Week 10: a few thoughts

Two of the articles I read for this week really caught my attention:

First of all the article Identity Production in a Networked Culture: Why Youth Heart MySpace made some really valid points I probably either did not realize before or was not aware how important they are to teens:

- Teens just don't have public places to hang out away from adults. The author mentions that all or majority of their space is controlled by adults: at school, at home of maybe even at a job they have. This also makes me realize that we control these kids everywhere. They come to the library and we say they are too loud and they better stay here only if they have something to do, not just hanging around. They go to the mall or to a coffee shop and chances are there is a no loitering sign and most likely some adults to control them. And so, they use IM or MySpace or some other networking site that is going to come along, to socialize with their friends or other teens in a public place. The concept is pretty simple I think: teens always socialized and liked to hang around, now they just have technology available to replace the fact that there are very few public places where they can do that.
- Although the article describes in great detail MySpace, I really think that this happens to be the thing that is in right now. It's just a medium of communication and there are other alternatives and probably others will emerge. We don't have to worry so much about the site, we are better off understanding the concept.

The second article MySpace and Facebook: What higher-ed can leardn from social computing takes a different perspective and discusses more the way in which older kids (undergrads) are using these two networking tools:

- The author points out that some academics criticize the fact that students are on the MySpace site or listen to ipods in class and blame all this on the technology itself. They don't realize that kids have always sat in class without paying attention or tried to talk to each other, it's just that back then there was no internet: they just exchanged notes instead.
- He also mentions that academics should be more concerned with a way of teaching that would offer students more input and interaction, so they would be intrinsically motivated to do a good job. I think that some academics have figured some ways of doing that, but majority are still teaching the old fashion way. Why wonder then that the kids are not paying attention in class?

Overall, I think that the networking tools we are looking at are exactly what we call them: tools. People always communicated and teens always wanted to socialize, the internet and these sites just provide them with a way of doing that.