http://nymag.com/news/features/27341/ (This article is in New York magazine.)
I apologize for its length, but I was struck by the title. After reading "Don't trust anyone over 25", I wondered if there really IS a generational gap. I hate to say it, but I think there just might be. I have always thought that even if I don't like what kids are doing, I am not so old (33) that I don't get why they are doing it. What and how much kids post online is definitely beyond me. I am so concerned about the impact of putting something on the internet (it's on there FOREVER), that I would never intentionally post something that I think would harm my reputation or career later in life. This article examines the strange (I think) phenomenon of kids posting every little tidbit of their lives. The author has come up with three major changes in thinking that kids today have compared to us "old folks".
1. They think they have an audience - Most kids know that there are people (friends or strangers) that will watch their videos, look at their pictures, and read their blogs and postings.
2. They are recording their teenage years - A lot of us want to forget them!
3. They are undaunted by the consequences - They are aware that people may/will judge them, but they don't care as much as we do.
I think these changes are definitely responsible for a generation gap! Most of us just don’t understand this kind of thinking (at least not all of it). While I have created this blog, I tend to forget that others (outside of our class) may be reading it. I don’t think of myself as having an audience because I don’t think that I am SO exciting that everyone wants to know what I have to say. Also, I enjoyed my teenage years, but I am glad that I don’t have every event, argument, and occasion recorded. It is easier to get over past hurts without constant reminders and good experiences seem better when you gloss over the boring/bad/annoying parts. I want the happiest parts of my memories to be vivid, not all of it. And the scariest thing to me is the impact that my internet usage can have on my reputation or career. I am careful not to post anything that I wouldn’t want my grandma to read. Kids today don’t seem to have that worry. They post everything! The article stated that many kids are “doing their own publicity before somebody does it for them”. I think I would rather have NO publicity.
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I guess I was so amazed in the differences in thinking that I forgot to tie this into IF and libraries.
ReplyDeleteI do feel that kids should have the right to post whatever they want about themselves. Parents are the only ones who should have any say in how much their children are allowed to post on the internet. Even if I or any other outsider thinks it is too much information, it is each family's right to do what they want with their online presence.
From the library standpoint, I am going to revisit a topic from other blogs. I do NOT think libraries should post fines and due dates on patron's Facebook accounts or other social media. I also don't think they should alert patrons to holds that have become available in this manner. Posting something on a patron's wall for everyone to see is not acceptable. Even if that patron is living his/her life in the public eye, they should be the ones to choose what and when information is put online.
The last comment I want to make is about videos that these kids are making. I don't think it is right for them to put videos and photos online that may have unsuspecting bystanders in them. It is easy to edit photos so that you don't see these people, but I doubt that many of these kids are doing that. I wonder if this will become a bigger issue as more kids add more content?
I agree with your blog about young people, their lack of caring about privacy, and a generation gap.
ReplyDeleteI'm having trouble relating to the kids nowadays. Most that I know are so obsessed with Facebook that they act like they are addicted to it or something. Why would that be? Do they have loneliness issues? Do they have some psychological need to have incredibly large amounts of "friends"? Are their lives really boring and this adds a little excitement? Am I totally out of touch? Perhaps.
Could the lives that people lead within sites like Facebook cause them to alter their behavior in the real world? Would it create a more open society or just one in which people are more exhibitionistic?
I read a theory somewhere, either in our class readings or some other place (the 900 articles that I have read in the last month from in and out of class are all blending in together), that Facebook helps to create a community very similar to a small town with everyone knowing everybody else's business. That can be a good thing sometimes, I guess, helping to keep people connected if they move to different areas or just lose touch with people, so maybe it's not all bad.
But as an older guy, I always find myself saying, with my future grandpa voice "why you crazy young whippersnappers! Turn off your little boxes and go outside!"
I thought of two things as I was reading this post and the earlier comments. One is that the young have never been particularly far sighted. I know I wasn't. I didn't think about what effects my current actions might have on my future opportunities. I think that perhaps some of the social networking technologies feed on that lack of foresight. The second thing I thought of was that there is a great deal of fear about the safety of children. Even in the small town that I grew up in you see less children out on their own walking or biking to places. Perhaps children have found freedom online to make up for a lack of physical freedom that we all had when we were young.
ReplyDeleteI don't know if it's much of a generation gap. I can imagine being young and acting how they are. I probably would have wanted to capture a lot of moments on camera, and would have posted a bunch of stuff for my friends. Even though we see all the little things that happened to us as teenagers as being just that -- little things, for teens they seem like a big deal, like things you'll always want to remember.
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