Hear that clicking sound?
It’s the wired generation forwarding a new study to their peers and parents that suggests always-online digital kids aren’t wasting time and deadening brain cells — they’re actually engaged in important work.
By socializing, tinkering with technology and intensely delving into media, teens and children on the Internet “are picking up basic social and technical skills they need to fully participate in contemporary society,” according to a three-year national study released today. That may give kids like David Portales ammunition for a few more minutes of computer time tonight.
“I’m going to tell my mom!” the excited sixth-grader at Foothill Adventist school in Milpitas said when he heard about the study, the largest of its kind in the U.S.
Researchers, including participants from University of California-Berkeley and University of Southern California, conducted interviews, studied diaries, convened focus groups and collected nearly 10,500 profiles on sites such as Facebook and Neopets. The $3.3 million study, funded by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, found that youths use online networks to extend friendships, acquire technical skills, learn from each other, explore interests and develop expertise. This all takes “ongoing maintenance and negotiation.”
In what researchers call “hypersocial” behavior, media at the fingertips enable teens to always be connected. And instant messaging, text messages and Facebook have changed dating as well: Couples “telecocoon,” creating a full-time intimate community even while physically apart.
As for mere socializing, “It is not a waste of time for teens to hang out online,” said Mizuko Ito, a professor at the University of California-Irvine and lead researcher for the study “Living and Learning with New Media.” Kids online, the study said, are learning to be “competent citizens in the digital age.”
But what about learning quadratic equations, drying the dishes and talking to parents?
Ito conceded that teens aren’t learning the causes of the Civil War via instant messaging, but they are using new media to learn from their peers. The subject is more likely to be how to spiff up a YouTube video or design a more fashionable avatar.
Yes, researchers noted, they suspended value judgments in their study.
For parents wondering where they fit into this picture, the researchers aren’t very encouraging. First of all, MySpace is not Your Space.
Teens view adults lurking online as awkward, creepy and violating trust, researchers found. The exceptions are when kids are “geeking out” — that’s slang for really getting into tech mode — and welcome adult participation, for instance in an interactive game like the “World of Warcraft.”
But researchers have bad news for parents who believe that your kids shouldn’t be anywhere where you’re not.
The study found that youths perceive erecting barriers — like limiting computer time — “as raw and ill-informed exercises of power.” And teens, being teens, develop “workarounds,” ways to subvert those barriers thrown up by parents and schools.
Instead, researchers suggested, parents need to appreciate kids’ social interactions with their peers and recognize their children’s expertise. Then “new media practices can be sites of shared focus rather than anxiety and tension.”
A dinner conversation about “Halo 3,”, anyone?
Still, Ito says that families need to discuss the tug-of-war over kids’ media use. “It’s not just about stranger danger and predators. We need to have conversations about concrete strategies and practices” so kids can set priorities and use the Internet safely. “Simply banning them (from the computer) is not going to help.”
David’s mom, Sarah Portales, knows the struggle. She limits David’s online time to two hours. When he’s on, “I want him to do something more productive, and when I ask him to get off, he says, “Five more minutes, Mom!’ “
For parents who despair at the findings, the researchers did have one undeniable bright spot: They found no evidence that kids are engaging in behavior online any riskier than what they do offline.
Portales concedes that playing games has taught David some lessons. She’s refused his requests to get a family dog. But on Club Penguin, a popular site for children, he “bought” two dog-like “Puffles.” He “fed” them gum, and while caring for one, the other ran away.
“See?” his mother said she told him. “That’s what would happen if we had a dog.”
Contact Sharon Noguchi at firstname.lastname@example.org or (408) 271-3775.
Most youths use online networks to extend friendships.
A smaller number explore interests and find information online.
The digital world lowers barriers to self-directed learning.
“Geeking out” “” diving into a topic or talent “” is highly social and engaged.
Youths respect one another”s authority online.
Youths are often more motivated to learn from peers than from adults.
Source: “Living and Learning with New Media”