose.  Likewise, as schools seek to teach Technology courses in elementary grades, teaching the new media literacy skill of Judgement must be ongoing and revisited often because of its significance towards teaching critical thinking skills.