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The authors broke technology and digital media participation into three categories:

1)    Hanging out

2)    Messing around

3)    Geeking out

Within these classifications, the authors were able to identify and understanding the media ecologies with which the students surround themselves.

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In order to hang out, students will use electronic modes of communication with one another. First, they will either text, email or instant message (IM) each other to arrange plans. The authors made a distinction between youth in rural and urban environments: because urban youth are more likely to live within close proximity to another they are easily able to move fluidly between online and offline social interactions whereas rural youth need a degree of planning in advance to see friends. (Ito et al., 38).

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Secondly, “hanging out” is not limited to physical space. As illustrated through Clarissa’s case study (Ito et al., 50-52) cyberspace can act as a non-physical platform for youth to connect with people from different countries or continue to grow relationships from their immediate physical friends and family.

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“Messing around” pertains to fostering interests on the internet. Although it is initially seen and done without purpose or intentionality—clicking from link to link—but when an interest sticks, it can actually flourish to become an important hobby (Ito, 56).

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Through messing around and fortuitous searching (Ito et al., 55) students can become familiarized with technology and be positioned as techne-mentors that can help family members or friends when they run into difficulties with technology (Ito et al., 58). This is an especially important role for youths to act as a fund of knowledge for those in their lives who are technologically challenged.

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Geeking out is classified as fostering the interests that are developed through “messing around.” Although geeking out has a connotation of “nerdy, white, suburban middle class boys” this classification is not meant to describe that classification of people and only meant to convey the intense interest and knowledge about a particular topic that can me learned about through digital media.

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Something that I thought was really interesting in regard to fortuitous searching was that it is initially not taken seriously by the individual and done purely for pleasure. I see this phenomena mostly in YouTubers who have channels just for fun, become very likable with many viewers who are able to turn their fortuitous creating (for lack of a better term) into a full time job. This is most evident in Vine creators who have become full time YouTube content creators.

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I also saw a lot of my own beliefs about technology and self-expression reflected in Clarissa’s case study. I feel that these beliefs were salient because she was limited in her physical life and used the internet as an extension of herself where as other students were using it to gather resources and exchange music etc.

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Stopping  Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA)

-  “In December 2011 internet users and activists worked together to defeat the (SOPA)” (Cohen & Kahne P.2 ) SOPA would undermine internet freedom widespread censorship.

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Users use internet to stop SOPA

-  “…by making blog posts, videos, and online forums from an array of websites.” (Cohen & Kahne P.2 )  Activists use the internet to stop and protest SOPA.

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Young People/ Activist/ Taking action

-  “The Pew foundation found that young people under the age of thirty followed protests over SOPA/PIPA more closely than news about presidential election.” (Cohen & Kahne P.2 )  Many young adults are taking action because they use the internet a lot and affects their everyday life.

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Young People and Media

-        “The new and expanded opportunities for political engagement facilitated through new media and the culture of sharing and participation it cultivates are particularly relevant for youth, who generally are marginal players in formal institutions.” (Cohen & Kahne P.4 )   The authors wants us to realize that the internet can be used in a positive way for young adults there are many pass times that this population uses on the internet, but it can also be used in a positive way.

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I believe that these percentages are set extremely high. There is many students living in poverty that do not have access to the internet or a computer at home.

“Overwhelmingly, white (96 percent) black (94 percent) Latino (96 percent) and

Asian American (98 percent) youth report having access

to a computer that connects to the Internet.” P.5

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Black and Latinx youth are often pioneers and early adoption of technology, especially what is known as social hacking.

“ their early adopter and trendsetter status has occurred in spite of the fact that they are not beneficiaries of economic privilege” (p. 20)

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Schools are good at teaching simple technology skills, but not those that require critical thought.

“a teen may be able to conduct a search to find information related to a task that she is trying to complete. But she must also complete a series of other more nuanced cognitive tasks” (p. 26)

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Among disadvantaged students, leveraging social networks for a “sharing economy” allow them to get around obstacles to digital media use.

“The swapping and sharing of mobile handhelds created a distinct community of trust while also providing access to the media content coveted by many teens” (p. 32)

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Black, latinx, and lower income students use social media more frequently than other groups.

“On any given day they spend more time on social media and also post more content on social media” (p. 49)

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I didn’t really agree when they referred to the trends described in the article as an enigma (p. 49). It seems to me that because it is unexplored that doesn’t mean necessarily that it’s mysterious. There are a number of different avenues for further research into these phenomena, including cultural factors as well as other possible explanations such as escapism. So it’s not really a disagreement, just something I thought was a clunky turn of phrase.