Technology/Media and Youth

This week's readings and video clips were a reminder of he undeniably large role which current and emerging technologies play in young people's lives and our own. I was reminded of the commonly used expression 'too much information' and of the frustrated feeling I have at trying to keep up with all the technology available nowadays. However, I saw through these articles and videos reminders also of the exciting possibilities that new media outlets offer us all, young and old.

The article by David Buckingham examined how teenagers interact with and how they incorporate modern technology into their lives and I though he presented some arguments which I have occasionally seen bore out in the high school library where I work. In the article it was said that many adults think that teens are eager to embrace every technology which comes on to the scene and the are very proficient with them as well. At my school, I have had to show students how to do things on the computers, which I remember thinking at the time were 'things they should know' since I too have thought that teens are mostly tech savvy gurus we adults should be consulting rather than the other way around. Like Buckingham said, this isn't always the case. As I write this, one of our students who recently took over the lead in the production of our morning announcements is yet again here in the library using more of his lunch time to work on the physical equipment and software that's housed here for that purpose.

Another point of view presented here was the idea that the youth of today are somehow unique in how they utilize technology. Often times the media will take a hold of something like a 'To Catch A Predator' episode or a news story of how some teenage girls or boys were 'cyber-bullying' or 'sexting' to show that this generation has some special disreputable quality all of their own. I know I'm getting older however, I certainly can recall nasty notes my peers sent to one another or rumors of others using the existing technologies for less than appropriate purposes.

In Why Heather Can't Read from MIT's Technology Review, the article's focus on the way in which young people like Heather Lawver have used technology to further their passion for writing is encouraging. She is obviously someone like the student above from my school who I mentioned liked audio and visual productions, both like to incorporate technology in their lives albeit in different fashions. This article reminded me of another student at our school who I met recently who shared with me about her passion for writing and I thought of her when I read about these online communities of online peer reviews. I wonder if something like the Sugar Quill web site mentioned in the article would be an appealing outlet that would help her develop her writing ability.

I understand where there might be some validity to their criticism of schools inhibiting student writing somewhat by focusing too much on grammatical elements but, I also think that part of the curriculum is included in schools for no good reason. Writing is more than style and a good writer will master all aspects of the process for maximum effect. While I have some disagreement with this author about their stance on what they seem to portray as grammatical pickiness, I do think they are correct in what seems to be their stance that the Internet is a great learning environment for young adults who have a vast array of places to find inspiration and critical but hopefully constructive feedback.

Lee Rainie's presentation at the Networked Learners Symposium also proved insightful in what he shared on young adult and adult users' usage of technology. The one thing which stood out the most to me were his comments on the amount of information that is being presented to teens and how that will only grow worse as they get older. At my graduation from high school back in 1990, our superintendent somewhat prophetically told us how the amount of knowledge we'd need for the real world would double every so many years and that it would only get worse so, we needed to prepare for that world. I think the reason I remember his words so well was that I found this to be true in my life in the years since then. Young or old, if you are even somewhat technologically active in today's society you have what Mr. Rainie called truncated attention spans. A good example might be that while I was watching the video, I have to admit that I simultaneously had three other windows open on my computer searching for tickets to this weekend's men's Illini basketball game, checking back with this course's Moodle page to see what I still needed to do for this week's class, and I was typing notes on Microsoft Word from the presentation in between that all.

The times we live in currently are overwhelming when it comes to the technology and media onslaught and the prospect of facing strange new changes in this regard still leaves me with a little bit of dread. Yet, having said that I also look forward to it with anticipation-what an odd combination! As adults who work with teens we must at least try to stay abreast of these developments so we can best serve our constituents in their pursuit of personal, academic, and professional goals. I feel there will always be 'too much information' in our world from now on, but at least the young people we help will be better able to find their way through it all because they were prepared well.