What is significant is that kids are able to create and sustain new private
social worlds through the use of messaging and blogging, worlds that are separate from, yet overlapping with, institutions such as family and school. Emerging kids’ cultures encompass, and perhaps predict, new definitions of public and private space that sometimes transcend the boundaries that govern adult life – age and sex, institutional rules, national boundaries, and so forth.
The social world of kids completely baffles me. When my girls were growing up, their social world was the telephone and I never had a weekend that I didn’t have at least two extra kids staying the night. Their social world was more verbal and face to face. Sometimes I think a lot of the problems that kids are having dealing with people is because they can’t relate to people face to face anymore. Everything is done by text or email. Everything is kind of hidden from their families.
Games and gaming. Games are one of children’s earliest experiences with
technology, and may be shaping kids’ learning habits and technological fluencies; this is the subject of profound debate in the research literature.
I’m really a fan of the gaming industry. The people that create these games are geniuses. The creativity and the skill necessary to do this, wows me. I don’t like that parents aren’t more selective in the types of games that they allow their children to play. The really violent games should not be for kids but that’s the parent’s duty to control. Kids are so quick to learn how to do these games and that is amazing. I still can’t use the DVD player.
Kids economies determine the scale and scope of their social networks. Until
they are old enough to own a mobile phone, children use the Internet to develop
peer networks -- using lists, chat rooms, web based social software, and email --
because it is free. These communication strategies link kids to peers, but also to
parents; the term ‘mobile parenting’ is now used to describe parenting of young
children from afar by mobile phone. Teenagers are more likely to be provided
mobile phones by their parents for the purpose of coordination or safety, but in
fact use text messaging to build distinctive new private spaces and cultures.
When my oldest daughter turned 16, I purchased my first mobile phone. Of course, at that time it was a bag phone that plugged into the cigarette lighter of the car and sat on the center console. I wanted to make sure she could get in touch with me if she needed to and that I could reach her. I would not have referred to it as mobile parenting but more of a parenting safety net. Now that mobile phones are becoming much more affordable, I think most kids do have one and at much younger ages that what they used to. It certainly has become a way for parents to keep track of their children.
http://www.marcprensky.com/writing/Prensky%20-%20What%20Kids%20Learn%20Thats%20POSITIVE%20From%20Playing%20Video%20Games.pdfhttp://pediatrics.about.com/od/otherparentingissues/i/kids_cellphones_2.htm
Agree with quote 1. I do believe that kids are not very social in a face-to-face way because they hide behing the social networking world. I believe this has harmed more than helped. I think it is great the kids can keep in touch with others from all over, but they need to be able to verbally communicate as well.
ReplyDeleteI must agree with what you said about parents in your response to your second quote. I also feel that parents should be more selective about what games their children play! This was just an issue in our family not too long ago. My nephew that was only eight was playing my older nephew’s game. Being that my older nephew is fifteen, my sister-in law had never seen the contents of the game. Well, come to find out, it contained sexual content that was not suitable for an eight year old. Thank goodness he had bragged to my nine year old nephew who told my sister. Parents need to be on top of things when it comes to what their children are viewing and participating in!!! Great Post!!!
ReplyDeleteI really dislike violent video games. I'm not going to allow my children to play in my house. Although popular media outlets claim there are connections between video games and bad behavior, rigorous scientific research shows no such relationship.
ReplyDelete1. Grand Theft Childhood: The Surprising Truth About Violent Video Games, Lawrence Kutner PhD and Cheryl K. Olson ScD
2.Video Games and Real Life Aggression", Lillian Bensely and Juliet Van Eenwyk, Journal of Adolescent Health, vol. 29, 2001
3. Video Games and Health", Mark Griffiths, British Medical Journal vol. 331, 2005
Thanks for the link to the Prenskey article! I'm going to use it for the Game Design and learning course!
Hahaha...a bag phone! sorry
ReplyDeleteCost was a phone issue with my family. I didn't get my own phone until college and mom didn't get one until she married my step-dad. I don't think we would have gotten one if it wasn't for him.
I do think that younger and younger kids are getting phones and that can be a problem. I was at a camp where cell phones were not allowed and a camper, like 10 years old, hid her's and called the home complaining about a tummy ache and being picked on instead of telling a councilor. The parents just showed up with no warning.
Sorry this post is late ... had a lot of stuff going on.
ReplyDeleteI am responding to your first quote. I really like what you had to say and I agree with you 100%, growing up I was always on the telephone with my friends and spending the weekend either at their house or mine. Today I see that the majority of students are spending their time on the internet communicating through social networking, instant messaging, or texting. Even when I am in the classroom it nearly kills a kid to have to sit an entire hour without looking at their phone. I understand that these technologies have done great things with sociability and with connecting the world; however I also believer that their should be a balance between social connection through media and social connection face to face.