New Study Says Teens Hanging Out Online "Is Not a Waste of Time"
Seriously, this is an excellent study, read it though and let me know if you agree in our comments area:
Results from the most extensive U.S. study on teens and their use of digital media show that America’s youth are developing important social and technical skills online – often in ways adults do not understand or value.
“It might surprise parents to learn that it is not a waste of time for their teens to hang out online,” said Mizuko Ito, University of California, Irvine researcher and the report’s lead author. “There are myths about kids spending time online – that it is dangerous or making them lazy. But we found that spending time online is essential for young people to pick up the social and technical skills they need to be competent citizens in the digital age.”
Released here today at the American Anthropological Association’s annual meeting, the study was supported by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation’s $50-million digital media and learning initiative, which is exploring how digital media are changing how young people learn, play, socialize, and participate in civic life.
Together with the late Peter Lyman of the University of California, Berkeley, and Michael Carter of the Monterey Institute for Technology and Education, Ito led a team of 28 researchers and collaborators at the University of Southern California and the University of California, Berkeley. Over three years, they interviewed over 800 young people and their parents, both one-on-one and in focus groups; spent over 5000 hours observing teens on sites such as MySpace, Facebook, YouTube, and other networked communities; and conducted diary studies to document how, and to what end, young people engage with digital media.
The researchers identified two distinctive categories of teen engagement with digital media: friendship-driven and interest-driven. While friendship-driven participation centered on “hanging out” with existing friends, interest-driven participation involved accessing online information and communities that may not be present in the local peer group. Significant findings include –
There is a generation gap in how youth and adults view the value of online activity.
- Adults tend to be in the dark about what youth are doing online, and often view online activity as risky or an unproductive distraction.
- Youth understand the social value of online activity and are generally highly motivated to participate.
Youth are navigating complex social and technical worlds by participating online.
- Young people are learning basic social and technical skills that they need to fully participate in contemporary society.
- The social worlds that youth are negotiating have new kinds of dynamics, as online socializing is permanent, public, involves managing elaborate networks of friends and acquaintances, and is always on.
Young people are motivated to learn from their peers online.
- The Internet provides new kinds of public spaces for youth to interact and receive feedback from one another.
- Young people respect each other’s authority online and are more motivated to learn from each other than from adults.
Most youth are not taking full advantage of the learning opportunities of the Internet.
- Most youth use the Internet socially, but other learning opportunities exist.
- Youth can connect with people in different locations and of different ages who share their interests, making it possible to pursue interests that might not be popular or valued with their local peer groups.
- “Geeked-out” learning opportunities are abundant – subjects like astronomy, creative writing, and foreign languages.
“This study creates a baseline for our understanding of how young people are participating with digital media and what that means for their learning,” said Connie Yowell, Ph.D., Director of Education at the MacArthur Foundation. “It concludes that learning today is becoming increasingly peer-based and networked, and this is important to consider as we begin to re-imagine education in the 21st century."
Ito and her team of researchers found that participation in the digital age means more than being able to access serious online information and culture. Youth using new media often learn from their peers, and notions of expertise and authority are being redefined.
“Online spaces provide unprecedented opportunities for kids to expand their social worlds and engage in public life, whether that is connecting with peers over MySpace or Facebook, or publishing videos on YouTube,” said Ito. “Kids learn on the Internet in a self-directed way, by looking around for information they are interested in, or connecting with others who can help them. This is a big departure from how they are asked to learn in most schools, where the teacher is the expert and there is a fixed set of content to master.”
The research demonstrates that, although many young people are developing a broad range of sophisticated new literacy and technical skills, they are also facing new challenges in how to manage their visibility and social relationships online. Online media, messages, and profiles that young people post can travel beyond expected audiences and are often difficult to eradicate after the fact. The research suggests that this rapid pace of change presents challenges for both adults and kids as they struggle to keep up with technology and related social changes.
“Most parents knew very little about what their kids did online, and struggled to give real guidance and help,” said Ito. In some cases, however, the researchers found that parents and their children came together around gaming or shared digital media projects, where both kids and adults brought expertise to the table.
More information about the study and the MacArthur Foundation’s digital media and learning initiative can be found online here. Ito’s research findings, among the first from the initiative, are part of an effort to inject grounded research into the conversation about the future of learning in a digital world.
Comments
This study and it’s findings do not surprise me in the least. As the mother of a 17 yr. old daughter, I often find myself turning to her for information. She is smarter and more mature than I ever could have been at her age. She has friends from all over the globe and is learning about cultures and religions that I would only have been exposed to in books.
Her online friends are of all ages and talents, exposing her to views, ideas and advice sometimes far different from my own. She is exposed to an experience once not gained until college.
I have never believed learning, no matter the form or subject, is a waste of time.
I also agree with the results of this case study. But the results of online learning largely depend upon the initiative taken by students themselves. To know, how to make online learning more effective, you may login at Http://tutorskingdom.com/.
I’m a 54-yr.-old mother of two teen boys – ages 14 & 19. To make sure the lines of communication stay open, I’ve learned to text and I have a Facebook page. Many of my sons’ friends have “added” me as a friend on their pages (I never request that they add me). It is a great way to know what they’re thinking and doing. Facebook has also put all of us in touch with relatives all over the country, including my 80-yr.-old uncle.
Social networks can be influence teens for both good and evil. In fact, parents may be able to use online social networks to exert a good influence on their teen and their teen’s friends. It is almost as if the parent can become a peer through the social network. Peer’s have the greatest influence on most teens as you can read here: positive peer culture.
Before you conclude that spending a lot of time using social media is a complete positive for teens, you need to look at the quality of communication on social networks. Much of the time it is quite shallow. Facebook encourages people to update their status “What are you doing right now” Twitter only allows updates in bite size pieces of 140 characters. People are being trained to think and write about topics with less and less depth. Also, just like texting, social networks and online media remove parts of true interpersonal communication like body language, tone of voice, facial expressions, and other cues.
The new generation of teen might be technically advanced and even capable of making a lot of global contacts/acquaintances but do are they getting the skills necessary to develop and maintain healthy, deep and lasting relationships with the most important people: their parents, personal friends, and future spouses?
i found this piece of information so useful and so true to life that it brings me to tears. my teenage son, Adam, does not have many friends but yet facebook has opened a wide range of new cultures and people for him, he now had connections with people in timbuktu!
thank you so much for your advice, i will never forget it.
I agree that this can’t be accepted as a blanket statement. It completely depends on WHAT they’re learning about when they’re online; just because something could be considered to fall under the definition of “learning” doesn’t mean it’s a good thing. For example: my 9 year son uses the internet, I found out, to google something when he doesn’t know what it means or what it is. How is this bad? Well, 2 terms he recently googled were “boobs” and “porn.” Learning experience? You bet. Good thing? Not so much.
I recognize the potential of the internet for all ages…including youth. It’s not so much the opportunities (which are rich and varied) as the reality of the usage that concerns me. The amount of time spent online for friendship-drivent and interest-driven activities can be excessive to the point that youth can lose precious sleeping time, time to exercise their bodies, and time to socialize with family and friends in the real world. There are still only 24 hours a day. I am well aware that online activity can become addictive and requires monitoring (even for adults)! This study expands our understanding but I am very interested in the long-range effects (especially physical effects) for our youth today. I hope that the Digital & Learning Media researchers are putting considerable energy into designing studies that explore this question.
In addition, I work at a software company. The feedback I get from managers is that the recent college graduates they hire are quite technically skilled but lack emotional intelligence. It appears that they are so used to a world where there are few social boundaries for what is appropriate to reveal or pass on, that they are getting themselves into trouble with both customers and co-workers. Bottom line: hanging out online is not a waste of time if it is taken in context with some measure of self-control.
I also agree with the outcome of this study. As a tech-savy mom, I know what’s out there and wish it was when I was a teenager 40 years ago. When I think of all the boring times I could have put to good use online socializing and learning, it makes me happy that my teenagers have more options to occupy their free time.
As an educator in a rural area, I strongly agree with your article and the power of on-line learning communities. I also appreciated Page’s comments regarding the development of ALL intelligences! A careful balance is always called for!
I think the study my lull parents into a false sense that all internet interaction for teens is good socially if not acadmically. In my experience with my two (very different) teens, the internet provides dangerous opportunities for mean spirited and thoughtless behavior, as well as a “black hole” for the kids wishing to play while saying that they are doing homework. Monitoring is a stressful but necessary task that parents need to take seriously before problems escalate.
I have an 11 year old and a 13 year old. I allow my 11 year old to socialize online because she’s mature, and I know the kinds of people she talks to and the things they talk about. My son, on the other hand, is older but not nearly as mature. He’s the kind of kid that makes me worry what he’s looking at online. So I limit him more than I do her. How “good” or “bad” the internet is for teens depends on what they are using it for, and how responsible the child is. Yes, it also has to do with a parent’s monitoring as well. Overall, the internet can be a very good resource for kids and parents alike. (There are adults who use the internet MUCH less responsibly than kids too!)
As with everything in life there must be a balance. I have a teenage son but I would not have internet access available at home if i am not there to supervise it. I know that he can get access in school but this is supervised. The internet is a valuable tool but like a knife it can cut both ways.
Seems like a good survey that gave us useful information. The comments in this forum were helpful to me, too. I especially noted the comments on quality of internet use: what are mu kids really doing when gaming, for instance? Perhaps too many hours a day/week on interent social gaming, not enough balance. Any house rules for hours per day?