Monday, November 06, 2006

Totally Wired - Anastasia Goodstein

Anastasia has some good advice for parents of teenagers:
For any parents or adults who want to communicate with a teenager using technology, don't use email. Teens don't check it that much. According to Extreme Tech, new research by Parks Associates showed that less than one-fifth of the 13-17 year olds surveyed profess to using email to communicate with friends, compared to 40 percent of adults aged 25-54. In fact, when teens do use email these days, it's usually to communicate with the adults in their lives. What they are using, at least to talk to their friends is instant messaging. They are also using text messaging on cell phones and internal messaging systems on social networks like MySpace or Facebook. They'll pick up email again when they enter the work world, but right now, it's the last thing they'll check.

Read her full posting here.

Do you have virtual friends? Anastasia writes:

What technology has done is to "power" teen friendships. It's like plugging them in or "crank them up a notch." Suddenly there are many more ways for teens to stay connected. They can instant message or text, and often do even when their friend is in the same room. They can comment on each others blogs or MySpace profiles or share videos and photographs. Instead of having to find a landline to get in touch, they can be in constant contact 24/7. Most of the teens I interviewed for the book drew a distinction between online friends they had never met in person and offline friends who they also corresponded with online. It was rare that they would become friends with complete strangers who didn't share some kind of mutual connection or offline friend in common.


Read her posting on "What are virtual friends for?"

This is Anastasia's second appearence here on the Hitchhiker's Guide. Her other web site, ypulse, was visited almost a year ago.

Keep up the good writing Anastasia!

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