New Study Shows Time Spent Online Important for Teen Development
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.”
Eripsa/Egon/”Ghostbusters”,
Like it or not, information-including journalism-is migrating to the Internet. It’s here to stay. The purpose of my essay, “Journalism in the Age of the Internet” posted on http://www.literarygulag.com, is not to damn the Internet or “Millennials”, but to discuss the implications of this new medium on how we read and interpret the news. As eyetracker studies confirm, viewers on the “Net” don’t generally read; they scan headlines and pages, flitting from site to site. Comprehension and depth of analysis suffer. Accuracy of sources is compromised because increasingly “news” sites are not vetted. Sustained thought-fostered through reading and solitude-is lost. For an analysis of the impact of the Internet on learning, read Mark Bauerlein’s The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future, Penguin Books Ltd, 2008).
Millennials have a facility with the Internet. They have speed and ease and comfort with connectivity. Let’s hope that our social, cultural, and political understanding is facilitated by this new medium. For your sake and for mine.
Diana E. Sheets
In case Diana returns here to respond, my reply is posted here