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Assignment 2: Explore the Literature about Young People & Technology

Name: Niko Horiuchi

| Add the literature citation here   | Ito et al. (2010). Media Ecologies. Hanging Out, Messing Around, and Geeking Out. MIT Press.
| Describe the main ideas from the reading

-choose 4 main ideas -use bullet points to explain each idea and provide a quote that illustrates each point

(16 points - 2 points per idea,
2 points per quote with pages)  | 1.     It is inevitable that our youth today are exposed to a culture based on computers and internet. Even if this may not be present at home, it is all around the world. “Even youth who do not possess computers and Internet access in the home are participants in a shared culture where new social media, digital media distribution, and digital media production are commonplace among their peers and in their everyday school contexts” (pg. 30).  2.     Through media and technology, peers can be connected through several modes of communication and can basically talk to each other whenever they want. This in turn creates a culture in which teens will find consolidation with each other through multiple forms. “Contemporary teens generally see their peers at school as their primary reference point for socializing and identity construction” (pg. 38).  3.     The culture of YouTube is so prevalent in our society today. It is no surprise that our culture is beginning to shift from the television to the computer and phone through the rising popularity and usage of YouTube. Video downloads and sites such as YouTube mean that youth can view media at times and in locations that are convenient and social, provided they have access to high-speed Internet. (pg. 46) 4.     In terms of messing around, teens have a vast array of different things they can search and do on the internet. However, in order for it to be called “messing around” a structured form of media usage should not be present. Instead, on their own volition, students have the free will of doing whatever on the internet. While this can be beneficial to the growth of students, some fear the openness the internet provides. Just as in the case of hanging out, messing around is a genre of participation that is driven by young people’s own interests and motivations (pg. 62).
|  Did the author(s) make any arguments that pushed you to expand thinking about your students and their lives with technology?  If so, please provide examples.   (2 points)   | I always thought of the term “messing around” as a waste of time. However, the author here argues that messing around is a form of learning in which students can “launch a variety of self-directed activities”. This can be beneficial to student autonomy and self-worth as they begin and complete online activities, achievements, games businesses, etc. on their own.
|  Did the author(s) make any arguments in which you disagree?  If so, please provide examples.   (2 points)    | I am wondering what the argument is against “messing around”? While I agree that messing around can be beneficial, I wonder what slightly monitored messing around looks like and the pros and cons of it versus just messing around.

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1.     Main idea: Young people have the opportunity to spark change using social media. In the context of the quote, social media is accessible to people of all social classes and is a resource that can be used by a wide range of people. Thus, social media is what makes the potential for widespread change possible. “While [Occupy Wallstreet] encampments have bee torn down and vibrant discussion of class warfare has faded, what does continue is the potential for people- in particular, young people, to organize independently of elites and elite institutions using new media and social media platforms (p. v).

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1.     Young people on the internet engage in interest-based activities on social media sites like Reddit, Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, and Pinterest. These interest-based activities mirror participatory politics, or “interactive peer-based acts through which individuals and groups seek to exert both voice and influence on issues of public concern” (p. vi). A quote that exemplifies this idea is “…in the process o communicating with friends and pursuing interests online, young people develop what Jenkins calls a participatory culture…participants practice creating and sharing ideas and material with others” (p. 9).

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1.     A third main point of this article is that youth engage in participatory politics, which the authors do not consider institutional politics, at similar rate to institutional politics. In this way, ones online political actions reflect well the likelihood of that person engaging in institutional politics. “…41% of youth reported that they took part in at least one act of participatory politics, compared with 44% who took part in at least one act of institutional politics, and the 41% who reported voting or intending to vote (p. 12).

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A last point from the article is that engagement in interest based activities online is the single largest predictor (even when accounting for demographic, socioeconomic, and attitudinal factors) of engaging in online participatory politics. One reason why this is so is that interest based activities often have members from a variety of political opinions/directions where exposure to diverse thoughts stimulates personal reflection. “Consistent with this pattern, scholars have long observed that participation in offline extracurricular activities (which are also interest driven and frequently characterized by participatory culture) promote civic engagement later on” (p. 17).

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| This is not as much of an argument as it is a main point, but I am conflicted. I do believe that social media is important in sparking change, especially with and by the young people who use it most often. However, I want to question the article because it seems to unintentionally imply that people did not organize separate from elites before social media which is profoundly false. One example of this is unions. Unions started to develop as a response to the Industrial Revolution in the mid-1800s like the Knights of Labor or the American Federation of Labor.

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1.  Black and Latino youth have less access to digital media than their white counterparts. Nonetheless, “Black and Latino youth... emerged as early trend setters and adopters in the social media space, leading the migration to the mobile Internet and driving the rise of, for example, Black Twitter, a force in both pop culture and political life” (p. 20). This is impressive.

2.  Digital spaces are not acultural. Culture is expressed and developed in digital spaces. “Black and Latino youth carve out their own spaces for identity and community in the digital spaces that are transforming culture and everyday life” (p. 21).

3.   “In a 2018 study, Vicky Rideout and S. Craig Watkins found that black and Latino youth are actually more likely than their white counterparts to use social media, for example, as a resource for civic expression and participation” (p. 24). I wonder if this has to do with the rise of Black Live Matter movement. I also wonder if this is because poorer groups have little option but to be involved politically in order to defend their families and communities.

4.  Lower income students find creative ways to access the Internet if they don't have it at home.

There was nothing in this reading that I disagreed with.

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What teens do on social media is very similar to the way they behave when hanging out in person. “Teen practices when using social media mirror those that scholars have documented in other places where teens gather with peers” (as cited in Boyd, 2010 p. 81).

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·        Even though social media gives teens the option to be friends with a variety of people, studies have shown that friend circles are generally homogeneous. “Milner suggests that teens’ obsession with status exists because “they have so little real economic or political power” (as cited in Boyd, 2010, p. 88).

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Social media increases the positive and negative social interactions.  “Positive interactions are enhanced through social media while negative interactions are also intensified” (Boyd, 2010, p. 114).

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Social media is a new way that the youth develops their identity without the influence of adults.  “Youth continue to experience their teenage years as a time to immerse themselves in these peer-based status negotiations and to develop their social and cultural identities in ways that are independent from their parents, and they are aided now in these practices by a new suite of communication tools (Boyd, 2010, p 114).

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“While we see no indication that social media are changing the fundamental nature of these friendship practices, we do see differences in the intensity of engagement among peers, and conversely, in the relative alienation of parents and teachers from these social worlds” (Boyd, 2010, p. 114).

I disagree with Boyd’s statement that social media has not changed the fundamental nature of youth friendship practices.  Perhaps I need to understand what Boyd’s criteria for a fundamental nature is, yet it seems that even in 2010 when this article was written and Myspace was still being used, there was a fundamental difference in the way the youth were engaging with one another on social media.  While there are similarities in these friendship practices, it seems that the new implicit rules, the increase in information transferred, the presence of algorithms deciding what you and your friends possibly interact with together, and the quantifying of friendship merits drastically change the fundamental nature of friendship practices on social media. Perhaps Boyd has changed her mind since 2010 when these changes weren’t as drastic and obvious.