“It may look as though kids are wasting a lot of time hanging out with new media, whether it’s on MySpace or sending instant messages,” said Mizuko Ito, lead researcher on the study, “Living and Learning With New Media.” “But their participation is giving them the technological skills and literacy they need to succeed in the contemporary world. They’re learning how to get along with others, how to manage a public identity, how to create a home page.”
This Article got under my skin. My social media involvement has skyrocketed since I ended up in California, and I've been worrying a lot about that. I'm trying to imagine the world I'm investing in, the value of the time I'm spending, what I might be doing if I actually felt as cut off as I am. My comment on the article is below. ]
To us, grown-up talk of ‘literacy’ and ’skills’ sound like the same cheery, contrarian rationalization that brought us ‘hand-eye coordination.’ If you think these are the benefits and non-standard English is the threat you are missing nearly everything.
Social media clearly speaks to deep needs in us. We need a public life and common space. We crave a sense of participation in each other’s lives. We are eager to make the boundaries between stranger, acquaintance and friend more fluid, more full of possibilities. We thrill at the chance to create a common experience, rather than just watch one.
As far as we can tell, our parents’ (grandparents’?) generation abandoned public space. We grew up in suburbs, begging for rides to the mall. We grew up in cities on supposedly risky streets. Our parents were obsessed with child abductions. We went to universities where video games and alcohol concerns pushed socializing behind closed doors. We visited Europe and saw picnics, plazas, squares, piazzas, biergartens, joined the evening passegiatta, korso and paseo, and we swooned. After college, everyone we knew spread to the four corners of the Earth, and meeting people became much harder.
Social media is our solution for an impoverished public sphere. The downside? It will certainly perpetuate it. The real danger is not our spelling. It is this: the brighter the mirage and it is, without a doubt, a mirage the less motivation we will have to actually build the world we desire and deserve.
