News for the Week of March 19, 2006
This week kid-tech news zoomed out, taking in the bigger picture on raising tech-literate children and teens...
Kids too wired?
That's a question being asked in Time magazine's cover story this week, "The Multitasking Generation" (the whole story isn't available to nonsubscribers of Time, so I'm glad CNN provides a summary). We all know that, in many cases, "by the time many kids get to college, their devices have become extensions of themselves, indispensable social accessories." But the story seems to be saying that it's not so much the technology as their "highly scheduled lives" and related pressures that's the bigger problem. It's "important for parents and educators to teach kids, preferably by example, that it's valuable, even essential, to occasionally slow down, unplug and take time to think about something for a while," according to CNN. Don't miss what Sudbury, Massachusetts, psychiatrist and author Edward Hallowell says in the very last paragraph of CNN's summary. I think he's nailed it. [Time's sidebar, "A dad's encounter with the vortex of Facebook" offers a readable, balanced perspective.] Then there's a ClickZ.com commentary on a new study by BBDO Energy of 13-to-18-year-old "super-connectors": "They want the world to conform to their views, meaning personalization and customization are imperatives, not nice-to-have extras. They want conversations in the world of many-to-many, not broadcast dictums from on high."
Parenting smaller Net surfers
Post-millennial kids have never known life without a computer or, in most cases, the Internet. That would include 3-year-old Josh, son of Wall Street Journal columnist Jason Fry, who is refreshingly candid about this factor in Josh's life: "Joshua was born into a world of ubiquitous computers with Internet access. He'll need a guide into that world, sooner rather than later. That guide will be me. And I have absolutely no idea what to do, and pretty conflicted feelings about what awaits my son." Jason's last paragraph says a lot. It reflects both the lack of confidence so many of us feel about raising tech-literate kids and an important observation - that tech and the Net are no different from any other part of parenting. We're figuring it out together as we go along, and the more parent-child communication along the way the better. To read of other other parents' dilemmas and reactions to Jason's column, go to this page and scroll down about four screens.
In Other News...
- Teens 'crave' contact with parents. There's a certain credibility to the results of a survey of 46,000 respondents! Boys & Girls Clubs of America has just unveiled its "Youth Report to America" (direct link to PDF), "the largest national survey developed and administered by teens," BGCA's press release says. A number of news outlets highlighted what the 13-to-18-year-old respondents said about their relationship with their parents (of significance in the online-safety field), on p. 5 of the survey: "Today's youth maintain very close ties to their parents," BGCA says, with such findings as: 37% of respondents saying their relationship with their parents/guardians was most important to them. "Young people stated that their parents also help guide the choices that they make. Surprisingly, nearly half (45%) . feel that their parents most significantly influence their decisions, rather than their peers."
- Videogames' 'true impact.' This is an interesting, maybe even exciting, prospect to consider: Because our children are growing up with videogames, "they'll treat the world as a place for creation, not consumption," writes Will Wright, creator of The Sims, in Wired magazine.
- Blogs, wikis, etc. at school. An article in TechLearning.com refers to the new "Web where little is done in isolation." I think that's a symbol of a world "where little is done in isolation." Physical isolation sometimes, maybe, but today's teen social-networkers are showing us that even when they're alone in a room at a connected computer or gameplayer they do very little in isolation. Educators are now using blogs, wikis, email, collaborative podcasting, etc. to help education keep up with students' lives. The article is by Will Richardson, supervisor of instructional technology at Hunterdon Central Regional High School in Flemington, New Jersey. The Poughkeepsie Journal reports on how K-6 students in different states use videoconferencing to share research and collaborate on writing projects.
- How to protect ears? We hear a lot about earbuds' riskiness, but not a lot about how to avoid damaging ears. Eliot Van Buskirk, a writer and musician who says music lovers are particularly at risk, has a whole list of things people can do to reduce ear-damage risk in this age of highly mobile music. At least until better-designed earbuds are sold. The list is on p.2 of his article in Wired magazine.
- Social-networking, Korean-style. Could this be the future of US social-networking? I'm referring to South Korea-based Cyworld, as described in Business Week. At 15 million users (nearly a third of South Korea's population), it's proportionately even bigger than MySpace. Business Week says 90% of Koreans in their late teens and early 20s are hooked on Cyworld. So what is it? It's basically a social-networking site where people create their own home pages that are like rooms and "can accommodate an unlimited numbers of photos, documents, and other goodies." What makes it even more addictive, BW says, is little "extra twists" like the way users can decorate their "rooms" with digital furniture and art, and enhance the visitor's experience with music and videos (a virtual couch costs about $.60 in real money - Cyworld makes money selling these virtual goods). Everyone has his/her own avatar. "Since avatars stop by, the idea is to make your space as cool as possible." Users can access Cyworld by mobile phone as well, which is something MySpace is working on (see "Phone as fashion statement?", in my 2/24 issue).
