Digital divide goes beyond MySpace, Facebook
SAN FRANCISCO--Last month, Danah Boyd, a well-known researcher of teen culture online, argued that class divisions in the United States could be split between MySpace.com and Facebook.
In essence, Boyd wrote, MySpace is home to a large population of "burnouts," punks or alternative-scene teenagers whose parents likely didn't go beyond a high school education. Facebook, in contrast, is a bustling hub for jocks, school nerds and prom queens planning for their university years. You get the division.
But what happens to the teens who don't have constant access to technology, unlike those spending hours a day on MySpace or Facebook regardless of their socioeconomic backgrounds?
Henry Jenkins, director of the media studies program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said here Tuesday that the divisions are extending further to a so-called participation gap, which exists between teens who have 24/7 access to digital technologies and kids who can only get online from school or the library.
"We're moving from a (digital divide that's about) access to technology to one that's about access to social skills and cultural knowledge that emerges from access to digital technologies," Jenkins said in an interview at Mashup 2007, a two-day confab on teens and technology. (He posited this idea in a recent white paper published by the Macarthur Foundation.)
For example, Jenkins talked about how a group of kids who learned to read and write from Harry Potter books has gotten an education about corporate politics by defending their fan sites. Warner Bros. had sought to take down Harry Potter fan sites for infringing on its intellectual property, but the outcry from kids operating the sites was so great that the media giant backed down. (Apparently the kids learned from Harry what it meant to question and fight authority.)
Jenkins also cited a study from USC that showed that teens with less access to the Internet, when logged on, just grabbed information from a site like Wikipedia without thinking about it critically. In contrast, teens with more access possess a greater understanding of how a site like Wikipedia works through user-generated contributions, Jenkins said.
The Internet "is a birthplace for civic engagement," Jenkins said. "Kids who don't have access are scrambling to keep up or are left out altogether."
I'm more concerned that teachers aren't directing on how to conduct proper research for a term paper of a book report. They're just issuing them an assignment and letting them loose on the world. It's no wonder that they just Google and grab.
When I was a kid our homeroom teacher actually took us to the library instead.
That's such a broad statement. Wikipedia is the Cliffs Notes of today - I don't think teachers are any less likely to teach research methods than they were in the past, no are students any more or less likely to take the easiest route. Some kids take shortcuts, some don't. A blanket statement like the above isn't helpful or accurate, but smacks of old-timer crankiness.
Those who didn't have 24/7 access to the internet "just grabbed information from a site like Wikipedia without thinking about it critically". To me, that says the person who knew they only had a limited time at a resource was smart enough to go to the resource that would give them the greatest return of information for the short time allowed. I'm guessing at this, but I assume that after getting this "data dump", the critical thinking occurs offline when the person with limited internet time sifts through the information that was gathered. Seems intelligent to me. Also seems efficient and shows good time management.
Now, about those with internet access 24/7. They have a large amount of time to spend with the internet, so they can be inefficient with their time and can do all their thinking at a slower pace and play on Facebook, and check e-mails, and IM their friend to see what they were wearing or make fun of that new guys' haircut, or update their Fansite, or read about the latest movie review with Heartthrob A meeting Hottie Chick B.
Those without the 24/7 internet would have to rely on different media such as radio and TV and newspapers and magazines and their cell phones to do all that.
Digital divide? I guess it would be if we classified internet access as a necessity to stay alive in the world, just like access to food, shelter, and clothing.
But it seems that there are those out there that believe it should be that type of a necessity in their lives and everyone else's...
- odd
- by wylbur July 17, 2007 4:21 PM PDT
- Just a strange poorly conducted sociology type study I think.
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(5 Comments)Perhaps the kids without 24hr access will spend more time getting
books from the library, developing face-to-face social skills, and
being creative instead of consuming like sponges. Far from being a
birthplace for engagement, the internet seems to be a way to keep
the world at arms length. After all, almost everybody here
communicates through a handle rather than standing up and
identifying themselves.