Techophilia and Social Progress

I saw a youth video on the weekend at a conference and I was struck as we all applauded that while it was cool that they could use the videocamera and editing tools, it was clear that the message was one of violence. Not intense, but more the “wanna-be gangster”…. We’ve been working with youth for the past few years, and the last two years we’ve been teaching a lot of digital literacy skills. But I realize that is only one side of the coin. What we also need media literacy as well. First off, sensitizing them to violence and the unreality of the gang culture that’s put out in a lot of music that the youth I work with love to listen to. Youth have to understand how to decode media so they can create responsibly the messages and stories they want to convey. I read a sad story of a Labrador community where the youth believed the TV “Friends” lifestyle was possible in the “big” cities. I read in some article that the actual value of the supposed New York Friends’ lifestyle was in the millions. Even youth here when they come to Vancouver, somehow think that the world they encounter in television is actually here for them. This isn’t too say that it is impossible to reach, but if you think that the streets are paved with gold in Vancouver, you aren’t likely going to want to stay around home in Terrace…

From a new report by Ipsos-Reid:
“Contrary to popular belief, teens are not online as much as they are stereotyped to be, the time they do spend on the Internet is focused rather narrowly on particular types of websites and activities, and their comfort level with technology is actually much lower than adults. ”

This is fascinating research. One point that did stand out is that many teens’ access to the Internet are limited by their parents. If this was removed, would they have sky-high Internet hours?