But Mom, Time Online Is Not a Waste
Teenagers do think differently than the rest of us – you probably knew that already or could have guessed that. But did you know that the way teens develop their skills online is actually being studied by the MacArthur Foundation? They have released the results of their study from three years of interviewing young people and their parents. From the article, they conclude, “America’s youth are developing important social and technical skills online, often in ways that adults do not understand.” The two page summary report is a great read, and I was excited when I found danah boyd in the list of authors.
What does this study mean for your web content strategies? You may already have made assumptions about your web visitors, but in three to four years, these teen agers will have entry-level jobs everywhere you look. And some of the students in the study are no longer stdents and have already entered the workforce. So if your content is for working people, consider taking some time with the longer white paper.
Also, the social aspects of learning and learning how to be social (not quite the inverse of each other) are important to learn about when studying your web visitors. The summary report states, “Youth respect one another’s authority online, and they are often more motivated to learn from peers than from adults. Their efforts are also largely self-directed, and the outcome emerges through exploration…” Social media may be risky for some businesses, but as this youth population grows up, we can learn a thing or two from their online habits.
For anecdotal evidence, look no farther than this great story from Alan Porter, dad of a teenager, in Move Over DITA – Chaos is Coming!
Then she got on Facebook and YahooIM and started using messaging to ask friends who were online for recommendations. These friends were literally from all around the world, so she was given access to resources that gave totally different perspectives than those given in the classroom. As I watched she soon had six different windows open on her iMac and was pulling information from multiple sources into her own document. Building the structure and narrative as she went.
One friend suggested going to a social bookmarking site and searching using a variety of user applied tags. Instead of taxonomy she was now applying folksonomy.
So, what’s a parent or web content strategist to do?
- Adults do have a role to play by facilitating engagement online, modeling good behavior, and setting a young person’s learning goals while online.
- Educational institutions should attempt to keep up with the fast pace of change in digital media.
Not easy, certainly! But all worthwhile goals to achieve.
